So Much for Cultural Relativism
Thousands of Sudanese, many armed with clubs and knives, rallied Friday
in a central square and demanded the execution of a British teacher
convicted of insulting Islam for allowing her students to name a teddy
bear "Muhammad."In response to the demonstration, teacher Gillian Gibbons was moved
from the women's prison near Khartoum to a secret location for her
safety, her lawyer said....They called for Gibbons' execution, saying, "No tolerance: Execution," and "Kill her, kill her by firing squad."
"This an arrogant woman who came to our country, cashing her salary in
dollars, teaching our children hatred of our Prophet Muhammad," he said.
Um, this is a woman who merely went along with a group of small children who named a stuffed animal "Muhammad", a name I would guess a large number of the kids shared. Fortunately, the government is much more reasonable than these extremists. They only fired her from her job, slammed her in jail, after which time they will deport her. But it could have been worse:
The protesters streamed out of mosques after Friday sermons, as pickup
trucks with loudspeakers blared messages against Gibbons, who was
sentenced Thursday to 15 days in prison and deportation. She avoided
the more serious punishment of 40 lashes.
Some cultures just suck. Period.
Jim Collins:
Aw! Come on! It's Islam, you know the "religion of peace". I want to see CAIR come out with a statement against this.
November 30, 2007, 3:54 pmRegis:
[I]Some cultures just suck. Period.[/I]
Indeed.
But on a scale of 1-10 of "Negative aspects of Islamic culture" this rates at most a 5. It doesn't even come close to capital punishment for homosexuality and adultery, "Honor" Killings, female genital mutilation, or punishment for the victim of a rape. Those things are absolutely revolting.
November 30, 2007, 8:00 pmRegis:
Gah! I thought my tags would work. :( Oh well, just ignore them.
November 30, 2007, 8:02 pmXmas:
Life imitates Monty Python perhaps?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZNeq2Utm0nU
December 1, 2007, 4:47 amTC:
When in Rome?
The only real problem with the Religion of Peace is that they have no definition of PEACE!
Just a stumbling block I'm sure, similar to the one Clinton had about the meaning of IS!
December 1, 2007, 4:55 amAl Fin:
We have a word for people who are prone to indulging in mob violence. Stupid.
Islam was devised for populations with a mean IQ of 80 to 85. Islam was adopted by such a population and spread violently by such a population across broad swaths of Asia and Africa--even a small part of Europe.
Islam thrives in low-IQ populations, so that laughing at mullahs and fanatical mosque-goers by "sophisticated" westerners is unlikely to have an impact on future mosque-inflamed behaviours.
December 1, 2007, 6:15 amMark:
I liked James Taranto's remarks about this issue. He wrote
"Meanwhile, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and the Council on American-Islamic Relations have had the following to say about Gibbons's plight: .
It's a statement that is all the more powerful for its brevity."
We live in a very mixed up world were some acts are considered atrocities when committed by one group but are not considered to be atrocities when committed by another.
December 1, 2007, 11:32 amAndy:
Indeed!
December 1, 2007, 8:50 pmSuperMike:
I'm curious about some things that I really haven't seen addressed:
1. Did the kids knowingly set this woman up? If she really violated some deeply entrenched cultural norm, presumably the kids would have known about it. Possibly they knew it was naughty, but didn't think it'd get out (or realize it had the potential to cause a lynching) Maybe they did know and didn't care. Let this be a lesson to middle-aged white ladies that think they're going to "help" in the Sudan.
2. Is the outsize outrage primarily religious(doubtful), or is it more driven by racism or nationalism?
It sounds like she's out of there, finally. She should have named the bear "Kitchener", I guess.
December 3, 2007, 12:55 pm