http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/africa...ars/index.html
gee... I wonder why people think Islam is a violent ing religion
KHARTOUM, Sudan (CNN) -- Hundreds of protesters brandishing swords and sticks gathered outside Khartoum's presidential palace Friday to vent their anger against a British teacher jailed for allowing children to name a teddy bear "Mohammed."
About 600 Islamic demonstrators piled out of mosques, chanting: "By soul, by blood, I will fight for the Prophet Mohammed." Some of the protesters demanded the teacher's execution, according to The Associated Press.
The agency reports that some chanted: "No tolerance: Execution," and "Kill her, kill her by firing squad."
The decision by a Sudanese court to jail Gillian Gibbons late Thursday was widely criticized outside Sudan as too harsh, with British Foreign Secretary David Miliband saying he was "extremely disappointed" the charges were not dismissed.
Abdul-Jalil Nazeer al-Karouri, a prominent cleric and hardliner, told worshippers Friday at the Martyrs Mosque: "Imprisoning this lady does not satisfy the thirst of Muslims in Sudan. But we welcome imprisonment and expulsion," according to AP. But he did not urge worshippers to protest.
In leaflets distributed earlier this week by Muslim groups and seen by CNN, the protesters promised a "popular release of anger" at demonstrations called for Friday.
The leaflets condemned Gibbons as an "infidel" and accused her of "the pollution of children's mentality" by her actions.
The teacher was convicted of insulting religion but cleared of two other charges of inciting hatred and showing contempt for religious beliefs, Ali Ajeb, her lawyer said. Watch latest developments in the case
Ajeb said they were planning to appeal the sentence, which runs from the date she was first detained, November 25.
Gibbons, 54, is being held in a woman's prison in the Omdurman district of Khartoum and she will be deported at the end of her prison term, British consular officials in the city told CNN.
Embassy staff said they were giving the teacher, from the northern English city of Liverpool, full consular assistance.Watch a report on reactions to the verdict »
Omer Mohammed Ahmed Siddig, the Sudanese ambassador to Britain, was summoned for a second time to meet with the British foreign secretary late Thursday after the court's ruling.
Miliband also spoke to the Sudanese acting foreign minister for 15 minutes on the telephone during the meeting, the British Foreign Office said.
"Our priority now is to ensure Ms. Gibbons' welfare and we will continue to provide consular assistance to her," Miliband said in a statement.
The Foreign Office said there would be further talks with the Sudanese government Friday.
Gibbons was arrested Sunday after she asked her class of seven-year-olds in Khartoum to name the toy as part of a school project, the Foreign Office said.
She had faced charges under Article 125 of Sudan's cons ution, the law relating to insulting religion and inciting hatred.
She could have faced a sentence of 40 lashes, a fine or jail term of up to a year, according to the Foreign Office, which expressed Britain's dissatisfaction with the verdict.
British newspapers condemned Gibbons' conviction, with The Daily Telegraph calling for the recall of the British ambassador from Khartoum and sanctions against the heads of the Sudanese government.
In an editorial the tabloid newspaper, The Sun, said Gibbons' jailing was a "grotesque insult to Islam" and called Gibbons "an innocent abroad."
Four vans filled with riot police were stationed outside the courthouse at Thursday's hearing, but there were no signs of street disturbances or protests.
Staff from Gibbons' school, including Robert Boulos, the head of Unity High School, were present.
Boulos said he was "horrified" when he found out it was a member of his own staff who complained, not a parent as originally thought.
Defense counsel later confirmed that the complaint came from Sarah Khawad, a secretary at the school.
Gibbons has been working at the school -- popular with wealthy Sudanese and expatriates -- since August, after leaving her position as deputy head teacher at a primary school in Liverpool this summer, Boulos said.
He said Gibbons asked the children to pick their favorite name for the new class mascot, which she was using to aid lessons about animals and their habitats
I swear, the world would be better off without these ignorant ers. Execution for naming a teddy bear Mohammed...
EDIT: Just to clarify, when I say "these ignorant ers" I mean those out there with "execute her" signs.
Yeah, it's getting hard to defend muslims. Which is a shame because that's not what the religion is supposed to be about.
Am I the only one that when you read about the protesters you wish you could go toe-to-toe with one of them just once in your life.
Dirka dirka dirka dirka
So really she just named the bear what the kids wanted right? Do they want to execute the kids too?!
They're middle eastern muslims.........."Dirka, execute everyone, dirka, dirka, Allah, dirka".
I don't think a teacher in Karachi or Jakarta would have been prosecuted in the first place, much less drawn a mob of violent protesters. Not all Muslims are like the Arabs.
if she serves the time, she's dead.
Probably true. Or at least, sounds true enough considering the "thousands" of protesters that showed up to get pissed off about a teddy bear.
Must suck to be broke, uneducated and indoctrinated. Sounds rather boring.
Before you guys rush to judgement on the Sudanese wanting to execute her, let's wait until we have all the facts. She might have been running a dog fighting ring as well.
These people need cable television.
I concur.
If a Sudanese woman had done that, while she still would have been prosecuted, rather than having a violent mob wanting to kill her, the public at ude would have been, "Foolish woman! Don't you know that is insulting to the Prophet?"
Most, if not all, of the reaction, is because she is a white European.
To sum up the Sudanese at ude:
Arab woman: relative leniency
White woman: KILL HER!!! KILL HER!!!
Black woman: She never would have been at the school in the first place, because everybody in her village would have been slaughtered five years ago.
IT's not so much about Islam as it is about a male dominated society.
You silence the female voice and you get an excessively brutal and war like society.
You silence the male voice and you get a defenseless society.
Not trying to make sweeping generalizations about individual men or women here...just the general traits of these societies. That history shows to be true just about 100% of the time.
You need a balance....
That's why it's so essential that governments with civil liberties and equal rights IE, Democracy, take root in that region of the world....
If they didn't call it Islam...they'd call it something else....and do the same things.
The women are not going to fight this battle in a physical brutal way, they don't have the means to anyway...that's why the responsiblility falls to us and the West.
Besides...nothing makes a man appreciate his woman more than getting his ass kicked.
I love women.
I think Muslims around the world should first start criticizing each other for the bas ization of their own religon, rather starting with other people. You gotta learn to walk before you can hop.
Islam is a worthless religion.
I agree. That would definitely be a better coping mechanism!!
Israel didn't adopt a democratic form of government with equal rights for women because America or anybody else pressured them to do so. They did so because the Jews who settled there already had the cultural capital necessary to make it work.
The socialist governments of Europe, and Canada, have pretty much figured out this "women's right's" thing.
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