British Teach to be Jailed Over TEDDY BEAR???

That's why I love the fundamentalist world view. Absolutely ridiculous decisions justified with completely limited convictions. Yay!

This is just so ridiculas. If it were not so sad, it would be funny. I could see telling them to change the name, if the kid named the bear God. But, excuse me for not thinking that Mohammad is so special. This world is getting more wierd with every passing day.

I read about this in MSN news today. My heart goes out to her and her family. Shame on those in Sudan for even thinking about punishing her for something she couldn't have possibly known about! And gee, what about the little children in her classroom who suggested the name...are they going to be punished too? I mean, after all, THEY are the ones who suggested the name Muhammod. (Not that I advocate them doing that either!) This is just an insane misunderstanding, not something that should be met with so much non-understanding and severity. I agree with the poster above: why didn't one of the parents, or somebody, let her know that this was seen as an offense? I'll bet if she would have been clued in she would have changed the Teddy's name quickly. I don't believe for one minute that she did this as an offense to them. With religious zealotry like this, no wonder the world is mess. (OK, Joy is getting down off her soapbox now...but she's still shaking her head in utter, total disbelief...)

There are two sides (or even three or four) to every story.. It seems that a disgruntled colleague actually reported the teacher rather than the authorities coming looking for fer, if it wasn't for that, she would have 'got away' with it... I have two concerns about the story, the first is, as everyone acknowledges... The punishment doesn't seem to fit the 'crime'. But another reaction I also have is that was it right for a foreigner (for that is what she is) to insult the host religion? Was it wise to go down that path? I don't think that it is right to punish someone who has named a Teddy Bear after a prophet, but at the same time, I don't think it is wise to take people's beliefs lightly...

No you have not awakened into an alternative universe, Anniepa. This is actually happening in our world today. People being killed in the name of religion. No love; no compassion. Maybe fifteen years ago, we, me and my children, had a puppy that we named Praise. She was a beautiful black, mixed cockerspaniel. And was very frisky. We took her over to my mom's house and when she learned the dog's name she became scornful and told us that we should not take the Lord's name in vain by naming the animal Praise. I just told her that we were not taking the Lord's name in vain. The bible tells us to praise the Lord it does not tell us to not name anything praise. Nor did it tell us to call the Lord praise. And then I quickly to my children and our dog out of her house and off her property. And I did not change my dogs name.

Didn't you know that the Muslim religion is sacrosanct. Even if the teacher was in England she probably would have been in trouble for naming the Teddy Mohammad. I'm just surprised that she wasn't also in trouble for having the toy in the classroom at all. So many things can be misconstrued as icons that even many toys are not allowed.

dear anniepa, in my opinion, you need not to say that. coz it will depend on the country how they will response those matter and its also depend on the herritage of citizen on there. i m moslem and as long as i know using name "Mohammad" to animal name is not quiet prior considering those name is moslem's great prophets. what i m saying here is just unprior name giving to animal. about prohibited or restriction about using it in animal, honestly my knowledge not yet thats so far. but still in my opinion, i prefer not using those name to animal.

No Annie, you have not gone to sleep, its these nerds who have gone to sleep Rip Van Winkle style. They are unaware (or don’t want to be aware) of how much the world has progressed since the medieval times, what real problems face our existence today and how we can work together to make this world a better place for our children. And to think of the grinding poverty, illiteracy and violence in such countries and still they have time and patience to actually haul a teacher over naming a teddy Mohammed! I do think (though I hate being spiteful and have never generalized like this before) that their beliefs and faiths are in direct proportion to the overall misery of their country. The worst part is that the 7yr old child actually proposed the name Mohammad himself coz that was his own name. The teacher involved was loved very much by the children, she was very popular, and all the children loved learning English, Maths and Languages from her. If religious bigotry reaches such heights and is acknowledge by the Govt., very soon there will be very few takers for going and helping such nations in any way.

ridiculous and utterly stupid. this is why i am opposed to religion in the first place

Muslim & christian both of them are not allowed to name in animal if you really belive in your religion, but the big mistake is how she dont know of those awarness, she is working in the muslim country it must be she will be take care in her words, act, ect. in sudan all people is muslim so we cannot deny them.but i feel sorry for the teacher she teach a wrong assignment to the student. Even to you if your a christian you dont like someone will make a toy in the name of jesus, but the hard thing is her lashes. so we just pray for the forgiveness of sudan people for her.so she can be back home even she will stay in a jail tell the trial will end than they will hang her.

Unfortunately the standard of education in many countries is not very high. While it is clear to literate people of all races and religions that murdering someone over a teddy bear would obviously be bonkers, some of the people in Sudan are not as fortunate. If their imam tells them 'this woman insulted Islam' they do not have the ability to think about it for themselves because they have never been taught how to. It is not because of the teddy bear they want to see her killed, it is because she is white, British and not Muslim. Their preachers tell them that all such people deserve to die. If you think back it is only a few hundred years since the West was in a similar state with such events as the Spanish Inquistion and slavery. And when you think about Hitler killing Jews just for their race and religion, that was less than seventy years ago. It is all down to thinking that people who look different from you and believe different things are somehow not as human. It is a terrible thing for decent educated Muslims because it throws a bad light on their entire religion. But hopefully in the future the actions of this ignorant and insane minority (I agree with your previous commenter, they should not be called fundamentalists, just mentalists) will be part of history as well.

Though thousands of years have passed nice the first human was born we are still a young civilization and making stupid decisions or rules is a talent of ours. Unfortunatly this is the reality, for small mistakes you're considered to be a criminal or something like that, it will take some time when people will truly start living on earth. Fear, greed, anger, hunger for power, paranoia etc makes us all act crazy or childish. But what can we do? Except waiting and learning from our mistakes.

That's very sad for the teacher. If the teacher is to be punished, I think the students should be punished as well. Both the teacher and the students came out with the name together. How can they just push the blame to a teacher who is a non-muslim? The students should know the Islam law better than the teacher.

If you've gone to sleep, I must have slipped into a coma and woken up in the Twilight Zone. Suing someone because the name "Mohammed" is offense is about as sane as me suing myLot because there are posts here that offend me. The name Mohammed is just like the name Jennifer or Mark. It's a very common name. Mohammed does have middle eastern ties, but it's no more of a terrorist name than Osama or Hitler. Grow up people. If you can't handle it, then you just need to do the world a favor and move into an underground bunker and never, ever return to the surface.

This is seriously retarded. Its a freaking Teddy Bear. Just for that I think I'm gonna buy a dog, name him Mohammad and send a copy of his registartion to the Sudan goverment with a big F-U attached to it.

I heard about this too....it's ridiculous!! I have as well heard of many stupid things happen in the name of religion.