Saturday, 1 December 2007

Trying to look beyond the Media Face of Sudan

The continuing fiasco regarding 54 year old Gillian Gibbons, a UK teacher from Liverpool, jailed for 15 days in Sudan for insulting Islam by allowing her class to name a teddy bear Muhammad, is still heading the media in the UK with a meeting with two British Muslim peers, Labour's Lord Ahmed and Conservative Baroness Warsi, at a secret location in Sudan's capital, Khartoum.


BBC News


The media coverage in the UK has been dominated by images of Sudanese men, no women, riding on donkeys, horses and carts, shouting and wielding sticks and swords apparently calling for this woman to be put to death for her ignorance.
The question I have running through my mind is who has demonstrated a greater amount of ignorance, the woman for not seeking guidance from those running the school, those running the school for not supporting a member of their staff team or those calling for her to lose her life over a soft toy?

Though I hope that the more extreme elements of the Sudanese's religious and judiciary far right do not success in their reactionary desires.

If harm should befall this mature lady, that the Western powers do all they can to apply diplomatic pressure and punitive economic sanctions.







Having said how I feel, it was gratify to read that not all of the inhabitants of Sudan support these medieval minded zealots.




The Holy Room : The Sudanese Thinker

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2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I think it is all a crock of bull!

They need to concentrate on more serious things other than a teddy bears name. Stupid!

Pablothehat said...

I think that there is a certain percentage of the human population who just have to find things to be outraged about. Gives then a sense of belonging.