Sometimes when I look around and see what's happening to the religion of Islam, I feel it is being turned into more of a joke by the day. A Sudanese court has just convicted a British teacher of 'insulting' the religion, after letting her students call a teddy bear Mohammed.
As the story goes, there was a classroom project on animals, and one of the students (7 years old) brought in a teddy bear to class. The teacher asked the children to decide on a name for the teddy bear, and they ended up choosing Mohammed.
Of course, Mohammed is the name of the Prophet (pbuh), and therefore, somehow, some way, this situation was mutated into another story of how the Western world is out there with a big conspiracy to insult Islam and damage the reputation of the religion. The teacher, Gillian Gibbons, ends up sentenced to 15 days in jail before being deported back to the UK. This is actually a relief, considering the original sentence may have been 6 month of jail-time and 40 lashes.
I really don't understand the Muslim world nowadays. Is everything that doesn't include praise to the religion considered an insult? How does labelling a teddy bear with the name of the Prophet even count as an insult (Not forgetting that the name Muhammed is the most popular muslim names and is easily adopted by a good 25% of muslims if not more)? How is the world ever going to take Islam seriously if after a simple situation such as this, you jail and deport a woman? How about when insulting cartoons are drawn, and protests, riots, and burning flags arise all over the muslim world? How about when someone writes an insulting book and you put a million dollar reward on whoever kills him?
It just isn't comprehensible, in this day and age, to sit and argue, complain, and riot. It really does make us look more like a joke than asking people to take us seriously. It's a big world we live in, and there are limits to such actions. Obviously, this case is going to hurt the UK/Sudan relations pretty badly, and is going to end up tearing down more than it it fixes (if it fixes anything, actually). Well done Sudan, you probably just lost a good teacher, many of which are already lacking.
Wake up muslims! This really isn't the way! The religion is turning into more of a joke by the day, and the Muslim people are going to be taken less seriously with every such case that arises. So far the only few muslims who are taken seriously are the terrorists. Wake up, Muslims, wake up!
what takes me by surprise is how MASSES of ppl are damn idiots!
ReplyDeleteya3ne min 9ijhum?!
with all the bull going on in sudan hatha ele efla7aw feeh?!!
all they are doing is turning the religion into good late nite comedy material!
^ "with all the bull going on in sudan hatha ele efla7aw feeh?!!"
ReplyDeleteYou can say that again.. =/
Isn't Mohammad the world's most popular name?
Children usually love their teddy bears. Is naming something that you love Mohammad such a bad thing?
This is embarrassing, really.
Religions are now in tight situations because atheism is taking over rather quickly, and Muslims are generally more uptight about everything (thank you Saudi) because the muftis have a nice habit of labeling everything 7aram.
ReplyDeleteYet it is 7alal to nibble on a woman's breast if you two are alone in a room in the office so that she becomes your mother and you don't have sex with her (LOL LOL LOL)
Islam was at its purest form while it was still in the head of our prophet and before it left his lips once he memorized it from Angel Jibreel...the moment man(and I say man pointedly) got their hands on the Holy Words of God...its rather gone down hill from there.
ReplyDeleteThe worst way to learn about Islam..is from Muslims.
This is absurd!
ReplyDeleteAt first read, I thought to myself, there has got to be more to this that meets the eye. So I googled her, and in this http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/africa/article2961571.ece
article, it says:
"There has been some speculation that the mother-of-two, who had only been in Sudan since leaving England in July, could also be charged with sedition, a far more serious charge than insulting Muslims."
Seems like they wanted her out, and were just waiting for something to peg her to.
What a joke of a ruling. This makes me sick and you are so right Ammaro, this is just one more story to put in the "reasons to defame the word 'muslim'" list. astaghfirallah.
Coolred: Your comment strikes a chord. A very loud chord. To hear a person say, "The worst way to learn about islam is from muslims" is really sad. Not ALWAYS true. But it is the case enough times.
I have had one too many conversations with non-muslims where I have had to say: "That is NOT islam"
The interesting thing is when I lived in America, I found much less of the ignorance (by muslims) that I have found in some of these muslim countries. That's a whole other topic of discussion.
Well said Ammaro! I wanted to blog on this topic today cos of a discussion I had earlier but I gave up. Even though I'm not a muslim, I have read quite a lot to know that this particular situation is SO NOT RIGHT.
ReplyDeleteOne of the messages of the Prophet (PBUH) was forgiveness. This lady could have been warned and then forgiven. What so wrong or hard with that? It quite sad that a tiny minority of muslims are briging shame to such a peaceful religion!
Yeah, this story is everywhere in the papers in North America since Tuesday.
ReplyDeleteI think there might be more behind the story, apparently she was caught in the middle of a dispute between the school and the local council that wanted to shut down the school, so charging her might speed up the process etc. Otherwise she might have been fine...
Sad though.
I have a lot of respects for religions even though I'm an atheist... and I'm lucky to know very smart and "modern" Muslims, so Islam doesn't scare me more than any other religion. That said, I see people around me stigmatizing Muslims everyday because of stupid stories like that. Sad for both Muslims and victims of intolerance...
Pathetic!!!
ReplyDeleteI got a teddy for my son mohammed and named it mohammed in the bear factory shop... lol!
this is pathetic.
ReplyDeletei think stories like these will only turn ppl against Islam. i know i see an attitude w/ ppl, Muslims, that i never experienced in the States... so i agree w/ Um Tutu here.
Now we learn that its the secretary of the school that complained about her after seeing a memo on school letterhead to the parents of the students of her class. Interesting that the memo to the parents indicating the project she would be doing with the teddy bear didnt stir up any "sanctimonious outrage" from them...yet the secretary complained...whats up with that? Also, if she wrote the memo on school letterhead with the full agreement of the school then the school itself is also complicit in the "crime"...yet she is the only one charged?
ReplyDeleteNow the self righteous protest mobs are out after juma prayers as always....nothing like a good juma prayer to get you in the mood for a little baying of blood from the infidels and kafirs....sigh
thats why it should be an indivisual thing.
ReplyDeleteThe power of stupidity in large numbers. Now I read some comments that say that this particular mob gives a bad idea about islam. I think it gives a very good idea about islam, since this is what its all about. This framework of intolerance is just shutting us out of the world and keeps us behind the times.
ReplyDeleteeshda3wa; i know, its pretty sad. thing is, the masses just follow what a few idiots say without thinking about it, and it turns into an epidemic... ridiculous...
ReplyDeletetaqo; actually slash embarrasing. its frustrating.
KJ; its only muslims in this part of the world! believe it or not, the ones i met in the UK/US are probably the most faithful to their religion and represent what islam should really be...
coolred; its being turned into a joke wala...
omtutu; sure, you want to tell people "this is not islam" but these examples exist and are so widespread that it becomes difficult for people to believe otherwise...
confession; thing is, she doesnt need a warning! all she did was call a teddy bear mohammed, and not in relevance to the prophet (pbuh).
zhu; it's sad that its had to come down to this. i know the western media is going to have a riot with this one
shayoma; maybe they should deport you.
umnaief; ever met any muslims in the states? the ones i met were so gracious, kind, amazing people overall...
cool; i really dont want to hear any more about the story. its sad.
BD; huh?
joker; you make a point; its what islam is turning into. the real islam is shrinking as this new form of stupidity and naiveness takes over
Whats keeping my mind buys is what kind of message Sudanese are sending the world with such attitude
ReplyDeleteProphet Mohammad took insults and curses from Quraysh mainstream for years all in the name of making Islam a reputation of being peaceful and tolerant religion
and 1400 years later comes punch of punks whom decided that calling fluffy teddy bears Mohammed is an insult to Islam, since when??
It seems that we have more spokesmen on behalf of Islam than ever, which is never good