Terror Teddy

Could anyone have foreseen that naming a teddy bear Muhammad in the Arab world would land an English teacher in jail? Gillian Gibbons, a 54-year-old primary school teacher in Sudan, was convicted in November of insulting Islam for allowing schoolchildren to name a toy bear “Muhammad”. The fact that the children chose to give the bear that name was not accepted as an excuse. Neither was her plea of ignorance.

When I heard about Gibbons, I couldn’t help thinking that the teacher hadn’t done her homework on the Sudanese culture. As someone who had chosen to go on a foreign assignment she should really have known that certain actions could provoke anger among Muslims. I might – and she might – feel that the teddy bear incident was an innocent mistake and that the punishment is incredibly harsh, but the authorities in Sudan felt it was an attack on Islam. She really could have benefited from some intercultural training before her trip.

Fortunately, Gibbons is now free. Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir pardoned her after a meeting with two British Muslim peers. In the end, she spent eight days of a fifteen-day prison sentence in jail. She was spared the public lashing, which is normally the punishment for crimes against Islam.

Such incidents highlight the need for more intercultural awareness. Our quiz tests your knowledge of this topic. Find out if you know the basics for such a foreign assignment.

Deborah Capras