Hey, here's a real treat of a story: A British teacher in the Sudan is being held by authorities after allowing her class of seven-year-olds to name a teddy bear they used for a class project. The name they chose by vote? Mohammad. So while the kids were learning about animals and taking turns bringing the bear home on weekends and keeping a journal about the adventures of Mohammed, they were supposedly commiting blasphemy. Or at least the teacher Gillian Gibbons was. Of course Gibbons had no idea the bear name project would enrage anyone, and her fellow teachers at Unity say she just made an innocent mistake. There are reports that young men have started gathering outside the station where Gibbons is being held, and her colleagues are afraid for her safety. She could also receive up to three months in prison and a fine.
I think the story ends like this: Ultimately, the authorities, the young men, and all those who condemned Gibbons realized that the outrage over a teddy bear named by seven-year-olds was ludicrous. Once they came to their senses, everyone understood that insane fundamentalism in any religion (and it certainly isn't limited to Islam, just ask the Reverend Phelps) runs so counter to the most basic teachings of these religions that it becomes itself a kind of blasphemy, and a perversion of faith. That no god, prophet, or religion worth following would demand serious retribution for a teddy bear's name. Well, when that dawned on everyone, a new kind of understanding was born, and people began to live in a great deal more harmony than before. And kids learned stuff in school projects besides, "My teacher blasphemed when she let us name that bear."
That is how it ends, right?
