Sudan: The Aftermath of the Teddy Bear Circus

Not surprisingly, about a month ago the Sudanese blogosphere's main topic and attraction was the teddy bear circus which received a huge amount of media attention.

Drima, The Sudanese Thinker found it unbelievable:

The whole thing is just so unbelievably pathetic. Clearly it’s an honest and innocent mistake. Oh no, how stupid can I be, she’s a white British infidel so it must be a freaking Zionist CrUSAde and Jewish conspiracy. Right? Raaaight!

… This isn’t the first time the school finds itself in the midst of a controversy, albeit one surely not as big as this. Back in the 90’s when beloved al-Turabi was still in power and his version of Sharia was being shoved down our throats, the school came under pressure to change the girl’s uniform. Many Islamists hated the fact that girls wore skirts and mixed with boys. Now we have this.

Amjad was equally critical and shocked at what he called “stupid”:

Three words: This is ridiculous.

How on earth would a British teacher know that naming the teddy bear Mohammed would insult our prophet, especially that 20 out of the 23 children CHOSE to name the teddy bear Mohammed and she wasn't the one naming it?

Why are they assuming that the teddy bear was named after our prophet (PBUH)?

This is really stupid! And they closed down the school till January just because of this! oh my god.. I really can't believe this.

Kizzie, Wholeheartedly-Sudaniya clearly wasn't happy:

WHAT?!

A British schoolteacher has been arrested in Sudan accused of insulting Islam's Prophet, after she allowed her pupils to name a teddy bear Muhammad.

The police force doesn't have anything to go except arresting 54 year-old kind Gibbons!

Black Kush wasn't pleased either and wished the British teacher well:

Go well, Mrs Gibbons. I hope you dont bear grudges against the Sudanese people. The ragtag group into whose hands you fell are a minority and does not represent us at all. I wish you well.

Rara Avis offered her thoughts too and on a none related note, Sudanese blogger Path2Hope is now studying in the United Kingdom:

I must admit that no matter how much I abhor words like “deadline” and “assignments” there is something really refreshing about going back to student life. The solidarity that you feel with your classmates/colleagues transcends age and race and that’s truly something.

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