Posted by
Annathema on Wednesday, November 28, 2007 5:19:36 PM
The real question
HERE would be do the kids voting on the bear's name in class also get 40 lashings?
Synopsis: British teacher charged by Sudanese government, arrested, and fired from her position because she gave the popular male name "Muhammed" to a teddy bear to be used in a classroom project for elementary school students. It's a rather common project: a stuffed toy is taken home each weekend by a child, and they write about their weekend and what activities they did with the toy. Ex: "Today, Teddy and I went to the park. We saw ducks." etc. Then these kids essays are compiled into a book... in this case, the book would be titled "My Name is Muhammed".
The kids themselves were the ones who proposed three different names for the teddy bear, and the kids themselves voted. Muhammed was the name that won the vote. Some kids' parents complained, claiming that this was a deliberate Western attack on Islam.
Now, what I want to know is this: if it's such a touchy subject, why make the name Muhammed allowable for people? More than likely, the kids suggested Muhammed as a reasonable name for a Teddy bear because they have as many Muhammeds in their families as there are Johns, Wills, and Matts in America. So naming a toy Mohammed was not thought of as an attack on their religion.
I'd think of more on this, but work is eating me now... Grawr...