Simultaneously emphasizing something I don’t quite understand. Creating an image of Muhammad is apparently an insult to Islam, correct? Therefore naming a teddy bear after Islam’s prophet is considered an insult. So then why isn’t naming children the same way just as insulting?
A 7-year-old Sudanese student on Tuesday defended the British teacher accused of insulting Islam saying he had chosen to call a teddy bear Mohammad because it was his own name…
“The teacher asked me what I wanted to call the teddy,” the boy said shyly, his voice barely rising above a whisper. “I said Mohammad. I named it after my name,” he added.
Sitting in his garden wearing shorts, his family, who did not want their full names used, urged him to describe what had happened.
He said he was not thinking of Islam’s Prophet when asked to suggest a name, adding most of the class agreed with his choice.
In fact, 20 of 23 students voted to name the bear Muhammad. Again, why is naming a teddy bear Muhammad insulting, but not naming your child the same? It’s one of, if not the, most common names in Sudan.
Gibbons faces 6 months in prison, 40 lashes or a fine if convicted of allowing the students to name the teddy the way they wanted to. Lovely.
by Stephan Tawney on Tue, Nov 27, 2007