Fwd: Genocidal feckwits jail teacher over teddy bear name.

[Guest guest]

GuruRatings , " Tony OClery " <aoclery wrote:

 

Namaste,

 

These feckwits have committed genocide in darfur but have enought

time for this crap---As I said Religion is bullshit.......

 

Teddy bear teacher jailed for 15 days after court finds her guilty of

insulting Islam

Last updated at 19:39pm on 29th November 2007

 

Comments (39)

 

A British teacher accused of insulting Muslims after her class called

a teddy bear Mohammed was found guilty and jailed for 15 days, a

defence lawyer said tonight.

 

Gillian Gibbons, 54, was ordered to be deported after she had

completed her sentence.

 

" She was found guilty of insulting religion and the sentence is 15

days (in jail) and deportation, " defence lawyer Ali Ajib said after

the trial in a Khartoum courtroom, which lasted less than a day.

 

Robert Boulos, head of Unity high school where Gibbons worked,

said: " We are happy with the verdict. It is fair. There were a lot of

political pressures and attention. "

 

Scroll down for more ...

 

 

 

Accused: Gillian Gibbons is being held in Sudan after allowing her

class to name a teddy bear 'Mohammed'

Read more...

 

The Sudanese jail where the teddy bear teacher will spend 15 days

Teddy bear teacher appears in court as Islamic fanatics demand

execution

Foreign Secretary appeals for 'common sense' to prevail as teddy

teacher faces flogging

'My whole back felt like it was on fire': British man tells what it

is like to be flogged

OPINION: Why we Muslims must stop the flogging of the Teddy Bear

teacher

 

He added: " We will be very sad to lose her. "

 

He told reporters that Mrs Gibbons would only serve 10 days as she

had already spent five days in prison. The school would not appeal

against the decision, he added.

 

When asked what he thought of the verdict, the head of Gibbons's

defence teams, Kamal al-Jazouli, said: " It was not bad. "

 

The Foreign Office has expressed its " disappointment " over the

verdict, and the Sudanese ambassador has been summoned to explain the

verdict.

 

Gibbons is expected to serve out her sentence in the Omdurman women's

prison near Khartoum. It was not immediately clear if following the

verdict in the closed hearing, she went immediately to prison.

 

Gibbons was yesterday charged with insulting Islam, inciting hatred

and showing contempt for religious beliefs because of the toy's name.

Under Sudan's penal code, she could have faced 40 lashes, a fine, or

up to one year in jail.

 

In court, judge Mohammed Youssef listened to two accounts - one from

school secretary Sarah Khawad, who filed the first complaint about

the teddy bear's name, and one from the official who has been

investigating the case, court sources said.

 

Teachers at the school say that calling the teddy bear Mohammad, the

name of the prophet of Islam, was not her idea in the first place and

that no parents objected when Unity High School sent parents

circulars about a reading project which included the teddy bear as a

fictional participant.

 

Earlier today trucks protected by armed police transported Gillian

Gibbons from her cell at the CID headquarters in Khartoum where she

had been kept in custody following her arrest on Sunday for allowing

pupils to name a school teddy bear Mohammed.

 

Security was also tight at the city's court building today as fears

that extremists might stage a kidnap attempt ran high.

 

Mrs Gibbons, looking tired and distressed and wearing a dark blue

jacket and blue dress, was not handcuffed.

 

Before the hearing began today the public and press were cleared from

the court room - but only moments later the case was adjourned for

two hours.

 

Reports today suggested the complaint against Mrs Gibbons had been

made by a secretary at the school. She was charged after behind-the-

scenes political moves to avoid a court case collapsed amid growing

Islamic anger in the east African country.

 

Scroll down for more ...

 

 

 

Kidnap threat: Security was heavy outside the courthouse where Mrs

Gibbons appeared today

 

Extreme Islamic groups said Mrs Gibbons " must die " and urged Muslims

to hold street protests after prayers tomorrow. However the Muslim

Council of Britain said it was " appalled " at the decision by Sudan.

 

Mrs Gibbons, a former deputy head in Liverpool, moved to Khartoum in

August to fulfil her dream of teaching abroad after her marriage

broke down last year.

 

The mother of two grown-up children was arrested on Sunday after

parents were said to have complained she had insulted Islam's prophet

by naming a teddy bear Mohammed as part of a class project.

 

However, a boy of seven came forward on Tuesday to say it was " all

his fault " , as he and his classmates at the Unity High School had

voted to call the bear Mohammed after his own name.

 

He insisted his teacher had not intended to insult Islam.

 

This week a British man who endured 50 lashes in Doha described the

agony he had suffered.

 

" At first the pain wasn't too much and I could feel where he was

hitting me, " he said.

 

" But with each blow, the skin softened and the pain grew and grew to

the point that my whole back felt like it was on fire.

 

Soon it was unbearable, but they kept coming ... I didn't realise the

human body could generate and tolerate such pain ... After a while I

had no idea where he was hitting, even though my clothes were getting

torn. The last ten strokes were agony, bloody agony.

 

" I thought I was going to pass out.

 

" Then just as quickly as it started, it was over. Thirty to 40

seconds was all it had lasted. I was left to stagger to my feet and

walk out. "

 

Mrs Gibbons's former husband, Peter Gibbons, 54, said last night that

he and their children Jessica, 27, and John, 25, had been horrified

at the news that she had been charged.

 

They have not yet commented on her sentence.

 

" The children are not coping very well, they are upset, " he said last

night. " We are praying and relying on the Foreign Office and the

embassy out there.

 

" My son is waiting on advice from the embassy to see if it's possible

to go over there.

 

 

The Sudanese ambassador, Omer Mohamed Ahmed Siddig, leaves the

Foreign Office after speaking with David Miliband about Gillian

Gibbons

" Gillian is an innocent in all this, she would not want to cause

offence to anybody. "

One of Khartoum's biggest papers, the pro-government Akhir Lahza -

Last Moment - said Hassan Al Turabi, once seen as the Islamic

ideologue behind the government, should be called as an expert

witness in the case to stress how offensive the teacher's action had

been.

 

The religious and Islamist political leader is thought to have been

instrumental in institutionalising Sharia law in the north of the

country.

 

He personally invited Osama bin Laden to Sudan and the Al Qaeda

leader based his operations there from around 1990 to 1996.

 

The newspaper's editor-in-chief also called for politicians to avoid

meddling in religious affairs and not to argue that Sudanese foreign

relations would be affected.

 

Professor Eltyeb Hag Ateya, director of Khartoum University's peace

research institute, said Sudanese president Umar al-Bashir would not

want to be seen to back down in the face of Western pressure.

 

" One of main criticisms of the government is that they are giving too

much away to foreigners, " he said.

 

" If imams at Friday prayers turn this into a much bigger thing, then

no one will listen to the facts. "

 

Sudan's legal system is based on laws introduced during British

colonial rule, but aspects of Sharia law were incorporated in 1991.

 

Sudanese reaction to the case had been muted until yesterday, when

demonstrations took place at one of Khartoum's student campuses.

 

Speakers took turns to denounce Mrs Gibbons, brandishing a newspaper

bearing her photograph. A stateinment circulated by members of the

Muslim Brotherhood - a multinational Sunni Islamist movement and the

world's most influential political Islamist group - also condemned

her actions.

 

" We want to express our boiling anger and deep sorrow about this case

caused by this British teacher, " it said.

 

" We want to tell you that the majority of Sudanese are Muslims so we

love our Prophet Mohammed so much and we decry this careless way of

dealing with our beloved Prophet. "

 

One of its authors, 27-year-old Elsheikh El Nour, added: " If she made

an innocent mistake and did not mean Mohammed the Prophet (when

naming the bear) there is no problem.

 

" But if she did mean Mohammed the Prophet, she must die. "

 

Leaflets distributed outside Khartoum's Great Mosque urged Muslims to

march tomorrow in protest at Mrs Gibbons' actions.

 

There is still the possibility the demonstrations will go ahead.

 

They condemned what they described as " flagrant aggression " against

the Prophet Mohammed and asked imams to address the subject Friday

prayers.

 

The leaflets added: " What has been done by this infidel lady is

considered a matter of contempt and an insult to Muslims' feelings

and also the pollution of children's mentality as an attempt to wipe

their identity. "

 

--- End forwarded message ---

[Guest guest]

Nisargadatta , " Tony OClery " <aoclery wrote:

>

> GuruRatings , " Tony OClery " <aoclery@> wrote:

>

> Namaste,

>

> These feckwits have committed genocide in darfur but have enought

> time for this crap---As I said Religion is bullshit.......

 

most everything cooked up and acted out by homo sapiens is bullshit.

 

..b b.b.