Saudi columnist calls verdict against British teacher in Sudan ‘shameful’
By Wasil Ali
December 2, 2007 (LONDON) — A leading Saudi columnist slammed the Sudanese government and its judiciary for jailing a British teacher accused of insulting Islam for allowing her class to name a teddy bear Mohammad.
The teacher Gillian Gibbons was sentenced to 15 days last Thursday after her class of seven-year-olds named a teddy bear Mohammad, the same name as Islam’s Prophet as part of a school project.
Sudanese officials have said that only the president can overrule the verdict describing the judicial system as independent from government influence.
But Al-Rashid scathingly dismissed the independence of Sudanese judiciary.
“We must be naive to believe what Sudanese state minister of foreign affairs Al-Samani Al-Wasila said about an independent judiciary system and that the government does not interfere in it” he added.
Al-Rashid accused Khartoum of using the judiciary to intimidate the international community, namely Britain, over the Darfur peacekeeping force as well as against its opponents.
“The government used the issue of the British teacher and the teddy bear to stir up the feelings of demagogues” Al-Rashid said.
Hundreds of Sudanese took to the streets of the capital last Friday, many waving swords and Islamic flags, calling for Gibbons death
But some Sudanese think that Gibbons issue has been manipulated and that it was simply a misunderstanding.
One of the parents of a student in Gibbons class told Sudan tribune that she feels bad for the verdict that Gibbons received.
The mother who gave her name as Manal said that “the action was unfair. She left her country and came to Sudan to educate our kids”.
“It was our Muslim kids including my daughter who voted to name the teddy Mohammad not hers” she added.
Two leading British Muslim politicians will meet Sudan’s president on Monday and discuss a possible pardon and early release of Gibbons.
(ST)