Teacher arrested over children's naming of classroom toy
 

Just a clarification to those not familiar with Islamic law: Its OK to name your child after the prophet, but stuffed animals are completely out of the question.

The kids voted for the name, why aren't they being arrested?

was the offense naming the animal, or what they named it? did i miss something? what did they name it?

because over there they worship their children. they can do no wrong. they even value them more highly than they do sheep. women? not so much.

you think i'm being a sarcastic dick? i've been there and seen it first hand.

lumporjism

Imperfect editing from Kitsune there ;)

The bear was named Muhammed.
Any depiction of the prophet is forbidden. I guess it was interpreted as a depiction of the prophet rather than naming it after, say, one of the gazillions of the other Muhammeds.
See here.

I'm surprised they were allowed a stuffed bear if laws are so strict.

I often advised customers buying baby gifts for Muslim colleagues to avoid anything with depictions of animals on (ie blankets with little rabbits stitched on, or ducks). It wasn't so much the couple who might protest but the Great Aunties and Grandmothers. In Islam you are not allowed to depict any living creature so as not to raise the issue of idolatry - Saudi Arabian street art is all quite abstract for example. This an extend to some toys, if they represent real animals.

OMG... you hate religion... how could you post such drivel!!!!
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2.../bombs/Why.jpg
LOL!

I agree, arrest the kids, it was their choice.

The latest word is she's sentenced to two weeks' imprisonment, exiled back to England, and no forty lashes.

Where are all the protes-- oh, it's already started.

:neutral:

I tend to think the anger in all of this isn't really about the stupid toy bear's name, but more that there is a UK teacher in Sudan. This was just the chance the children's parents needed to have her removed.

There's more than that.

It was a WOMAN! And she was TEACHING! WORKING! and as far as I can judge, she was INDEPENDENT!
Outrageous, really.

No wonder some mobs are calling for her execution.

She's clearly a witch too. They should burn her.

it's freaking ridiculous. i mean it seriously burns me up and makes me angry. it is one of the very few subjects that really makes me see red and want to see physical punishment and harm to come to someone. i mean, who the hell do they think they are? things were good and fine right up until the point that we started to give women rights. RIGHTS??? what the hell? they are rights for men - they have forgotten they are privileges for women. they belong at home. either in the kitchen making us dinner. or the bedroom making us babies. or taking care of the house and kids while we are in our rightful workplace...

ok, i can't do it anymore, but i thought that it just wouldn't be the cellar if someone didn't argue the contrarian point there. sorry i couldn't do better.

You better hide, lookout, you just pissed off all these women:

Yeah, lookout, you've triggered a riot by rampaging feminists! They're coming for you now!
Attachment 15983

EDIT: The one on the left is named Muhammedina.

I have an acquaintance who says "Saudi Arabia: Where 1+1=Banana"

Yea, it's true. Any place that uses Sharia Law is going to look pretty weird to us.

...and what else floats? WITCHES!!!! Burn her!!!

I get really confused every time I see an interview of a woman living in one of those cultures and she answers that not only do women living there love it, but they prefer it, and that they can't understand how women in other parts of the world can stand to not be under such constraints. They talk about how it makes them feel safe, protected, closer to their families and god...

Our western culture is so far removed from this I don't think there is any way we could begin to understand.

Interesting points Kits, I can imagine a few pluses - there would be a whole lot of things you never have to worry about: finances, the mortgage, politics, civic duty.
Mind you there would be the down side: domestic violence, mind-numbing boredom, etc.

What I want to know is, what are they going to do with the bear?

I had a Saudi woman (a friend of my long-ago emigrated Iranian aunt) assert to me once that many women liked the burkas because it meant it was actually very easy to go where they pleased, and specifically have affairs with pretty much anyone they wanted without being afraid of "being seen" in an inappropriate place.

I said, "Okay, but what about when you get caught?" She said only the really stupid ones get caught, and only the really "redneck" ones had families that would turn them in themselves. And she pointed out that men kill their women over affairs here all the time, it just happens to be illegal. "But who cares if he goes to jail or not after you are dead?"

You can fast forward to 3m30s in this, but I found it to provide some interesting insights.

I just renamed one of my dogs Muhammad.

Gives a new meaning to "hide in plain sight". It also blows the hell out of the "closer to God" theory.

Begs the question - How much closer?

In fundamentalist Christian doctrine women are subservient to men. A woman must obey her father and then her husband. It's only in the last 100 years that the word "obey" has been contested and generally removed from the standard Church of England marriage ceremony.

The Catholic ceremony still includes a statement about having children as and when God decrees it - which was a death certificate for many women even in the West until a good 50 years ago, and continues to be in undeveloped countries.

Many Christian women I spoke to when I was attending an evangelistic, fairly fundie church told me about the comfort of obeying God's rule for the place of women, and how women have pushed for equal rights and are still unhappy. In a way they are right - I am 35, childless, single and expect to remain so. I am unfulfilled in a way. But they forget to mention those that died in mental health institutions simply by having children out of wedlock. Or those who married but shut themselves in upper rooms, or killed themselves, or were just so glacial they fucked up their children...

Anyway, can't comment on the video - it's playing in 5 second bursts at the moment, whic I challenge anyoe to make sense of.

What I fail to understand is not one child appears to have objected to the idea in the of naming of the toy. So clearly they were not aware of the circumstances which, if it is such a crime, would have been engendered into the children by their parents.

Alternatively, the mass protests by the parents was orchestrated. By who, I wonder? Those who take billions of dollars, charitably given, for their own use? I think there is far more to this story that hasn't yet seen the light of day.

Was it Golda Meir who said, "There will be peace in the Middle East when the Arabs love their children more than they hate us"?

Of course they didn't, BeeVee; the naming was the kids' idea, and they reckoned they were naming the bear after some kid of that name.

So somebody in Sudanese officialdom attached the blame to the foreigner in the room.

Bear
 

The teacher named the bear I thought the children neamed the bear

Children often don't know all the rules and doctrines of their religion.

I remember before I can read, going through a pretend Mass with my sister and giving communion to our toys, saying, "What Erd has given and Human Hands of May" We assigned Yellow Ted to be the Human Hands of May. It was "What earth has given and human hands have made" for the record. It wasn't particularly irreligious, but reminds me that we didn't understand what was happening.

And Arabs do love their children - passionately. But anyone with a cause generally loves it more - wouldn't the members of the NRA teach their children to fight if the second amendment was annulled?

when you can be kidnapped, whipped, or killed for religious infractions, those kids damn well better know the rules.

It doesn't apply to children. They learn as they grow.

Meanwhile the Mark of Cain for an undemocracy is the willingness of the Law to jail you for an unpopular opinion, or an action not infringing upon the rights or wellbeing of others.