Insanity or Justified ?

Her students, overwhelmingly Muslim, chose the name for the bear, and Muhammad is one of the most common names for men in the Arab world.

Reminds me of the days when Christians assembled in the village square yelling, “Burn the witches! Kill the heretics! Wipe out the Jews!” I yearn for the day when we all leave our myths behind and respect each other as equal human beings.

It’s absolutely ridiculous and clearly shows the danger of basing law upon religious belief. I’m grateful every day that we Americans have enshrined our principles in a secular Constitution that makes room for all while favoring none - despite the efforts of theocrats.

Given the numbers of wrongfully accused that rotted in prisons in the US due to framing by our own government…well, I think every government is entitled to do what they feel is right.

Unfortunately, that leaves plenty of room for every government to commit it’s share of evil actions…though, I wouldn’t agree this is one of them. Many nations outside the US haven’t changed much since the inquisition, and Christians did far, far worse than a simple lashing for taking the lords name in vain.

It’s always easier when looking outside in to call the other people “insane” no?

I agree with the following::

INSANITY AND EXTREMISM

Muslims take everything too seriously.

Reminds me of the days when Christians assembled in the village square yelling, ‘Burn the witches! Kill the heretics! Wipe out the Jews!’ I yearn for the day when we all leave our myths behind and respect each other as equal human beings.

Her students, overwhelmingly Muslim, chose the name for the bear, and Muhammad is one of the most common names for men in the Arab world.

In my personal opinion, there should be no public displays of religion ever. I think that children should be taught about the different religions when they are nine years old, and should then be able to purchase religious books, But I dont think these should be allowed in schools. I think that everyone should worship in their own home, and not show any sign of religion or tell anyone their personal religious veiws. I think they should ban chruches and mosques and synagogues, and make it illegal for preachers to pester people. I think thatt praying and hymns in school should be made illegal, and also with religious schools. This way these things will not happen. Religion creates evil itself.

IT’S A TEDDY BEAR!!! TEDDY BEARS ARE SUPPOSED TO BE CUTE AND CUDDLY AND MAKE PEOPLE FEEL BETTER NOT START CIVIL WARS!!!

Muslims take everything too seriously.

INSANITY AND EXTREMISM

That’s the way it goes in a . . . Never mind. . . Don’t want to open a can of worms.

Ibrahim Mogra from the Muslim Council of Britain told BBC News 24 that the whole saga had been very damaging for the image of the Muslim faith.

“Each time we have stories like these, that distort what Islam stands for or misrepresents what the compassion of Muslim law stands for, then we have repercussions and people begin to feel that Islam has no place in modern society…

“I have not come across one single Muslim in our country who has supported what has happened.’’

Im pretty sure they dont give out lashes in Britain anymore, so my assumption is that this happened in an Islamic country. If so, the teacher needed to be aware of the religious sensitivity of the country he/she is teaching in. Here in the U.S. or England I would say it is definitely insane. In an Islam culture I would say it was to be expected, they take their religion very seriously; especially reguarding one of their Prophets, Mohammed.

11/30/07

Thousands of Islamic fanatics wielding clubs and knives are marching through the streets of Khartoum demanding the execution of teddy bear teacher Gillian Gibbons. Link Search: Ask, Technorati, Sphere, Google, and IceRocket - shouting ‘kill her’ ‘kill her’’kill her’ !!

Over a Teddybear.

6/1/08: A blind seven-year-old student at an Islamic school in eastern Pakistan has died after his teacher punished him for not learning the Koran, police said today.

“Qari Ziauddin, who teaches Koran to boys in Qari Latif Islamic school, hanged Atif upside down with a ceiling fan in the school after beating him with sticks, which caused his death,” local police official Akram Niazi said.

The teacher also failed to take the boy to hospital after he fell ill and his condition deteriorated, he said.

Police said a postmortem examination report also confirmed physical torture as the cause of death.

I’ve taught Muslim children in Britain and all the teachers were fairly careful about accidentally being offensive to their beliefs and practices. In fact, we were often over-careful and sometimes imagined that we could would cause offence when none was actually taken.

So, this teacher was rather naive to actually do something like this in a Muslim country! She must have been quite educated about Muslim sensitivities and, on reflection, what she did seems pretty offensive. However, I can see that at the time she got caught up in the excitement of the children and didn’t think through the consequences.

So, is the state’s response excessive? I think so, but I think they must be doing this after some thought - it’s not a knee-jerk reaction. They are sending a message to Western countries and it’s not a happy message to recieve. By the way, 40 lashes is just one of the options - prison is not attractive, but maybe better than corporal punishment! I wonder if it will actually come to that, or if this is just a warning and they’ll release her…

Now, the theology of it all.. Insulting Mohammed is really serious to a Muslim and maybe it’s better that they take their prophet seriously than the way ‘Christian’ cultures use the names of our God as swear words! But using the law to enforce your religious beliefs is always wrong and ineffective, in my opinion.

I am sure there would be similar outrage here in the U.S. , if an Islamic teacher took an American flag and used it for a diaper on the teddy bear.

This happened in Khartoum, Sudan but the teacher was British.