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Sudan detains British teacher

— Photo: AFP

British teacher Gillian Gibbons who has been charged with blasphemy in Sudan.

Nairobi/Khartoum: A British primary school teacher in Sudan has been charged with “insulting religion and inciting hatred” after allowing children in her class to name a teddy bear Muhammad.

Sudan’s ambassador in London was summoned to the U.K. Foreign Office on Wednesday night as the state prosecutor said that Gillian Gibbons (54), from Liverpool, would appear before a panel of judges in Khartoum. She has been held by police in Khartoum since Sunday, accused of insulting Prophet Muhammad.

Despite her colleagues insisting it was an innocent mistake, Sudan’s Deputy Justice Minister Abdel Daim Zamrawi confirmed that a charge had been laid. “The punishment for this is jail, a fine and lashes. It is up to the judge to determine the sentence.”

Ms. Gibbons arrived in Sudan in August to take up a post at the exclusive Unity High School, which follows a British-style curriculum. In September, during a class on animals and their habitats, she asked her seven-year-old pupils to give a teddy bear a name. They chose Muhammad, the name of one of the boys in the class and a popular name in Sudan.

Last week, the Education Ministry informed the school that a few Muslim parents had complained about the bear’s name, and police arrested Ms. Gibbons at her home in the school grounds. She is being held at the criminal investigations directorate in Khartoum.

Unity’s directors have since shut the school to avoid the type of angry protests in the capital that greeted the publication of the notorious cartoons in a Danish newspaper last year.

The British Foreign Office has confirmed Ms. Gibbons had been charged under “criminal law relating to insulting religion and inciting hatred”, prompting a statement from Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s spokesman, Mark Ellam. “We are surprised and disappointed by this development,” he said.

Diplomats in Khartoum, who were allowed to see Ms. Gibbons for 90 minutes on Wednesday, were shocked by the decision to press charges. They had hoped that a policy of quiet diplomacy would persuade the authorities to free the teacher. Ghazi Suleiman, a human rights lawyer and Sudanese MP, said: “This should not be politicised. People must stay calm. There was a complaint made against her by certain parents. There is now a case to answer. In my opinion as a lawyer, the lady is innocent. I am sure that if she is seen by a competent court, she will be acquitted.”

Some analysts saw ulterior motives. There are tensions between Britain and Sudan over the conflict in Darfur. In an interview earlier this month, President Omar al-Bashir expressed anger at the threat of U.K. sanctions against Sudan if peace talks failed.

Mudawi Ibrahim Adam, a prominent peace activist in Khartoum, said: “This was an opportunity for the government to distract people from the main issues in Sudan: the problems between the authorities in the north and the south of the country, the conflict in Darfur and the question of letting in United Nations peacekeepers.”

There were reports of pamphlets being circulated in Khartoum calling on people to protest against the British teacher after Friday prayers. But many people on the streets seemed to take her side. Muhammad Kamal Aldeen Muhammad, a 20-year-old student, said it was clear that she had not intended to insult the Prophet. — © Guardian Newspapers Limited, 2007

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