Apparently, there were demonstrations in Khartoum, Sudan today,
calling for the execution of the British teacher who inadvertently
insulted Muslims for naming a teddy bear Muhammad. The teacher
began a project about animals and asked the class to name a teddy
bear. The class voted to name the bear Muhammad and this caused
parents to complain and the teacher to be arrested. OK...what's
wrong with this picture. You have hundreds of people demonstrating
a teddy bear named after their prophet, but they can't seemed to be
bothered with what's going on in Darfur Sudan, which is just slightly
more troubling. Insert sarcasm here.
Do the Christians get upset when George Carlin promotes the
"Buddy Christ" in the movie "Dogma"?
Do the Hindus get upset when Apu defends his gods such as Ganesh and
Vishnu at the Kwik-E-Mart on the Simpsons? ("Mr. Simpson, please do
not offer my god a peanut")
And do Buddhists get upset with Keanu Reeves playing the Enlightened
One in the movie, "Little Buddha"? Ok...maybe they do...it IS Keanu
after all.
My point is...Lighten up folks in Sudan...It's not an insult to your
culture or religion...it's a bear...and a stuffed one at that.
3 comments:
Of course, the point is that they *can't* lighten up. On my library list we've had discussions about the Koran. If you purchase one, apparently it has to go on the highest shelf because no other books can be above it. Here's the link in case you want to read about the situation.
http://www.eduref.org/plweb-cgi/fastweb?getdoc+listservs+LM_NET+417311+3+wAAA+koran
Good reading...hard to be all things to all people, but I believe the teacher wasn't a religion teacher but a general teacher of non-religious education. I don't see any other groups of Christians or Catholics getting upset if a Hispanic person is named Jesus or a woman is named any form of "Mary". My sister is a elementary school librarian in Oklahoma. I should ask her if they have any religious books on the shelves as reference materials. (It's a public school)
Lighten up indeed. You know that kind of stress kills people early on in life. Need to smell some roses... ;)
K
Post a Comment