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Joe Giltrap : Welcome end to Sudan bear farce  IT
is certainly good news that Gillian Gibbons, the teacher who caused the
outrage in Sudan by allowing her pupils to name a teddy bear Mohammed,
has been released from prison.
She got off lightly considering that some fanatics were even calling for
her to be killed.
The only thing she is guilty of is extreme naïvety and I don’t
mean this in a nasty critical sense. Most of us are guilty of being naïve
in one way or another at some stage of our lives but thankfully the repercussions
are not likely to take the form of the mad scenes in Sudan.
Gordon Brown said he was disappointed she had been charged. You can bet
that sent shivers down their spines. It would be quite funny if it was
not so tragic and you can almost hear comedians starting to have a field
day.
Muslim fanatics are always searching hard for any excuse to vent their
hatred against anything that smacks of a Western sleight against their
particular extreme interpretation of Islamic faith.
What seems to have been conveniently overlooked by these lunatics is the
fact that the children themselves chose the name Mohammed for the teddy
bear and not Gillian Gibbons.
But then a naïve vulnerable Western woman must have been seen as
a wonderful opportunity not to be missed.
It makes you wonder just how much she was resented by the colleague that
reported her in the first place.
I bet that she is feeling proud of herself. Could she not have simply
told Gillian Gibbons that perhaps it might not be a good idea to name
the bear Mohammed because it might cause offence in some quarters?
That is what a real colleague would do. I am amazed that the fanatics
did not call for the children to be flogged as well in a cleansing exercise
just to counteract any indoctrination damage inflicted on them by the
infidel teacher.
Extremism of any sort whether it be religious or political — in
this case both — has to be faced head-on. Appeasement is a pointless
exercise because it is perceived — rightly or wrongly — as
a sign of weakness and just acts as a form of encouragement to the zealots
who think they can do what they like.
It is always the extremists who grab the attention of the media because
that is life and, let’s face it, good news seldom makes the headlines.
Moderate Muslims have to make their voices heard more often and they rightly
spoke out in this instance which is to be welcomed. They have a duty to
themselves and others to promote the positive, tolerant, gentle side of
their faith.
They simply cannot allow the extremists a free hand in spitting out hatred
in their names. They must be seen to challenge them at every opportunity
and we should support them in this.
The case of Gillian Gibbons may yet act as a sort of belated wake-up call
to moderate Muslims everywhere and let us hope that they seize the opportunity
for all our sakes. |
