| GREG-STRANGE.COM |
"If you haven't found something strange during the
day, it hasn't been much of a day." -- John A. Wheeler
day, it hasn't been much of a day." -- John A. Wheeler
PROVIDING SUBSTANTIVE COMMENTARY ON THE
PEOPLE, POLITICS, EVENTS AND ABSURDITIES OF
OUR TIME. SERVED UP WITH ACERBIC WIT, YOU
SHOULD FIND IT QUITE SATISFYING.
PEOPLE, POLITICS, EVENTS AND ABSURDITIES OF
OUR TIME. SERVED UP WITH ACERBIC WIT, YOU
SHOULD FIND IT QUITE SATISFYING.
Teddy Bear Tantrum in Khartoum
If you happened to come in on the middle of a news report and
saw an angry club- and knife-wielding mob of thousands in a
city somewhere and they were chanting "No tolerance:
Execution" and "Kill her, kill her by firing squad," and you
knew absolutely nothing about the circumstances, what would
you think? You would probably, and rightly, be quite puzzled.
But then if you heard that the woman in question was British
and that her alleged crime was allowing her seven-year-old
Sudanese pupils to name a teddy bear Mohammed, the
revelation would be instantaneous. Of course, sure, now I get
it. It's just another case of fanatical Muslims choosing to be
grossly offended over a meaningless trifle and demanding the
death of an infidel.
The scene is Khartoum, Sudan, but it could have been almost
anywhere in the Islamic world. The specific charges were
insulting Islam, inciting hatred (Huh?!) and showing contempt
for religious beliefs. For that, Gillian Gibbons, a 54-year-old
British woman who teaches in Sudan, was facing 40 lashes, a
year in jail and a fine. After a trial, which may have been
influenced by escalating international tensions, she was
sentenced only to 15 days in prison, after which she would be
deported. Call it Islamic leniency.
Mrs. Gibbons moved to Khartoum in August to fulfill her dream
of teaching abroad after her marriage fell apart. Hey,
everybody deserves to follow their dreams, but one has to
question Gibbons' judgment in choosing as her foreign
destination a backward, barbaric, Islam-dominated
basket-case of a country where civil wars have raged for much
of the time since its independence from the U.K. in 1956 and
which contains the hapless, genocide-racked region of Darfur.
But however questionable her judgment, she didn't deserve
what she got. Nonetheless, apparently typical of Islamic
opinion was a message preached during a Friday sermon by
Abdul-Jalil Nazeer al-Karouri:
"This is an arrogant woman who came to our country, cashing
her salary in dollars, teaching our children hatred of the
Prophet Muhammad. Imprisoning this lady does not satisfy
the thirst of Muslims in Sudan."
I don't know about "thirst," but it certainly doesn't satisfy their
blood lust for doing grievous bodily harm to an uppity infidel
who, at worst, committed a cultural faux pas.
Another example of deep intellectual thought emanating from
an Islamic-influenced brain appeared on leaflets that were
being distributed outside Khartoum's Great Mosque:
"What has been done by this infidel lady is considered a matter
of contempt and an insult to Muslims' feelings and also the
pollution of children's mentality as an attempt to wipe their
identity."
"Pollution of children's mentality?" What could be more
polluting to a child's mind than radical Islam? Because of the
noxious tentacles of radical Islam, most Sudanese children will
have an almost zero chance of a decent life. What has
happened to Gillain Gibbons is bad enough, but the larger,
almost inconceivable tragedy is all the lives wasted to such
fanaticism.
If you happened to come in on the middle of a news report and
saw an angry club- and knife-wielding mob of thousands in a
city somewhere and they were chanting "No tolerance:
Execution" and "Kill her, kill her by firing squad," and you
knew absolutely nothing about the circumstances, what would
you think? You would probably, and rightly, be quite puzzled.
But then if you heard that the woman in question was British
and that her alleged crime was allowing her seven-year-old
Sudanese pupils to name a teddy bear Mohammed, the
revelation would be instantaneous. Of course, sure, now I get
it. It's just another case of fanatical Muslims choosing to be
grossly offended over a meaningless trifle and demanding the
death of an infidel.
The scene is Khartoum, Sudan, but it could have been almost
anywhere in the Islamic world. The specific charges were
insulting Islam, inciting hatred (Huh?!) and showing contempt
for religious beliefs. For that, Gillian Gibbons, a 54-year-old
British woman who teaches in Sudan, was facing 40 lashes, a
year in jail and a fine. After a trial, which may have been
influenced by escalating international tensions, she was
sentenced only to 15 days in prison, after which she would be
deported. Call it Islamic leniency.
Mrs. Gibbons moved to Khartoum in August to fulfill her dream
of teaching abroad after her marriage fell apart. Hey,
everybody deserves to follow their dreams, but one has to
question Gibbons' judgment in choosing as her foreign
destination a backward, barbaric, Islam-dominated
basket-case of a country where civil wars have raged for much
of the time since its independence from the U.K. in 1956 and
which contains the hapless, genocide-racked region of Darfur.
But however questionable her judgment, she didn't deserve
what she got. Nonetheless, apparently typical of Islamic
opinion was a message preached during a Friday sermon by
Abdul-Jalil Nazeer al-Karouri:
"This is an arrogant woman who came to our country, cashing
her salary in dollars, teaching our children hatred of the
Prophet Muhammad. Imprisoning this lady does not satisfy
the thirst of Muslims in Sudan."
I don't know about "thirst," but it certainly doesn't satisfy their
blood lust for doing grievous bodily harm to an uppity infidel
who, at worst, committed a cultural faux pas.
Another example of deep intellectual thought emanating from
an Islamic-influenced brain appeared on leaflets that were
being distributed outside Khartoum's Great Mosque:
"What has been done by this infidel lady is considered a matter
of contempt and an insult to Muslims' feelings and also the
pollution of children's mentality as an attempt to wipe their
identity."
"Pollution of children's mentality?" What could be more
polluting to a child's mind than radical Islam? Because of the
noxious tentacles of radical Islam, most Sudanese children will
have an almost zero chance of a decent life. What has
happened to Gillain Gibbons is bad enough, but the larger,
almost inconceivable tragedy is all the lives wasted to such
fanaticism.