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[Ed]

Yes Teddy roosevelt would be turning in his grave!!!
the sudan goverment jailed this lady for letting her class call a teddybear mohammed.
Now i think what if i were to call a teddy Jesus in UK ....hmm not so appropriate, but in spain it would be ok.

Ah she made a cultural mistake....but why send her to jail, should it not be the people who taught the children religious education that should be in jail?

[Wooster]

Storm in a teacup on both sides in my opinion.

If the stories in the press over here were to be believed, then she was guaranteed a lashing and they must have been severely disappointed when she only got 15 days in jail (you can't sell chip wrappers with that type of story).
On the other side we saw hardliners protesting in Sudan about the 'lenient' sentence doled out to her (maybe they should get in contact with some of our more rabid journalists since they share a common interest. I.E. having the woman flogged).
There's also a history of animosity in Sudan tbh...the British and the Sudanese have been wiping each other out in droves for over a century (we first used Maxim guns over there around 1900 and wiped out 20,000 Sudanese in a few hours with no British casualties) so it's not as if we can expect to 'feel the love' over there.

As a foreign school operating in Sudan they have a responsibility to ensure that their staff are aware of the culture they live in, and they failed in that respect completely.
Anyone who doesn't realise that one of the major taboo's in Islam is creating a physical representation of Mohammed must have been living with their head up their arse for the past ten years.

[Nivlac]

I agree with you wooster...anyone else remember them freaking out over the cartoon?

[Wooster]

Iconoclasm isn't new or specific to Islam though..

opposition to the religious use of images. Veneration of pictures and statues symbolizing sacred figures, Christian doctrine, and biblical events was an early feature of Christian worship. The humanity of Christ was increasingly emphasized, and images and crucifixes became common. Opponents of their use claimed they led to idolatry. Canon 36 of the Synod of Elvira (c.305) was one of the earliest to prohibit images in churches, "lest that which is worshiped and venerated be depicted on the walls." With the approval of the use of images by the Trullan Synod (692) of the Third Council of Constantinople, the debate was joined again. It was most pronounced in Asia Minor, especially around Constantinople, in the 8th and 9th cent. The movement was paralleled by the iconoclasm of Islam, Judaism, and Manichaeism and was certainly strengthened by the numerous Paulicians in the empire. Leo III, Constantine V, Leo IV, and Leo V were important iconoclastic emperors. Eastern Iconoclasm was opposed in the West by Popes Gregory II, Gregory III, and Adrian I. Empress Irene restored the images and St. Theodore of Studium, St. John of Damascus, St. Nicephorus, and St. Theophanes wrote histories of the controversy. Iconoclasm was rejected at Nicaea (see Nicaea, Second Council of) but ended only during the minority of Michael III. The iconoclastic controversy stimulated Byzantine artists to strive for spiritual revelation in religious art rather than for naturalistic representation. The churches of the Orthodox Eastern Church are generally decorated only with flat pictures, bas-reliefs, and mosaics (see Byzantine art and architecture). Iconoclasm was also a feature of the Protestant Reformation. The Puritans were especially hostile to the use of religious images, and some Protestants still consider their use idolatrous.

That last line is particularly relevant in Scotland since most of the Protestant community see the crucifix worn by Roman Catholics as offensive.

[keasy]

Maybe in your opinion, but I certainly don't know many protestants who find the crucifix offending.
I know many idiotic twats that are essentially non religious but count themselves as protestant that find it offending.

But in all my years as a person who was brought up in The Church I have never once, encountered a truly religious person of faith that is offended by the crucifix.
I have met with people who have reason as to why their church doesn't use it as an icon, but they weren't offended by it.
-----------------------


Anyway,
as for teddy bears and Mohamed

I haven't read a newspaper in weeks and BBC News reported the teacher as possibly facing the lash, in that respect I would want crack covert troops sent in to rescue her   
But as it stands, providing she is reasonably treated in jail, 15 days and it's all over and done with. She did break the law. But at least the Muslim peers who are negotiating with the Sudanese government are fine examples of moderate Islam. Apparently the Sudan president is under a lot of pressure to see her have her sentence carried through. 

[Wooster]

And now she's been pardoned..

[corroded]

safe to say she won't be going back to sudan again.

[Ctulu]

well tbh she has not been smart ...

[nnex]

in my honest opinion they should abolish religion all together.
religion is nothing but a cooking pot for war and struggle.

it's never proven fact, so people can twist interpretations to their own desire and vision.

i think the teacher should be in her right to let the children call the bear mohammed....why aren't the children being punished? they are in fact the "offenders" and the teahcer was just the one that didn't object to a simple wish of the schoolchildren.

fucking moslims......


sorry for the bitter tone...getting fed up when i read things like this.

[Wooster]

I'm beginning to come to the conclusion that we aren't as far removed from our monkey clan ancestors as we like to delude ourselves, given the amount of time we spend in our respective trees screaming at each other.

[Fey]

I'm beginning to come to the conclusion that we aren't as far removed from our monkey clan ancestors as we like to delude ourselves, given the amount of time we spend in our respective trees screaming at each other.

does that make you and keasy the chief monkeys in our particular tree house 

*note to photoshoppers - I expect woosters face in an orangutan suit very soon ok ;

I think this lady didn't research enough or understand enough about where she was going and the sensitivites that might be involved, which is not very clever tbh. Plus if she's not smart enough to do that, would you want her teaching your children?? It's not that I'm a fan of being all politically correct and stuff but if you go to a foreign country you respect their laws and culture and you get informed so you don't make any mistakes which might just get you landed in jail or worse. It's not exactly rocket science now is it.

[Wooster]

*note to photoshoppers - I expect woosters face in an orangutan suit very soon ok ;

Working on it..

[keasy]

Gillian Gibbons, sentenced on Thursday to 15 days in jail followed by deportation for insulting Islam, was pardoned after an appeal by two prominent British Muslims to Sudan's president for her early release.

They accompanied her as she left Khartoum airport, heavy with security after hundreds protested on Friday, demanding she be killed

That's the shite that sticks in my throat.
Some of these people are just full of hate. Regardless of religion, country and so on, fundamentally, I believe all people know within themselves what a sense of justice is.


Headcases.

[AbaddonsFury]

Yeah.....
They can hate us and say it....but we cant.....

[Wooster]

Show me an example of it posted up in here..