The Sudanese police arrested a British schoolteacher and accused her of insulting Islam after she allowed her 7-year-old pupils to name a class teddy bear Muhammad, Sudanese officials said today.
The teacher, Gillian Gibbons, was arrested on Sunday in Khartoum, Sudan’s capital, after a number of parents complained, said Rabie A. Atti, a government spokesman.“How can you call a bear Muhammad?” he said. “Muhammad is the holy prophet of Islam.”
While many in the US will finger wag at the Sudanese, they will fail to notice how, unprecidented in recent US politics, that candidates are running on their religious credentials even though the US constitution is clear that the US govt. is a secular one and specifies that there be no religious tests. Not that one doesn't have the freedom to speak on religion, but if one is actually concerned with that piece of paper called the constitution, then religion really ought not be a point of qualification. Sadly none of the "leading" candidates have the guts to put these religious people in check. But should this kind of thing continue don't be all that surprised when some government official manages to pass a law where "insults" to Jesus will land someone in jail. Artists are already feeling heat for taking on religion in their works.
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