At the moment, Britain’s Prime Minister Gordon Brown said that officials are working to get Gillian Gibbons released from prison. She faces being lashed in the country of Sudan after allowing her class of seven year-old students to name a teddy bear “Mohammed.” The head of Unity High School in Sudan’s capital of Khartoum said that it was an innocent mistake.
She is still being held by police on the charges of blasphemy. Ironically, there is no ban in the Koran on images of Allah or Mohammad. But to the Muslim community, likenesses are deemed to be highly offensive. Gibbons was taken into custody after authorities were informed by the parents of the students.
While in jail, she has not been charged with any offense. But the punishment for blasphemy under Sudanese law for insulting Islam is forty lashes, jail time for up to six months, or a fine.
According to a Sudanese official: “To give the name of Mohammed to this teddy bear, it was considered as insult by some parents. And this school is mixed. It is not all Christian students.”
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