Comments on: On Naming Teddy Bears (Sudan & the British Teacher)

By: Faiez

Faiez — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 19:22:24 +0000

Maybe we should kill the Teddy Bear for being named as such without putting up any resistance?

By: Amad

Amad — Wed, 05 Dec 2007 13:19:53 +0000

Br. Abdulrazaq, welcome to MM. You are right that we need to become more tolerant. I think the intolerance is related to many things, some of them already mentioned like education, false religious motivations, etc.

By: Abdulrazaq

Abdulrazaq — Wed, 05 Dec 2007 09:38:59 +0000

With respect to this issue. I just wish we muslims could be more tolerant. Agreed she shouldn’t have named the teddy bear Muhammad in Sudan. Still we have to look at her background. She is from a society where u name a pet or a toy after someone very special or after a special event (correct me if am wrong). She ought to have reasoned that she isn’t in a secular society and hence the need to be cautious. As for her intentions it is not for any of us judge. Only Allah can tell if she intended it as an insult against the Prophet or otherwise.
As to the punishment, I am not aware of an Islamic injunction that permits pardon of an offence after punishment has been pronounced. Under the Shari’a once u have been found guilty of an offence you must serve that punishment. I can’t recall any tradition where a person was found guilty of an offence and then he was pardoned. the question here is did the woman serve out her punishment as pronounced? For I heard she was pardoned. doesn’t this have a political undertone?

By: Nasir

Nasir — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 12:30:43 +0000

The worldwide coverage of incidents such as this one is no more than another attempt to destroy the public image of Islam.

I agree the woman should never have been charged, and what she did wasn’t a crime.

But the punishment she received of 15 days is pale in comparison to the blunders of other judicial systems.

Just last month we heard about a case in the US where a 17 yr old man was given a 20 YEAR SENTENCE for receiving oral sex from a 15 year old girl.

Not to mention in countries like Egypt muslims can get more than 15 days for insulting Mubarak.And its pretty much the same with other muslim countries.

I’ve heard stories that people have been tortured, imprisoned for months and in some cases disappeared for insulting Al Saud!

By: Ashmin

Ashmin — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 08:17:29 +0000

Subhanallah! My husband and I have been looking at this issue with Awe, but still confused of “well, how do we really approach this?”

So, jazza kallahu khairin for the answer that was given by islamtoday.

I know what we were thinking is that, subhanallah they should have been more merciful towards her after addressing this issue of being a form of insult. Because our Prophet (salilahu allihi was’salam) did not allow the sahaba’s to kill the man who urinated in front of him INSIDE the masjid.

Allah Knows best.

By: talib

talib — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 20:11:37 +0000

just to add..i also believe western media have used this story and the issue in pakistan to cover up or divert peoples attention from the issue in iraq n afgahistan. what happened to the 30 min coverage of iraq war every few hours on cnn and fox…the divertion obviously worked and its actually sad i think.

By: talib

talib — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 20:03:48 +0000

brother amad

i think you misunderstood my point. what i ment to say is any form of negative media blown out of proportion..only after a while end up serving the islamic da3wa well..by ulema addressing this issue and explaining it according to the sunnah like sh. salman odah did in his website and many more have spoken on this issue. In the long time all negative events in the past was a plus for muslims.

By: ummali

ummali — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 18:31:07 +0000

I personally think they are taking this to far. The teacher had the students pick the name, she herself did not pick the name. The teacher did not do it to insult anyone and the name did not have anything to do with the Prophet(peace be upon him). She said she was sorry and meant no offense.

Now I am not taking up for her, but we as Muslims are taught to look at both sides and take the side of the right, Muslim or non Muslim.

None of us knows the whole story as the media never is 100% true. My opinion is only based on what I have read.

By: AnonyMouse

AnonyMouse — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 17:41:54 +0000

This whole issue is driving me crazy. We’ve got talk show hosts who usually discuss celebrities trying to act as “experts” on this issue! And the people are just lapping it all up!
*Bangs head on wall*

By: Sequoia

Sequoia — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 15:31:14 +0000

Having taught for a few years after I finished university, I have a guess that what instigated this situation was a parent who had a personal vendetta against the teacher. Maybe the teacher was rude to the student or parent, or maybe there was a general distrust for any number of reasons. When you teach, you enounter wonderful parents (most of them, thankfully) and crazy ones who think their kids are the greatest thing on this earth. I witnessed these crazy parents both when i was teaching in California and in Turkey, so these parental attitudes have no religion or culture. I can imagine that this was the excuse to get the teacher fired, but somehow the story got bigger than anyone imagined and then groups with their own agenda took control of it. The appropriate response i belive would have been to explain to her why this is hurtfu and maybe had a parent teachers meeting where the teacher could apologize and explain her misunderstanding.

I view this case as completely different than somone who purprosefully disrespects Islam for “free speech” or any other means.