Jeez....religious fanatics can be so .....touchy....

UK teacher in Sudan guilty for naming teddy bear "Mohammed" http://www.chinaview.cn 2007-11-30 08:29:17 Print BEIJING, Nov. 30 (Xinhuanet) -- A 54-year-old British teacher was sentenced to 15 days in jail in Khartoum, the Sudan, because she let her class name a teddy bear Mohammed, media reports said Friday.

The case came in response to some parents' complaints that the teacher, Gillian Gibbons, insulted Islam by naming a teddy bear as Muhammad -- Islam's holy prophet.

In September, Gibbons endorsed the name of Muhammad chosen by her 7-year old pupils and asked them to write diaries for the teddy bear.

In Khartoum, it is a crime to insult the Prophet Muhammad. Under the Sudanese law, the teacher could have spent six months in jail and been lashed 40 times.

The Foreign Office in London said it did not believe Gibbons had intended to insult Muslims and it was "an innocent mistake."

"We are extremely disappointed," said Omar Daair, spokesman for the British Embassy in Khartoum, after the charges.

But the Sudanese government noted that it was "not much of a punishment at all," rather "it should be considered a warning that such acts should not be repeated."