No Surprises in Khartoum

November 30, 2007

Thousands of protestors are reported to be rallying for the execution of British schoolteacher Gillian Gibbons, whose crime was expected to fetch up to 40 lashes but was later commuted to a mere 15 days in a third world prison, following which, she’ll be deported back to the civilized world.

“This an arrogant woman who came to our country, cashing her salary in dollars, teaching our children hatred of our Prophet Muhammad,” [the cleric, Abdul-Jalil Nazeer al-Karouri, a well-known hard-liner, told worshippers]…

Gibbons was arrested Sunday after another staff member at the school complained that she had allowed her 7-year-old students to name a teddy bear Muhammad.

Read that last line, again. She allowed the students to name the bear Muhammad. The students, your children (7-year olds, at that) are the ones who chose the name — which happens to be the one of, if not the single most popular name in the world. Could it be because your children, at such a young age, are so enamored with your prophet that they chose it out of (perhaps mistaken) reverence and not disrespect.

Gibbons is arguably guilty of cultural ignorance, which in any civilized country, and to any civilized religion… Oh, what the fuck? You’ve heard it all before.

Cultural ignorance at the very least, is far less an affront to humanity than is abject ignorance.


Posted in: World Politics, Religion

Comments

2 Comments so far

  1. Francois Tremblay November 30, 2007 11:44 am

    Actually, one of the children chose it because it was his own name.

  2. David Z November 30, 2007 1:35 pm

    how charming.

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