This is not the first case we have seen of Sharia law’s institutionalized inequality and draconian punishments being employed to settle a score. Indeed, unjust laws, by their very nature, often lend themselves to the designs of opportunists. This is all the more the case when one party is afforded special status under the law, as Sharia renders Islam untouchable by criticism or insults, and places Muslims over non-Muslims, and “good” Muslims over “bad” ones. And once again, in Gillian Gibbons’ case, that inequity helped turn a fairly common personal spat into a matter of life and death. From CNN:
KHARTOUM, Sudan (CNN) — In an effort to shut down Khartoum’s Unity High School, a disgruntled former employee alerted Sudanese officials that a British teacher had allowed her class to name a teddy bear “Mohammed,” a British source and Sudanese presidential palace source told Time magazine’s Sam Dealey.
Gillian Gibbons, 54, was convicted last week of insulting religion and sentenced to 15 days in jail and deportation. Sudan’s President Omar al-Bashir pardoned her from her prison sentence on Monday and she later left on a flight for England.
The two sources said Sarah Khawad was fired as the school’s secretary in November after an employment spat and threatened to shut down the school.
The sources said Khawad did not appear to have a vendetta against Gibbons, but
hoped that by bringing the teddy bear incident to the education minister’s attention, he would close down the school for anti-Islamic teachings.
[…]
The sources said they have confirmed the account with Gibbons.
Defense attorneys confirmed that it was Khawad who launched the initial complaint against Gibbons, not a parent as originally thought. Khawad also testified at Gibbons’ trial.
Before approaching Sudan’s education minister, the two sources said Khawad
tried to enlist two parents, who were also teachers at the school, to join in her protest against the teddy bear’s name, but they declined.
Gibbons had been working at the school — popular with wealthy Sudanese and
expatriates — since August, after leaving her position as deputy head teacher at a primary school in Liverpool this summer, said the head of Unity High School, Robert Boulos.