Disproportionate? Hell Yes!
Daniel Finkelstein is wrong when he says that the sentence meted out to Gillian Gibbons for allowing her class to name a teddy bear Muhammad isn’t disproportionate.
Why wasn’t it disproportionate? This word implies that some sort of censure was required but that imprisonment was too much. The punishment wasn’t out of proportion. It was unwarranted, outrageous, insupportable.
The use of the phrase “disproportionate” is offensive.
He is utterly wrong. The sentence meted out to Gillian Gibbons by Sudan is disproportionate. The reaction both legally and socially is highly disproportionate to the supposed crime of naming a teddy bear after a prophet.
After all, let’s think about this. The teddy bear is named after an American President, and who among us didn’t have a teddy bear that had it’s own name? Why was that? Because the teddy bear is a children’s toy much loved by every child who has one - which is pretty much every child. Even those who didn’t have a bear per se would have had something similar. Quite frankly, naming a teddy bear Muhammad should be regarded as a good, pro-Islam, thing - especially when it is selected by the children themselves.
Yes, Gillian Gibbons was naive to let her children choose such a name, but she can hardly be blamed for the excessive and disproportionate reaction taken towards it and her by Sudan.
News that two British Muslim peers - Labour’s Lord Ahmed and Tory Baroness Warsi - have visited Sudan to meet Gillian Gibbons and to press their case to have Mrs Gibbons pardoned and released is cheering. Hopefully their reason will triumph over the religious fundamentalism which has led to her imprisonment.
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Well said! Green Ink has a great cartoon of a MoTeddy, THAT would get the European Muzzies rioting too.
This would make a wonderful Ramadan gift. A New Dark Age is Dawning has a link to them for sale at the Cafe Press store.
Calling these ignorant freaks in Sudan human garbage is just too kind. Oh so peaceful, effin SICK animals…
.
absurd thought -
God of the Universe says
give a pig a prophet’s name
glorify the godly swine
and thank him for his bacon
.
absurd thought -
God of the Universe says
outlaw all teddy bears
before some little kids
try to honor a prophet
.
absurd thought -
God of the Universe says
pay your teachers with DEATH
for visiting to help out
your ungrateful country
http://citizenwarrior2.blogspot.com/
http://www.thereligionofpeace.com/
.
This incident is little to do with teddy bears or Mohammed and everything to do with throwing up a smokescreen to help Sudan continue to resist UN and Western efforts to halt the rape, slaughter and ethnic cleansing in Darfur.
Now, Jean-Marie Guehenno, the United Nations peacekeeping chief, has said that the obstacles raised by Sudan are putting in doubt the planned deployment of a peacekeeping force for Darfur.
Is the UN any use whatsoever?
(more at blogolob)
Why not help Gillian by getting one for yourself:
http://www.cafepress.com/mynameismo