Thankfully sanity has prevailed and the teacher was pardoned in Sudan. If you haven’t heard, she let students name their teddy bears “Mohammed”. That’s it. She was going to be imprisoned, and possibly whipped for it. Have you seen a picture of the woman? She looks like a sweet, dottering British grandmother who’d pour you a cup of tea if you came by.
We should tolerate each other’s sane, reasonable religious beliefs. But Islam’s maniacal belief that nothing can be named Mohammed, or pictures drawn of him, is primitive, childish, and untolerable. The global community of political and religious leaders need to call leaders of Islamic faith and Islamic nations to the carpet and tell them to get their people in line and stop inane behaviors like this that do nothing but hurt civilized progress, not apologize profusely for offending some bizarre rule. Islam is a younger religion than the other major belief systems, and it still contains primitive irrational beliefs like this, much like the other systems did when they were at the same point in their development. But we can’t afford in the 21st century to tolerate medieval practices and beliefs when so much is possible in the hands of a deranged mind (i.e. nuclear weapons). Sam Harris in “End of Faith” stresses this point (overstresses it). He gets a bit carried away with his Islamaphobia, but his underlying point rings true.
In our modern society which is gripped in a fervor of political correctness when it comes to not insulting someone else’s religious beliefs, we feel we can’t criticize other’s religion even when something absolutely insanely retarded like this happens. I’m not saying we should all go screaming at each other that other’s beliefs are wrong or stupid. I support pluralism, which is the belief that what works (spiritually) for me may not be the right thing for you, and vice versa. I have a problem when you impose your beliefs on me or others, and we should all have a real problem when religion causes you to do something stupid, violent, or all of the above. There is a difference between being intolerant of another’s beliefs, and being intolerant of harmful, irrational acts against a fellow human being.
The woman is definitely British. She gave them a stiff upper lip and said that she respected Islam. I’m sorry, but if you just told me your god insists you whip me because I let a kid name a teddy bear after some dead guy, I couldn’t tell you with a straight face that I respect your religion or your God.