British Teacher : Irrationality rules in Sudan

By Ahmed Elzobier

November 30, 2007 — The current rulers of Sudan are always committed to sink lower than even their worst enemies could expect. A few days ago Nafi Ali Nafi, the presidential assistant and Deputy President of the National Congress Party, was asked about the source of the lavish spending on the Party’s annual conference. He responded, with a cynical smile on his face, “This is a blessing from God”.

In previous articles I have been quite indulgent in using labels such as “delusional psychopath” in describing the current rulers of Sudan. I think I have run out of these adjectives now and I am sure many Sudanese feel the same. They can’t find suitable words to capture the immense feeling of revulsion at the presidential assistant’s statement, or the announcement by Al Bashier on Nov. 18 declaring that he has “all other tyrants under my boot” and insisting that he will reopen the notorious Popular Defense Forces (Holy Warriors) camps in al Sudan. Al Bashir wearing the sneer of the psychopath gangster who knows he got the cops in his pockets, he could easily oscillate between the rhetoric of war and reconciliation in a matter of days, sometime hours – it depends on the level of pressure his regime feels.

Given the continuous violation of basic human rights and freedom of expression, the reaction of the Sudanese authorities in the teddy bear affair is consistent with their erratic and increasingly paranoid state of mind.

It seems now that not a single week can pass without the NCP finding means to offend someone domestically or internationally. It is obvious the Sudanese authorities have no worries about their international image, given what they have done in Darfur or in the Southern Sudan and Nuba Mountain, and that they don’t really care about their own citizens or the future of their country.

What exactly happened?

MB Jefferies who lives and works in Sudan and is a friend of the schoolteacher at the centre of this controversy, Gillian Gibbons, wrote in the Guardian newspaper’s Comment is Free site the following:

“In late August, or early September of this year, Gillian came into possession of a teddy bear (a gift from a parent). An Early Years activity (designed to encourage, in particular, achievement in literacy skills) plays out around a class teddy. He does the rounds of the children, going home with them, just in case the child concerned writes a diary entry for the teddy about his visit to the child’s home. This was Gillian’s intention and it is in line with our whole school plan to raise literacy skills – a target especially pertinent as the overwhelming majority of our pupils are of English as Another Language (EAL) status.”

According to Jefferies, Gillian wanted to name the teddy “Faris” after his son, but she chose instead to ask the children to name the bear. The children voted and chose the name Muhammad. All but one of the children in her class are Muslims.

Apparently a member of staff with an axe to grind took the letter to the Ministry of Education. No one knows how long it took them to react but last Sunday they entered the School compound and arrested Ms Gibbons.

The Islamo-fascist reaction:

The so-called Scholars of Sudan Society (a religious body whose main task is to rubber stamp National Congress Party policies, passing them as “holy”) displayed their usual level of ignorance, irrationality and bigotry, and nothing at all scholarly as they claim. Evidently they don’t operate on reason – just emotion. They published a statement to the press declaring that “this case is like test tube for us”, showing the conspiratorial frame of mind which runs wild among this group.

Dr Al Tayeb Zien Al Abdeen, who ironically prides himself on being Cambridge educated and is the head of the Inter-Religious Council in Sudan, joined the bandwagon and added to the venom emanating from the self-appointed Scholars of Sudan. He said, “This is a deliberate act designed to disturb the minds of our young generation”.

The gullible, brainwashed, half educate Islamist elites in Sudan have mastered the technique of easy answers over complicated but correct ones. It’s much easier for them to understand the concepts of “the Jews control the world” or “they have an agenda” than to actually analyze the situation properly or seek evidence to substantiate such claims. Immediately after the news broke, groups of young men gathered outside the Khartoum police station where Ms Gibbons was taken and began shouting death threats.

On Friday, Abdul-Jalil Nazeer al-Karouri, a cleric at Khartoum’s Martyrs Mosque (the epicentre of Islamo-fascism in Sudan) claimed that Gibbons had intentionally insulted the Muslim faith. He said, “This is an arrogant woman who came to our country, cashing her salary in dollars, teaching our children hatred of our Prophet Muhammad,”

According to news agencies on Friday, thousands of protesters, many brandishing clubs and swords, took to the streets of Sudan’s capital demanding the execution of a British teacher who let her students name a teddy bear Muhammad. And that the protesters who rallied in Khartoum’s Martyrs Square outside the presidential palace, waved sticks, knives, axes and swords and chanted, “Kill her, kill her by firing squad!” Others shouted, “Shame, shame on the U.K.”

Ultimately, the Islamist propaganda is often a straight copy of the 20th century’s totalitarian regimes, like the Soviet Union, Nazi Germany, Franco’s Spain and other European Fascists, and the Arab Nationalists. It holds democracy and human rights to be a sham that hides the secret workings of sinister conspiracies.

The school’s reaction:

Robert Boulos, Director of Unity High School said, “This was a completely innocent mistake. Miss Gibbons would have never wanted to insult Islam”.

But last Monday, in a knee-jerk reaction, the school sent a statement to the press announcing that Ms Gibbons’ employment with the school was being terminated with immediate effect. It read …

“The administration of Unity High School would like to proffer an official apology to all students and their families and to all Muslims for what was an individual action, which does not represent the sentiments of the administration or the school.”

What the school clearly misunderstands is that when you give in to threats and intimidation, the bully comes back for more.

The parents and children:

The parents, the majority of whom are Muslims, appear to be more rational than most other people involved and have gone on record to say they “never had any objection to the name of the teddy bear”.

Mohammed, the child who suggested the name for the bear, said he was not thinking of Islam’s Prophet when asked to suggest a name, adding that most of the class agreed with him. Mohammad, said Gibbons, was “very nice” and he would be upset if she never came back to teach. He added that Ms Gibbons had not discussed religion nor did she mention the Prophet.

British Government:

In his monthly press conference, the Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, said he hoped Gillian Gibbons would be released soon. “We have been in contact with, and will continue to be in contact with, the Sudanese police authorities and the Sudanese government to make sure that we can ascertain that she is safe and well and to clarify the position so that she can be released soon,” he said.

The Sudan Government’s official reaction:

In the first official comment on the case Sudan foreign ministry spokesman, Ali al-Sadeq, said the case of a “teacher’s misconduct against the Islamic faith” should not have provoked a British government to caution its citizens in Sudan.

Dr Khalid al-Mubarak the Information and Media attaché at the Sudan Embassy in London, told the BBC that the police are bound to investigate just as is the case in any country in which there is rule of law. “Our relationship with Britain is so good that we wouldn’t like such a minute event to be overblown,” he said

Abdel Rahim Ahmed Abdel Rahim from the Sudan police force’s Criminal Investigation Directorate said on Tuesday that a decision whether to charge Ms Gibbons with insulting Islam would be made once investigations were completed. “She is being questioned. Then the whole matter is going to be evaluated to see whether she is going to be charged or not,” he said.

On Thursday Ms Gibson was officially charged under article 125 inciting hatred of religion. On Thursday she was sentenced to 15 days in prison and deportation to Britain

The British public:

In the British press some commentators showed ignorance of the diversity of Sudan society and claimed the teacher should have respected the country’s culture. Sudan doesn’t have one all-encompassing monolithic culture and identity, we have hundreds of cultures and identities. Unfortunately, for Sudanese, especially those of African decent, the northern Sudan elites who took over from the British have assumed an entirely Arab-Islamic identity for this country since independence in 1956. And the current regime took this imposed Arab-Islamic identity to the extreme and to its current tragic consequences in the South, Nuba Mountain, and Darfur, to the detriment of other cultures that are a part of Sudan. This is what has made this country so susceptible to civil war and political instability.

The disbelief of this news among the British public is understandable, one member of an online newspaper blog commented, “This might be an April Fool’s Day joke but it’s not April”. Another blogger states, “This has got to be one of the stupidest things I have ever heard. Sometimes I wonder if the whole world is going absolutely mad, it defies belief that someone could be arrested for something as innocuous as giving a teddy bear a name that was chosen by young children”.

Liberal Sudanese reaction:

In the popular Sudanese online discussion forum, a member posted “Not in our name”. The majority of the participants expressed outrage and support for Ms Gibbons and abhorred the Sudanese authority’s reaction to this affair, and many signed a petition to be delivered to the British Embassy to show their support. Some considered it ‘storm in a teacup’.

Another member wrote, “The saddest part of the whole thing is that the whole little Teddy Gate affair has got nothing to do with the extreme views of the Bashir Islamic regime but everything to do with the UN peace mission due to arrive in Darfur.”

In Sudan Mailing List most members expressed outrage at the affair. One member wrote:

“This is all too ridicules and just adds more to the mockery that that part of the world is receiving. So let me get this straight … If one knows someone called Mohamed … They should not insult him because of his name.”

Another:

“Mohamed is not just a prophet’s name, but one of the names from among several Arab names. Before he became a prophet he was an Arab. Because he is an Arab, he got his Arab name Mohamed. Unless the teddy bear was named specifically Prophet Mohamed, arresting people just for calling a bear Mohamed is stupid. The name Mohamed is older than prophet Mohamed himself. He has no claim to the name Mohamed in the same way we lay claims to our properties. What evidence is there to single out this Mohamed as referring to the prophet? Is this really our Sudan?”

Another:

“If this is true we are in far worse shape than I suspected. The judiciary is now getting involved in the naming of teddy bears? Has the place gone off its collective rocker?”

Another wrote, “I feel sorry for this teacher but I hope this a wake up call to all those appeasers of our glorious regime. I bet the British people do not know the role of British companies in filling the void left by American companies in the Sudanese oil sector!!”

Finally:

Ultimately, many in Sudan think that poor Ms Gibson has been used in a blackmailing strategy by the Sudanese authorities who in reality are not concerned about Prophet Mohammed or anything else except sustaining their power in Sudan and consolidating their earthly gains. Many think this whole affair is a ploy to arouse ordinary Muslim sentiment in Sudan and around the world so that the regime can find a breathing space from its domestic problems, specially the implementation of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement.

However, the whole affair seem to have backfired. The British Muslim Council called it “a disgraceful decision and defies common sense”. The Federation of Muslim Organizations, Leicestershire (UK) in their statement says, “…[the] only thing we can do to prevent some Muslims making a complete mockery out of Islam is to disassociate ourselves from such acts done in the name of Islam”.

The very little support regionally or internationally that the Sudanese government received in this affair showed how isolated and despised they are – even by their own fellow Muslims. Most importantly, the majority of ordinary Sudanese Muslims (excluding the low-paid professional protesters who appeared on TV on Friday) seem to receive the teddy affair with the sheer contempt it deserves.

The teddy bear affair has revealed to the international audience even more sinister layers of our rulers’ decadence, conspiratorial state of mind, hypocrisy, manipulation, and contrived cynical propaganda.

No wonder the world now treats us Sudanese like children, or as helpless people hijacked by a bunch of crazed Islamo-fascist. No one knows when and where we will finally crash-land as a nation.

* Ahmed Elzobier, is a Sudan Tribune. journalist He can be reached at [email protected].