Meet Mohammed, the teddy bear

Gillian Gibbons is a 54-year old British teacher who teaches grade school in the Sudan. When asking her class of 7-year olds to chose their favorite name for a teddy bear, 20 of the 23 agreed on the name Mohammed, after a boy named Mohammed in the class. This obviously spurred great controversy in the area, and Gibbons was imprisoned for 15 days. Under local law, this is an insult to Islam, which is punishable by 40 lashes, 6 months in jail, and a large fine.

As much as I try to be a tolerate and open minded person, this situation strikes me as outrageous! Seriously people, this is kind of ridiculous. OK maybe she shouldn't have done that and could have been verbally reprimanded, but being thrown in jail, whipped, and going through any such atrocity is just crazy! If Mohammed was this amazing and peaceful man, I am sure he would not want others going through this, but then again, I don't know anything about Islam or their belief system so I am really not one to judge this situation.