"I have a great respect for the Islamic religion..."
-- from the article above, quoting Gillian Gibbons, just as the sources of solicitude for her are suddenly beginning to dry up

Why? What does she know about the "Islamic religion" that entitles her to feel "great respect" for it? I suspect she knows nothing about the "Islamic religion" or, better, "Islam" -- for it is far more than merely a "religion" but rather a Belief-System that offerw a Complete Regulation of Life and, at no extra cost, a Total Explanation of the Universe.

What is it that the hapless Gillian Gibbons finds worthy of "respect" in Islam? Was it the hysteria of Muslim judges who, had the Western powers not been watching, and not thrown a fit, and not applied pressure, would certainly have given her not merely a short jail sentence, but quite possibly handed down something far worse. Was it the crowds in Khartoum that cried for her blood? Was it the little seven-year-old charges, about whom nothing can be determined about Islam, becuase while they have been told they are "Muslim" they haven't the faintest idea, as yet, what Islam is all about, and as they do, their fresh-faced demeanor will change, pari passu with changes unseen, in their by-now brainwashed brains.

Really, she should thank god for the Western press and Western outrage, and the need to assuage that outrage, the need to court the favor of that press. But she won't. And suddenly, her innocence, her ignorance, her naivete don't quite elicit the same sympathy as they might have, a day or two or three ago.

Posted by: Hugh at December 3, 2007 5:12 PM

"The teacher's conviction under Sudan's Islamic Sharia law shocked Britons and MANY MUSLIMS worldwide."

Uh-huh.

Posted by: RoobartSbunsar at December 3, 2007 5:16 PM

I hope we do not read about her becoming a victim of Islam back home in Britian.

But my gut is telling me to be concerned for her.

Posted by: alaskan1000 at December 3, 2007 5:17 PM

How come there is no Muslim outrage over "Teddy bear" gate?

I forgot, somewhere someone else is "insulting" Islam. Time for more "outrage".

I can no longer take the apologists for Islam seriously after the execution of that innocent teddy bear.

Posted by: tanstaafl at December 3, 2007 5:29 PM

Re: 'Teddy bear' teacher leaves Sudan

She's a very nice lady who doesn't have a clue of what she's dealing with. However, her nature may be providential as a means to open the eyes of many. As the saying goes: God writes straight with crooked lines. Many see the bullying, the sick supremacism in Islam because of her and her Teddy Bear.

I suspect that many of the "liberals" who expect "sensitivity" on the matter, really, deep down, have a condescending attitude to Negro Africans. It is amazing that the Negro Africans pretend (we have to credit Arab imperialism for this) that they are Arabs-their conquerors-but the truth is the Negros are held in contempt by the real Arab Are-A-Fat-Semite Caucasians.

There is an unconscious low expectation of the African people among the racists calling for "sensitivity". The truth is that the Negro African behavior in this Teddy Bear matter is intolerable and demented and beneath the dignity of African Negro people. Let Arabs do this.

Posted by: Frank at December 3, 2007 5:31 PM

Time to revisit a good video. Proclaim western socitey and our values as superior. Sing it loud and clear for all to hear :

http://www.spectator.co.uk/intelligence/we-should-not-be-reluctant-to-assert-the-superiority-of-western-values.mp3

no time for fools like http://newsblogs.chicagotribune.com/religion_theseeker/2007/11/whos-insulting.html#more, or

http://hotair.com/archives/2007/11/30/video-whoopi-sherri-wonder-why-didnt-the-teddy-bear-teacher-respect-islamic-customs/

Posted by: ethoman at December 3, 2007 5:42 PM

"I have a great respect for the Islamic religion and would not knowingly offend anyone"....Gibbons.

What she actually said and what she wanted to say must be two different things. If I were her I would have told them how evil, sick and demented their "religion" was, and that I hope they rot in hell, because that would've been more honest.

And she is being more than gracious by APOLOGIZING for any "distresses" she may have caused, when Sudan is the one who should be apologizing to HER - BIG TIME!!!

Posted by: champ at December 3, 2007 5:42 PM

"I have a great respect for the Islamic religion and would not knowingly offend anyone," Gibbons said in the statement. "I am looking forward to seeing my family and friends, but I am very sorry that I will be unable to return to Sudan."

Well lady, Islam has no respect for you.

If you sorry you cant return than you are dumber than I thought.

Posted by: Elric66 at December 3, 2007 5:47 PM

Really, she should thank god for the Western press and Western outrage, and the need to assuage that outrage, the need to court the favor of that press. But she won't. And suddenly, her innocence, her ignorance, her naivete don't quite elicit the same sympathy as they might have, a day or two or three ago.
Posted by: Hugh at December 3, 2007 5:12 PM

This is a kindergarten-grade school teacher, Hugh. She's not the knowledge you have on this matter. This is a Teddy Bear lady. Her "innocence, her ignorance, her naivete" are having an effect. She may act the Dhimmi, unbeknownst to herself, but others see. I do feel for her. She's bewildered by it all. She literally has the expression of the deer looking into the headlights of a semi-truck. She does not have a clue what this is about.

Posted by: Frank at December 3, 2007 5:50 PM

well funny how a UK Lord goes to Sudan to rescue the teddy teacher but no one goes to rescue the 1.5 million blacks killed and 4 million displaced by the mohammed lovers.....

Guess that says we expect Islam to kill blacks?

Posted by: exposesithlords at December 3, 2007 5:54 PM

exposesithlords-

It's amazing how the Arabs have conned the African Negro people, and the people of India, who had their indigenous Hindu culture nearly destroyed by the Arab-Persian invaders. Yet, so many of the conquered, Pakistan-up their culture-religion and bow to the Arab gas station. There is no doubt in my mind that the Hindu Indians would have been better off if the Muslim invaders had never darkened their door, and so too with Negros of Africa. The Negros of Africa would find more welcome in contemporary America than at the gas station-and yet they bow to the gas station. It's amazing.

Hugh is right: Islam is the engine of Arab imperialism-and it is a very effective engine. I think the Arabs should pay reparations to the Indian people (Paks, Bangladesh, India) for their destruction of Hindu culture and the creation of an Indian Ireland there. Also, they should pay reparations to Negros of Africa for their extensive role in the African Negro Slave trade.

Western culture has become very critical and self-critical of these rationalization systems for imperialism. It's time for the Arabs to look at their criminal role in history.

Posted by: Frank at December 3, 2007 6:20 PM

The tragedy is that Sudan was formerly home to the Christian kingdoms of Makuria, Nobatia and Alwa (who provided allied forces for the Crusades). That is, until the fateful day that a crown prince who had converted to Islam effected what centuries of Arab attempts at subterfuge and conquest could not achieve: effectively the handing over of the region's ancient Christian heritage to Islam which, up until that point, had made no territorial headway in Nubia. It is my opinion, as a person of African ancestry, that the Islamic presence in Africa has been an unmitigated spiritual disaster for that continent and that its particular form of imperialism inhabits the minds of subjects to an extent that makes them willingly give up every last vestige of their own identities. Even European imperialism - as bad as it was - was unable to do this. My younger sister taught at that same school in Sudan about 15 years ago and she told me that the local people were quite unaware that their own ancestors had built the pyramids of Meroe, (never mind the cathedral at Faras).

See the documentary excerpt narrated by the historian Basil Davidson at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e6171YYEhuI

and:
http://atheism.about.com/library/FAQs/islam/countries/bl_SudanChristianNubia.htm).

An added irony is the racist disdain with which Sudanese so-called "Arabs" are viewed by those elsewhere in the Arab world. I have in my possession a cartoon from an Arab newspaper that characterises Sudan as an old-fashioned, caricatured 'nigger': in a form no longer acceptable in the West.

On a related point, though I suspect his intentions were probably honourable there really is no need for Frank to beat us over the head with the term 'Negro' at every turn which he must know is outmoded and undermines the very 'dignity' of those to whom he refers. I say this in friendship.

ps. Did anyone else notice that the BBC kept referring to the demonstrators in Khartoum calling for "a harsher sentence". Funny. I thought they were calling for her to be killed!

Posted by: Vitamins at December 3, 2007 6:51 PM

On a related point, though I suspect his intentions were probably honourable there really is no need for Frank to beat us over the head with the term 'Negro' at every turn which he must know is outmoded and undermines the very 'dignity' of those to whom he refers. I say this in friendship.-Vitimins

Please help me on this. The Africans are not Caucasians, not Semites, as are Saudis, etc. They are obviously a different race. Skin color is not necessarily associated with race. So calling Africans black does not define race. Help me. What do we call these folks in terms of their race? I don't mean that as a wise-guy. I'm confused.

-----------

I'm mostly Irish (some English-my grandmother was named Evelyn Chadwick-came from London around 1910)-so I'm well aware of some of the resentments the Irish have re the crown. However, the truth is the truth: overall the British usually (but not always) respected indigenous cultures. (I don't know much re the Germans, Belgians, etc. in Africa. I suspect they were a bad act.) But Arab invented Islam has no respect for indigenous cultures. I'll take the Brits anyday over them. The English are primarily (as are most sea based nations) a commercial people.

Posted by: Frank at December 3, 2007 7:32 PM

Frank -- I cannot speak for Vitamins, but I see nothing wrong with your use of the word, Negro. It may be an old-fashioned word for Black, but it certainly doesn't undermine their race -- not at all -- especially when you consider the context from which you were using this "antiquated" word.

Posted by: champ at December 3, 2007 7:52 PM

champ-

I see Hugh sometime refer to Africans as "black', but black skin color does not define race-and using skin color actually seems to confuse the issue. I've known people with obviously Caucasian features whose skin was black. I knew a Sicilian guy whose skin was very dark-really black. But he was not an African. The sub-Saharan Africans are obviously a different race. Skin color does not define race.

Posted by: Frank at December 3, 2007 8:04 PM

Good point Frank!

Posted by: champ at December 3, 2007 8:10 PM

Sudan has to be the armpit of the world.

Posted by: dgene at December 3, 2007 8:22 PM

Wiki has some seriously beautified entries for the Muslim-black slave trade, it would be worthwhile for somebody knowledgeable enough to have a go and put it in perspective. (Hugh, anybody?) Have a look, it makes the Arabs look like good Samaritans:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islam_and_slavery

Posted by: sheik yer'mami at December 3, 2007 8:24 PM

"I give thanks that common sense has finally prevailed for Gillian Gibbons, who has been the victim of misunderstanding and muddled thinking."

some british archbishop said.

but who's thinking was muddled? gibbons or the sudanese justice system?

Posted by: leonthepigfarmer at December 3, 2007 8:37 PM

Teddy bear + evil woman =muslim riots...
This woman may have been pardoned by the despotic ruler, but Islam has not pardoned her, or forgiven her. You just don't insult, Allah, Islam or the Prophet, say your sorry, get pardoned, and walk away.
The 'insult' has already happened, only her death can erase it. She will be in danger in Britain unless they really hide her away somewhere.
These riots of teddy bear, woman teacher evils, were contrived and planned. The masses streamed out of mosques after Friday prayers, where the Imams whipped them to a frenzy. Imams were also riding around in trucks with PA systems, calling for her death, and enraging them further. After she was 'pardoned the bloody dictator in charged said there would be no more riots or demonstrations. Why was that? Because 'He' said so? Why did he not 'say so' earlier?? Many muslims do want to kill her, but I believe the riots were mostly theater. Orchestrated by the Sudan gov, for who knows what reason.
Think about it. These are the people who think they should be in charge of the world. Shall we let them?

Posted by: duh_swami at December 3, 2007 8:39 PM

sheik yer'mami-

The problem here is a human problem. The Left (and others who play the shame-game)have been good at conning everyone that Imperialism is a uniquely Western European phenomena, or that genocide of "indigenous peoples", "indigenous cultures" is unique to West Europeans. Actually, it's the pattern of all history (including the Hun, Visigoth, etc. invasions of Europe)and slavery or dhimmi-caste-bash systems are pretty much the pattern of exploitation with Empires.

Imperialism (and slavery) have been practiced everywhere. We are not a very moral species. The behavior of people in groups (including nations) reflects a really amoral human nature.

We act real self-righteous when we are the f@@kors and whine we are victims when we are the f@@kees. We are at our worst when we finger point. Africans, Arabs, plural-ethnic Americans, Japanese, Chinese, "Native Americans" have all done a good job f@@king others in the name of Allah, the Sun God, etc. It's all about self-interest disguised as disinterested principle-religious or otherwise.

One quality of current Western civilization that stands out as really good is the criticism and self-criticism of these rationalizations for Imperialism. Jesus was right that we have to take the log out of our own eye before we can remove the speck from our brother's eye. We need a lot more self-criticism and less finger pointing.

Human nature in the macrocosm (nations, tribes, races, etc.) reflects our real nature. Only individuals are saints.

Posted by: Frank at December 3, 2007 8:59 PM

Apparently, Western Feminist organizations are not receiving much respect for their stand, or lack of, on the outrageous insanity that this woman has had the misfortune of experiencing. I will say that "National Organization for Woman", in no way, represents the primary expression and advocacy for women's freedom, globally and locally.
"NOW" has always been a middle-of-the-road type of Feminism but, unfortunately,is one of the very few mainstream Feminist organizations which has lasted since the 1970's.
In a way, though, we can't blame more "radical" branches of feminist for either disbanding or going underground, due to the severe critisism that root-core, pro-women activist have been subjected to. We need such "militant" activists currently; these women are not neccessarily affiliated with any political party and definitely do not represent "the left", although feminist have always been automatically labeled as such.
Trust that there are some very angry women and men, who are not rank-and-file members of any feminist organization, who are outraged by what Islam does and gets away with, particularly to women. We work daily, in our own ways, to support all the victims of this perversion of "faith".

Posted by: ElizaDoolittle at December 3, 2007 9:12 PM

Out of Sudan.

But not out of the reach of the long arm of the(Islamaniac)law. THAT shall never happen.

Posted by: ISLAMSFORLOSERS at December 3, 2007 9:13 PM

Good news, but like others here in the JW community, I also still fear for her safety.

OT:

Eric Vickers, the voice of "moderate" Muslims and Brigitte Gabriel on the O'Reilly Factor several days ago. Vickers' response is typical "shoot the messenger" stuff, with no blame afforded to the Islamic Sudanese government.

That, and a fair amount of taqiyya.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OoJO9YruLU4

Posted by: awake at December 3, 2007 10:45 PM

Hugh

I might cut her some temporary short term slack until she is actually out of the Sudan. After she returns to Britain, if she persists in respecting Islam, then your riducule of her would be valid.

OTOH, knowing Londonistan for what it is, she may simply continue in that mode. In related news, what happened to that 7 year old Mohammed who originally picked the name?

Posted by: Infidel Pride at December 3, 2007 10:56 PM

"I have a great respect for the Islamic religion and would not knowingly offend anyone"....Gibbons.

"The philosophers of Athens and Rome enjoyed the blessings, and asserted the rights, of civil and religious freedom. Their moral and political writings might have gradually unlocked the fetters of Eastern despotism, diffused a liberal spirit of inquiry and toleration, and encouraged the Arabian sages to suspect that their caliph was a tyrant, and their prophet an impostor"....Gibbon

Posted by: wallyUK at December 3, 2007 11:00 PM

"I have a great respect for the Islamic religion and would not knowingly offend anyone"....Gibbons.

Yep she better say stuff like that, and she better mean it, then she better hide...

Posted by: duh_swami at December 3, 2007 11:07 PM

awake,

Here's a bit more info on Eric Vickers, Bill O'Reilly's 'good guy' Muslim guest:

He, like so many other Muslim apologists, misrepresented the American Muslim population. It's not seven million, as we know, but 2.35 million according to a recent PEW study.
http://pewresearch.org/assets/pdf/muslim-americans.pdf
(page 10, last line)

And his assertion that 'not a single American Muslim condones condones what has happened in Sudan or that it in any way represents Islam'is absurd.
http://pewresearch.org/assets/pdf/muslim-americans.pdf
(page 32 is an eye-opener)
Thirteen percent of American Muslim adults believe that suicide bombing is sometimes justified to defend Islam from its enemies (whomever THEY are).

Here's a little background on this 'good guy', Vickers.

He once spoke at a fundraiser for Sami al Arian.

He also claimed that the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster was "an act of divine retribution against Israel."
http://www.house.gov/nadler/archive108/AMC_020503.htm

I'm sure there's more.

Posted by: PRCS at December 4, 2007 12:06 AM

If most of her fellow Brits are as clueless as she is, Britain's in even more trouble than I thought. Stunning how some people never learn. Islam's the problem again and this has escaped this, sorry to say, seemingly invincibly ignorant woman. And this incident comes in the same year that British military personnel "captured" in the Persian Gulf arena allowed the thugs who run Iran to rub Britain's fine military tradition in the dirt. What the hell is happening to the Brits? Seems they've come a long, long way from the days of Winston Churchill et al. It's more than a damn shame. It's a danger to us all who prize freedom above all and see Islam for the totalitarian menance that it is. Britain, wake up.

Posted by: Wellington at December 4, 2007 12:56 AM

After Islamic Sudan threatened to flog and imprison this school marm for naming a teddybear, and said school marm responded by saying that she respects Islam and is sorry to be leaving Sudan, I don't think too many people are seeing this and thinking "Well, she sounds pretty reasonable. I'll trust her evaluation of Islam."

Quite unintentionally, she has given many infidels a valuable lesson about Islam.

Posted by: special_guest at December 4, 2007 2:14 AM

Please don't associate Islam with stupidity.

It does so without your help.

Posted by: FreeSpeech at December 4, 2007 3:06 AM

Yes, FreeSpeech. Islam has been ridciculing itself right from its inception.

But the demand of the Muslims that the other bystanders _ I mean, the Kafirs should not laugh, is most unreasonable. When a joke is cracked, there is bound to be laughter..

Coming to the article, why does the teacher feel so much to return to Sudan ? Hasn't she had enough ?

Posted by: proud-hindu at December 4, 2007 3:37 AM

Just saw 'Lord Ahmed' on TV, all smiles, presented by Al Bebeeceera as if it was entirely due to his 'diplomacy' that this wretched female was released from the bloodthirsty Muhammedan hordes:

Lord Ahmed is the civilized Muslim who jets to Sudan with suitcases full of money and promises more, trusted by Gordon Brownnoses' administration to offer even more jiziyah, (just keep it coming, you infidel apes and swine) and all the kudo's go out to Lord Ahmed, this civilized, acceptable, smiling PoS...

Sorry.

I'm not buying. For me 'Lord Ahmed' is no different from Mullah Krekar....

Posted by: sheik yer'mami at December 4, 2007 6:54 AM

Vitimins-

I'm watching your link. Thank you.

I suspect history may focus on Jesus again. I once saw Chris Mathews (who admitted he's not religious) say to Peggy Noonan that he was in a plane that went into a dive and that he found himself "praying to a Jewish guy from Galilee with a beard" for God to save his life or accept him into eternity. The roots of what is kind and human are never completely torn out. The human heart returns its deep desires for deliverance from all evil.

Posted by: Frank at December 4, 2007 7:56 AM

Posted by: PRCS at December 4, 2007 12:06 AM

PRCS,

Vickers is a typical taqiyya-ridden Islamic low-life. I agree with you that his claim that "not a single Muslim condoned what happened in the Sudan", is absolutely absurd.

As if he can personally speak on behalf of all of them.

Laughable.

Posted by: awake at December 4, 2007 8:37 AM

Coming to the article, why does the teacher feel so much to return to Sudan ? Hasn't she had enough ?
proud hindu

This is akin to understanding why women in abusive relationships go back to or refuse to press charges against their abuser-after they get out of the hospital.

We have no idea what was done to her in the jail cell.

Posted by: Aunt Bea at December 4, 2007 8:41 AM

This woman was lucky to escape with her life. I hope her case serves as an example to all the politically correct, multicultural, diverse, do gooder types in the west about where there ridiculous ideas will lead if followed to their logical conclusion. Muslims are not the slightest bit interested in respecting our culture or celebrating "diversity". As far as they are concerned, the more of us westerners they can kill, the happier they will be. Celebrate that diversity!

Posted by: HereticInfidel at December 4, 2007 9:52 AM

"I have a great respect for the Islamic religion and would not knowingly offend anyone.

I'm disappointed. This was nowhere near to the abject ground scraping groveling performance put on by Steve Centani and his Norwegian photographer.

It seems that Ms. Gibbons has more balls than the new newest Moslem on FoxNews' payroll.

* 33:21 ** 33:21 ** 33:21 ** 33:21 ** 33:21 ** 33:21 ** 33:21 ** 33:21 ** 33:21 ** 33:21 *

To me, if people want to call themselves civilized, it is their duty to disrepspect Islam and knowlingly offend Moslems at every chance. I do.

Posted by: Alarmed Pig Farmer at December 4, 2007 10:43 AM

There is an unconscious low expectation of the African people among the racists calling for "sensitivity". The truth is that the Negro African behavior in this Teddy Bear matter is intolerable and demented and beneath the dignity of African Negro people. Let Arabs do this.

I thought the leadership of Sudan were Maghrebs, not black Africans. Isn't the ethnic cleansing going there all about racism?

But you can't blame the Maghrebians, cuz they have their orders from higher authorities:

I heard the Apostle say: "Whoever wants to see Satan should look at Nabtal!" He was a black man with long flowing hair, inflamed eyes, and dark ruddy cheeks.... Allah sent down concerning him: "To those who annoy the Prophet there is a painful doom." [9:61] Gabriel came to Muhammad and said, "If a black man comes to you his heart is more gross than a donkey's."
-- Ishaq 243

Yet another black mark for the Moslems.

Posted by: Alarmed Pig Farmer at December 4, 2007 11:53 AM

Saw some of Ms. Gibbons interview today. And apparently I am in the wrong business. It's scary just how scripted the response to islam is if I, along with leonthepigfarmer can script the interview long before it happens almost idea for idea. Yo, leon, maybe we should start a consulting business giving out canned responses to the dhimmi's.(posts in JW's November archive, Nov 30, Muslim Math, 6:30 and 6:54p)

But it really is sad that the responses of apologists can be so easily determined. Saw Bush's press conference where he was asked about the saudi's judgment to imprison and whip a rape victim. He punted, not unexpectedly. In fact I even briefly switched channels knowing he would, only going back to hear what he said in order to make effective comment if I chose to do so.

Posted by: Kevin at December 4, 2007 11:56 AM

I'm not buying. For me 'Lord Ahmed' is no different from Mullah Krekar...

Posted by: sheik yer'mami at December 4, 2007 6:54 AM

In the long run “Lord Ahmed” is a much deadlier insect than Mullah Krekar. The Mullah is frank about his allegiances and intentions. But Lord Ahmed is a sugar-coated delayed-release taqyiya tablet designed to bamboozle, sweet-talk and paralyze our immune system.

Or in a bit blunder terms:

Mullah smells like shit, so we know what and where he is. But Lord Ahmed’s act is to deaden our sense of smell, so in the future we won’t be able to smell Krekars.

As far as the West is concerned, the only good Moslem is a bad Moslem.

Posted by: thomas. h at December 4, 2007 1:23 PM

Couldn't she say that Islam sucks and they are just a bunch of mindless sword waving killers?

Theoretically yes.

Except that poor thing fears BBC and PC press not much less than the zombies of Sudan.
She wants to keep her teaching job, but in today's Britain anyone daring to say "Islam sucks" destroys his professional career.

Posted by: thomas. h at December 4, 2007 2:49 PM

"Please help me on this. The Africans are not Caucasians, not Semites, as are Saudis, etc. They are obviously a different race. Skin color is not necessarily associated with race. So calling Africans black does not define race. Help me. What do we call these folks in terms of their race? I don't mean that as a wise-guy. I'm confused." - Frank

====================

Thank you Frank for your honest response. I appreciate it and suspect that we are friends at heart.

The truth is that the term 'Negro' delineates no known culture, no language, people or history and reduces the complex matrix of Africa's peoples to a mere cipher. It deserves to be consigned to the dustbin of history like 'redskin', 'chinaman' or 'paddy'. It is a word etymologically identical to the N-word and functionally hardly to be distiguished from it. It survives only because it retains the thinnest possible veneer of respectability. It is not a name that Africans recognise themselves by because it is not of our choosing but was imposed upon us without due regard to Africa's massive cultural, ethnic and political diversity, precisely at the time that it was in the colonial West's interests to dehumanise the continent's peoples. It is thus weighted with a specific, residual, semantic cargo that is not lost upon those of us across the Diaspora.

It is not used *by us to refer to ourselves. Of course, as the great African American historian John Henrik Clarke said (or words to this effect) "'Black' may describe what you look like but it doesn't doesn't say anything about who you are or where you're from'. But at least the choice to use 'black' was an act of self-determination and has the virtue of wide acceptance in the post civil-rights era, and much social or cultural anthropologal theory asserts that questions of ethnicity and identity tend to be about what a given group itself determines. We see a twisted version of this in Darfur. A similar imposition was current in apartheid-era South Africa, where the term of preference amongst racist whites was 'Kaffir' - a derivation of you-know-what. I'm sure the irony is not lost on you.

For those not conversant with the intricacies of African and disaporan history and politics this might seem arcane but language matters...except to those so inured to perspectives other than their own that they can blithely say that they see nothing wrong with 'Negro'.

Frank, I know, you are not one of these and for that you have my respect.

The others? Well they are just like the guilty harlot before Solomon in 1 Kings 3:16-28 who, having no part in the poor disputed child could say without the slightest tincture of compassion 'Go ahead and cut the child in two'. Only someone similarly uninvested in the matter at hand could say 'I see nothing wrong with it'. As for anomalies like those with 'Caucasian' features, there are unmixed Africans from across the continent who look like this. The so-called 'true Negro' has long been discredited in scholarly circles although it survives in euphemisms such as 'sub-Saharan' as though only one phenotype is to be found in that vast area. The fact is that Africa is worth the effort of serious study as Basil Davidson, Clarke and other admirable scholars, who devoted their lives to it, have amply demonstrated. This is especially true today where Islamic-Christian tension has recently reared its ugly head in the UK between the Christian African-Caribbean and Muslim Somali-Eritrean communities which are both nominally 'black' but who share absolutely no aspect of their worldviews. Overtures from the former have been met uniformly with a baffling hostility and hatred by the latter. This has yet to reach the media but I assure you that it will for it is a tinderbox. In this respect, Frank has a point although perhaps not quite in the way he suspected.

This is rather off-topic but is in response to my friend Frank's honest inquiry.

My kindest regards.

Posted by: Vitamins at December 4, 2007 4:06 PM

I never felt much, if any, sympathy for her. She chose to go to Sudan and teach in a country dominated by Islam. And she a white, female Infidel. I feel sympathy and outrage for the true victims of Islam: the Buddhist school teachers killed and beheaded in southern Thailand, etc. They did not choose to go to a foreign country and perform do some good deed and maybe see a bit of an exotic locale. The real victims of Islamic terror almost always are not able to say they still have respect for Islam as they're dead.

Posted by: HOV Dummy at December 4, 2007 4:42 PM

There was from an astonishing AP article written by one Mohammed Osman, which ran in the San Francisco Chronicle (and, I am sure, many other newspapers) on Saturday titled "Sudan ire over teddy bear subdued":

Subdued? I'd hate to see what the bloodthirsty mobs would have been like if they were not so "subdued".

A few highlights:

"Thousands of Sudanese, many armed with clubs and swords and beating drums, burned pictures of a British teacher Friday and demanded her execution for insulting Islam and letting her students name a teddy bear Mohammed.

Many in the protesting crowd shouted, "Kill her! Kill her by firing squad!"

Sudan's Islamic government, which has long whipped up anti-Western, Muslim hard-line sentiment at home, was balancing between fueling outrage over the case of Gillian Gibbons and containing it.

The government does not want seriously damage ties with Britain, but lawyers said the show of anger underlines its stance that Sudanese oppose Western interference.

Despite the fervor of the protest, the rest of Khartoum was quiet. The rally was far smaller than protests held in February 2006 with government backing after European newspapers ran caricatures of the Prophet Muhammed.

In their mosque sermons Friday, several Muslim clerics harshly denounced Gibbons, saying she had intentionally insulted the Prophet, but they did not call for protests and said the punishment ordered by the court was sufficient.

Still, after prayers, several thousand people converged on Khartoum's Martyrs Square and began calling for Gibbons' execution.

By prosecuting Gibbons, the government may have wanted to raise public anger to bolster its resistance to including Western peacekeepers in the United Nations-African Union peace-keeping force that is supposed to deploy in Darfur"

So this doesn't damage Sudan's "ties with Britain"? Well, it bloody well should.

Odd that the writer seems to consider any response less insane that the Danish cartoon riots to be "subdued".

The writer also seems to consider terrorizing one innocent schoolteacher acceptable as a political ploy enabling Sudan to lessen Western "interference" in murdering large numbers of its own people.

And when Gillian Gibbons finally had a chance to speak with her family in Britain, these were her concerns:

"One of the things my mum said today was that 'I don't want any resentment towards Muslims,'" the son said.

Posted by: gravenimage at December 4, 2007 11:08 PM