southsider2k5 Posted December 11, 2007 Share Posted December 11, 2007 http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/story?id=3982442&page=1 The British teacher jailed and convicted in Sudan for inciting religious hatred says she doesn't want the world to hold the incident against Muslims or against Sudan. "The Sudanese people are a wonderful, warm and generous people and you can't hold a whole nation accountable for the actions of a few," Gillian Gibbons told ABC's "Good Morning America" today in an exclusive interview. Gibbons, 54, ran afoul of Islamic law after allowing her class to name a teddy bear Muhammad, which is also the name of Islam's sacred prophet. The coincidence didn't amuse Sudan's government. The act landed Gibbons in jail on Nov. 25. She was convicted and sentenced to 15 days in jail. But after appeals from Muslim leaders in the United Kingdom, Sudan pardoned Gibbons and she was allowed to go home. She spent a total of eight days in jail No Grudges She doesn't think of herself as a victim and didn't want to leave after the ordeal. "When you're a guest of a country you have to respect the law. … If I had been allowed to I would've gone back to school," she told "GMA's" Robin Roberts. What Gibbons feels guilty about is leaving her students. "I feel very bad about my class because I know they were very upset because I was their teacher and they trusted me, and I let them down." Gibbons has now moved back to the United Kingdom with her family and is visiting New York this week. She's looking for a new job and is optimistic about the future. The response she has gotten has shown her a "huge wealth of human kindness. … I learned that though there are some people in the world who aren't very nice, the vast majority are utterly fantastic." Since 1991, Sudan has ruled by Shariah, Islamic law, which condemns any physical depiction of the prophet as blasphemous. Thousands of Muslims responded by protesting in the streets, carrying swords and calling for Gibbons' death. Innocent Intent Gibbons says she moved to Sudan because she was "looking for a bit of an adventure." Her class named the teddy bear in October. "None of the parents complained and nobody said it was a problem." Students would take turns borrowing the bear and write a diary about his life, a popular exercise at schools in Britain. Gibbons says it was a secretary with a grudge whom she worked with at the Unity High School, who raised the objection with the school's director in late November. The school filed the complaint with the ministry and before she knew it, there was a warrant for Gibbons' arrest. She went to the city court, thinking she just was going to make a statement, but was detained without warning. 'Very Grim' "It started off in a holding cell and it was very grim, really awful," Gibbons said of the city jail where she was initially held. "In Sudanese prisons you don't get any furniture at all. … It's just a floor and walls, no chair, no table, nothing." I never really got any information. … That was the worst part," Gibbons explained. She didn't know that she faced 40 lashes or how long she would be held. Finally she was moved to a second detention center. "I had no idea if I was going to the airport or to another prison and it was very frightening." After five days prison guards took Gibbons to her trial. Parents from her class and other teachers at the school volunteered to speak on Gibbons' behalf. "They were very brave and I appreciate it greatly," she said. During that time she was only dimly aware of mobs of protesters condemning her and the uproar abroad over the incident. "The British Consul came to see me every day. They gave me a little bit of information, but I had no idea of the international storm that I had actually caused." "This whole thing has staggered me. I've been so shocked by the amount of press coverage." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EvilMonkey Posted December 13, 2007 Share Posted December 13, 2007 Still more from the ROP! Now they object to 'offensive' soccer uniforms! Some of these people are just perpetually offended http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/worl...icle3035438.ece Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KipWellsFan Posted December 13, 2007 Share Posted December 13, 2007 (edited) The gleeful voices of several thousand people echoed along Bill Clinton Boulevard in the Kosovo capital of Pristina yesterday, celebrating a day of national independence that has not yet arrived. ... Here, in this unstable corner of Europe, was what must have been the world's only pro-American demonstration. Ethnic Albanians in Kosovo, who are largely Muslim, credit the United States with freeing them from Serbian control in the 1999 NATO war, and yesterday there were hundreds of Stars and Stripes flags in the air. One banner read "USA: Kick some Putin ass," a familiar sentiment. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/sto...71211.wkosovo11 Edited December 13, 2007 by KipWellsFan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rex Kickass Posted December 13, 2007 Share Posted December 13, 2007 More from your Religion of Peace. http://www.nypost.com/seven/12122007/news/...slim_381263.htm December 12, 2007 -- A Brooklyn man whose "Happy Hanukkah" greeting landed him in the hospital said he was saved from a gang of Jew-bashing goons aboard a packed Q train by a total stranger - a modest Muslim from Bangladesh. Walter Adler was touched that Hassan Askari jumped to his aid while a group of thugs allegedly pummeled and taunted him and his three friends. So Adler has invited his new friend over to celebrate the Festival of Lights. The two new pals - Adler, 23, with a broken nose and a fat lip, and Askari, 20, with two black eyes - broke bread together and laughed off the bruises the night after the fisticuffs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EvilMonkey Posted December 13, 2007 Share Posted December 13, 2007 QUOTE(Rex Kicka** @ Dec 12, 2007 -> 10:50 PM) More from your Religion of Peace. http://www.nypost.com/seven/12122007/news/...slim_381263.htm Wait, there is anti-jew hate crimes? I thought that it was only Muslims that had hate crimes committed against them? Your scenereo above is more likely since the anti-Jew hate crimes outnumber anti-Muslim hate crimes over 6-1. http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/hc2004/hctable1.htm Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rex Kickass Posted December 14, 2007 Share Posted December 14, 2007 You seemed to completely miss the point. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EvilMonkey Posted December 15, 2007 Share Posted December 15, 2007 No, I got what you were trying to do. Point out how they do good things. Sure, and Capone fed the hungry, too. POst all the feel-good things you want, you would be outnumbered by far with the wacky things done in their name. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
santo=dorf Posted December 15, 2007 Share Posted December 15, 2007 More from the religion of peace.... http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/arti...amp;ito=newsnow An English backpacker who stabbed a Scottish traveller to death during a row about creationism and evolution was sent to jail for five years by a judge in Australia. ........ The Scottish couple, who were staying in Tumut in the Snowy Mountains of New South Wales, picking fruit as part of a year-long round-the-world trip, had been arguing the case of evolution, while York, also fruit picking, had asserted that humans had been created as described in the Bible. Oops, didn't mean to start a jihad here getting my religions mixed up and what not. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EvilMonkey Posted December 15, 2007 Share Posted December 15, 2007 QUOTE(santo=dorf @ Dec 15, 2007 -> 05:21 AM) More from the religion of peace.... http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/arti...amp;ito=newsnow Oops, didn't mean to start a jihad here getting my religions mixed up and what not. You would still lose out in quantity. Go ahead, bring Mormons, baptists and even Scientoligists into it, the R.O.P. will still vastly outnumber them all in quantity and wackiness. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EvilMonkey Posted December 15, 2007 Share Posted December 15, 2007 This is, of course, a parody article. Or is it? That's the sad thing is that some of these yuo can imagine really happening. http://www.thepeoplescube.com/red/viewtopic.php?t=1621 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LowerCaseRepublican Posted December 16, 2007 Share Posted December 16, 2007 QUOTE(Alpha Dog @ Dec 15, 2007 -> 10:22 AM) This is, of course, a parody article. Or is it? That's the sad thing is that some of these yuo can imagine really happening. http://www.thepeoplescube.com/red/viewtopic.php?t=1621 Alpha, check out Chris Hitchens' new book "god Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything". I'd think you'd enjoy parts of it. I admire your abhorrence to the way that fundamentalist Muslim regimes treat women (burqas, morality polices, etc.) but to say that there is little to no danger in the fundamentalisms of other religions by downplaying it is a bit shortsighted. A new age of free inquiry and reason will do much more than prattle targeted at one religion's fundamentalism/extremism. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts