'Teddy bear' teacher leaves Sudan

[ronnykmarshall]

Source: Assoicated Press

KHARTOUM, Sudan - A British teacher jailed for insulting Islam after she allowed her students to name a teddy bear Muhammad flew home Monday after Sudan's president pardoned her, a British embassy spokesman said.

Gillian Gibbons' conviction under Sudan's Islamic Sharia law shocked Britons and many Muslims worldwide. Hard-line Muslim clerics in Sudan accused her of intentionally seeking to insult Islam's Prophet Muhammad, and the case angered some Sudanese, sparking a protest where demonstrators called for her execution.



Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071203/ap_on_re_mi_ea/sudan_british_teacher

---

I'd be telling that airline pilot ..... "Can you make this thing go faster?"

[groovedaddy]

1. I'm sure she's breathing a sigh of relief

what did they do with the teddy bear, stone him?

[Enrique]

2. so long, Stinktown!

[ronnykmarshall]

3. You tell, 'em Homer!

[mcscajun]

4. Thank goodness.

I was worried about this woman. That government-run mob looked uncomfortably like they wanted a lynching.

[GreenPartyVoter]

14. Ditto!

[bif]

5. That's almost as bad as naming your child Jesus.

Oh wait, they do name them that.

[FloridaJudy]

10. Or how about this?

Fortunately, we still have the right to tacky Christmas decorations in this country.

[iconoclastic cat]

6. Did anything happen to the students who actually named the bear? nt

[Taverner]

7. One more case for why religion is just plain STUPID

[southpaw]

11. If it were merely stupid, I wouldn't mind it so much.

This proves that religion can be, and often is, downright deadly!

[Taverner]

16. How about: fatally stupid?

Works for me :)

[Orsino]

13. Why theocracy is stupid, anyway. n/t

[spoony]

17. Sadly many do not recognise a difference.

[Taverner]

8. DUPE PLEASE DELETE

[damntexdem]

9. She's well out of there.

Now maybe Sudan can execute the teddy bear. ;-)

[AnneD]

22. How traumatic.....

what has gotten lost in this whole flap....has been the kids. When my daughter was in Kindergarten, there was a class bear. The kids named it and they all spent a weekend with the bear. The kids LOVED it. My daughter and I planned our special weekend and I helped her write her report. She learned a lot from this. Oh, and she even got to sleep with the bear too (please don't stone her).

These kids chose a beloved Islamic name, saw their teacher arrested, saw adults acting irrationally and threatening to kill their teacher for what 'they' had done, and now she is gone, without even having a chance to tell them it is OK, she OK and they will be OK too. I'd say the kids learned a lesson all right. I think we all learned a lesson. Moderate Moslem friends and parents I know are as shocked as I am. This is why you keep religion separate from gov and education. It is suppose to guide your life-not rule it. And if it guides your life, there is no need to be 'ruled' over.

[LeftishBrit]

23. All excellent points!

[LeftishBrit]

12. Great news!

I thought they'd reach a deal, with all the British and international; just wasn't sure whether it would be soon enough to save her from a lot of trauma.

[Turbineguy]

15. Other nosy foreigners

are encouraged to follow.

After all, nobody can guarantee that future encounters will end so benignly.

Then the Sudanese government can get on with mass murder and ethnic cleansing without any more interference.

[yellowcanine]

24. Yeah it is really a good idea to chase out talented people who left their

comfortable homes to come and teach children for little pay over the name given to a teddy bear - a name that happens to be the most common male name in the country.

[redwitch]

18. Thank Jesus, Mohommed, Buddha, Krishna and Santa she is out of there.

Sudan sounds like hell on earth to me. I'm just sorry we couldn't get the poor children out, what a shitty place to grow up!

[ohio2007]

19. Did the locals find out or were they told "justice has been served" ?

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=4c0_1196682804

[Drunken Irishman]

20. Thank God!

[MasonJar]

21. Thank God! That is one lucky woman. Those people are as radical as

Bush/Cheney.