Commentary - Teaching Sudan a lesson

Another day, another incident in which Muhammed – Peace be Upon Him – is "insulted."

The latest supposed attack upon the Muslim faith is the most ridiculous in the annals of religious oversensitivity.

Gillian Gibbons, a 54-year-old British teacher and mother of two, had, up until last week, been employed at an elite, British-run Sudanese academy for the children of wealthy Sudanese officials and foreign diplomats. She wanted to start a project about animals. So she asked her classroom of 7-year olds to create a name for a teddy bear. The kids chose "Muhammed." You know how the rest of this story goes.

Gibbons was arrested. Muslims swarmed the streets demanding her death. The government charged her with blasphemy (God forbid), inciting hatred and "insulting Islam." Thursday, she was convicted by a kangaroo court and now faces 15 days in jail.

"She will be brought in front of a judge and now she must prove her innocence," a Sudanese government spokesman said before the trial. So much for the dual notions of the state's bearing the burden of evidence and presumed innocence. It's also reassuring to know that the fate of stuffed animals evokes more outrage from the Sudanese than, say, the rape and murder of Darfuri women.

This fraught situation should serve as a reminder of Islamofascist irrationality. And it also serves as a lesson to those Americans who complain about "Christianists" and "Christian Fascists." When was the last time a Christian threatened to imprison, bludgeon and/or murder ACLU members for advocating the dismantling of nativity scenes or banning the 10 commandments in public places?

Moreover, if the Sudanese were intellectually consistent, ought they imprison and lash the 7-year old children in Ms. Gibbons's class as well? After all, they were the ones who had the temerity to name the teddy bear.

The Sudanese government's actions are a clear attempt at diverting the world's attention from the ongoing genocide in Darfur. Last July, the United Nations Security Council authorized a peacekeeping force for Darfur, called UNAMID, consisting almost entirely of troops from African and Muslim countries -- so as not to offend the tender sensibilities of the murderers in Khartoum. Omar Bashir, Sudan's leader, has since rejected the small number of personnel from Nepal, Norway, Sweden, India and Thailand, declaring that "even if there is a shortage of troops from the African continent, we are not going to accept those people. Because we were not consulted about it."

When was the last time anyone was offended by Sweden? And since when did we start "consulting" rogue, reactionary governments when deciding upon the composition of the forces that will save the lives of the innocent people said governments are slaughtering? To top it all off, the Sudanese might get their way: the head of U.N. peacekeeping has since announced that if Khartoum continues to protest the deployment of UNAMID, the mission itself might be cancelled.

"The Muslim world has much more pressing and urgent problems to deal with than a random teddy bear," Nasser Weddady of the American Islamic Congress, an organization promoting moderate Islam, said. "This ridiculous case has the potential to further tarnish popular perceptions of Muslims. What's truly offensive here is the action of the Sudanese regime, which only entrenches the perception of Muslims as hyper-sensitive."

In retaliation, the British government has considering the expulsion of Sudanese diplomats, increasing travel restrictions and cutting aid to Sudan. But these measures are long past due, considering the atrocities the Sudanese regime has already visited upon its own people. The response of the civilized world to this unacceptable judgment must be resolute and clear: We will not tolerate the imprisonment and torture of our citizens for naming stuffed animals after your gods. If mere travel restrictions don't send this message – and they probably won't -- the Royal Air Force probably will. Either way, it is long past time the Killers in Khartoum are taught this elementary lesson.

Examiner Columnist James Kirchick is an Assistant Editor of The New Republic

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