Categories: uncategorized
Date: 27 November 2007 12:28:17
For the last few years I have been more and more concerned about religious toleration. In the UK we are constantly hearing how we need to be more inclusive and tolerant of people of opther faiths. It is ok for us to ridicule Christianity but lord help us if we joke about any other, especially Islam.
Now I have read bits of the Koran, I even have a copy on my bookshelf, and I know that it is actually a peaceful religion that preaches tolerance. What we see today in our papers and on the news is the radical Islam that is preached by zealots; much the same as Christianity is currently seen as the voice piece for the right wing in western politics.
Unfortunately we keep finding that it is the extremeist wings of both religions that seem to set the agenda for the rest of us. It is echoed by President Bush's "You're either for us, or against us" speech after 9/11. We see pictures of crowds of Muslims across the Middle East burning flags and shouting anti-western and Christian slogans. We have heard of Christians being imprisoned for their faith in predominantly Muslim, and other, countries.
Now we have a school teacher from Liverpool imprisoned in Khartoum for calling a teddy bear Muhammad. She did not actually decide on the name herself; she suggested Faris but the children voted 20 to 23 to call it Muhammad. It appears not to be named after the Prophet but the most popular child in the class.
This is a teddy bear used to teach the children about animals and their habitats and a different child takes it home each week and then writes a report about what it did and a photo. This is the same thing that happens in British primary schools every week.
Originally the Sudanese police claimed that a parent had complained. Now it appears that it was another member of staff. Does calling a bear Muhammad really contravene Islamic law regarding the defermation of the Prophet's name or image? Surely calling your child by that name could be equally insulting.
My prayers are with Gillian Gibbons and I hope that sanity will prevail in this situation. How would they feel if we enforced the same laws to protect Christianity and started jailing Muslims in the same way?