aTypical Joe: a gay New Yorker living in the rural South
Saturday, December 01, 2007
Calls in Sudan for execution of Teddy Bear teacher
Two weeks ago it was Iran, Dubai and Saudi Arabian barbarities we were pointing to.
Today we add Sudan:
Hundreds of demonstrators in Khartoum, Sudan’s capital, poured into the streets on Friday demanding the execution of a British teacher who was convicted of insulting Islam because her class of 7-year-olds named a teddy bear Muhammad.
The protesters, some carrying swords, screamed, “Shame, shame on the U.K.!” and, “Kill her, kill her by firing squad.”
They were calling for the death of Gillian Gibbons, the teacher who was sentenced Thursday to 15 days in jail. Under Sudanese law, she could have spent six months behind bars and received 40 lashes.
I’m imagining the inevitable Nixon-like reconsideration of George W. Bush’s presidency 35 years from now. Then we’ll say his construction of the fight we’re in now as similar in some ways to that against Hitler, Stalin and Mussolini was essentially correct. But such an observation would not vindicate the incompetence of the man. Rather, it makes what he’s done with his presidency all the more tragic.
UPDATES: On Friday the NYTimes had a story on the Saudi rape, Saudi Rape Case Spurs Calls for Reform and ABC’s 20/20 did a story on the French boy raped in Dubai. His mother has put up a website, boycottdubai.com.
