A 54-year-old British schoolmarm is in a Khartoum prison for allowing her 6 and 7-year-old students to name a toy stuffed bear “Muhammad”, or so we’re told here by the BBC. Each child was given a weekend with the bear, and was supposed to write a story about what they did with the bear. Some parents complained, and now British officials are concerned that the teacher may be facing execution.
Most Westerners appear shocked and confused that this was even an issue. For anyone who may be confused about why this has happened, please note that in most of the Islamic world, images of people, even animals, are religiously offensive. They have a simple rule: don’t make images. They don’t have, in Sudan, the cute tradition of ‘Teddy Bears’ that we have in this country. Toy stuffed animals are, instead, viewed with horror there, as satanic effigies.
I’m having the most difficult time trying to come up with a Western equivalent insult. Perhaps if you dressed up a blow-up sex doll as a rodeo clown, named it ‘Jesus Christ’, and had a bunch of 6 and 7 years olds play with it and write a story about their weekend with ‘Jesus Christ’. That’s close, but I’m not sure it quite captures the intense distaste Muslims have for images.
Perhaps the Sudanese authorities have overstepped their bounds. If they had shown a little more sensitivity to their guests from other cultures, we wouldn’t have heard anything about this. Now Muslims around the world think Sudanese children believe that Muhammad is a toy bear — what a laughingstock! I guess you gotta do whatcha gotta do when you’re propping up a hierarchical system of religious and political control.
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