30 November 2007

New Moniker!

Meet Muhammad!

The official donkey of RDF (some call him an ass, not me, of course) has been renamed Muammad for at least 15 days.

(Gillian) Gibbons, 54, from Liverpool, was jailed for 15 days on Thursday after allowing children in her class to name a teddy bear Muhammad . . . a BBC reporter at the scene said up to a thousand marchers turned out. According to some agencies, some of the protesters chanted: "Shame, shame on the UK", "No tolerance - execution" and "Kill her, kill her by firing squad."

In September, Mrs Gibbons allowed her class of primary school pupils to name the teddy bear Muhammad as part of a study of animals and their habitats. The court heard that she was arrested on Sunday after another member of staff at Unity High School complained to the Ministry of Education.

The amazing irony is that these kids were sent to this private, elite school, by their parents, to receive a Western education by teachers recruited from England. As one watches the sad immolation of Sudan, you can only imagine the effects this much protest might have if they would get off the 'insult to religion' jag and onto the 'eradication of cultural ignorance' jag.

Anyway, rest assured that Muhammad is getting all the oats, exercise and and love that we bestowed on him when he was simply known as Wilbur.

UPDATE: No mention, so far, of Gibbons' ordeal at Amnesty International, the National Organization for Women, the United Nations or even from the Oracle. Guess they'll all let her continue to twist in the wind, sort of the way the British Foreign Office is.

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