Sudan presses charges against teacher who allowed her class to name teddy bear “Mohammed”

Via Fox News:

KHARTOUM, Sudan — Sudan on Wednesday charged a British teacher with insulting religion and inciting hatred, a crime punishable by up to 40 lashes, six months in prison or a fine, after she named a class teddy bear “Muhammad.”

The charges come a day after a 7-year-old Sudanese boy said Gilliam Gibbons, 54, asked him as part of a school assignment what he wanted to call the stuffed animal and he said, ‘Muhammad,’ after his name.

The British government says the foreign secretary has summoned the Sudanese ambassador to discuss the religious hatred charge against the teacher.

As I pointed out yesterday, regardless of that seven year old’s statement, they were going to press charges anyway in an effort to set an example of an evil westerner. Blog for All confirms this via a story from the AP:

Khartoum officials have downplayed the case, saying it was an isolated incident. Sudanese diplomats in Britain and at the United Nations in New York had said they expected the 54-year-old teacher to be released soon, stating authorities were cautious to guarantee her safety in jail.

But Sudan’s top clerics said in a statement Wednesday that the full measure of the law should be applied against Gibbons, calling the incident part of a broader Western “plot” against Islam.

Northern Sudan’s legal system is based on Islam’s Sharia law, which harshly punishes blasphemy against the Prophet Muhammad. Any depiction of the prophet is forbidden in Islam, for fear it would provoke idolatry. Caricatures of Muhammad in some European media last year sparked riots in several Muslim countries.

The Sudanese clerics said this was blasphemy and believed it was intentional.

“What has happened was not haphazard or carried out of ignorance, but rather a calculated action and another ring in the circles of plotting against Islam,” the Sudanese Assembly of the Ulemas said the statement.

“It is part of the campaign of the so-called war against terrorism and the intense media campaign against Islam,” they said.

Uh huh. Poor Islam, always the innocent victims. Only in their own minds.

Wanna see a real Mohammed teddy bear? Jawa Report has it. Surely to continue to outrage perpetually outraged Islamofascists worldwide.