My Blasphemy Bear [Updated]
Who doesn't like teddy bears?
By now, certainly most of you have heard about the A 54 year-old British schoolteacher in Sudan who was accused of insulting Islam because she let her school kids name the class teddy bear "Mohammed". She was threatened with up to 40 lashes and a year in jail. Not only was this sheer legal lunacy, but it's the kind of thing that keeps third world nations in the third world. Honestly, how many teachers and western aid workers do you think will volunteer to work in Sudan now?
In any case, I chalked this up to some kind of bizarre aberration; a few local radical Islamists coupled with an overzealous local prosecutor. At least, until I saw this report:
Sudan protesters: Execute teacherI have a question; just how more ridiculous can this story get? If I were to write a parody of Islamic fundamentalist madness, I couldn't do any better. Well, the only way to match such lunacy is with more lunacy. And I think I found just the way to do it.
Hundreds of angry protesters, some waving ceremonial swords from trucks equipped with loud speakers, gathered Friday outside the presidential palace to denounce a teacher whose class named a teddy bear "Mohammed" -- some calling for her execution
With two girls, we have more teddy bears in our home than I know what to do with. Finally, I've found a use for one of the cute critters. He was previously unnamed, but no longer. Now his name is "Mohammed", my own dreaded teddy bear of blasphemy. If you have a blog and a bear, go ahead and name him "Mohammed" too. I figure if thousands of people do this all over the world, the radical Islamists will have to give up. Maybe their voices will give up from all their cries for death. Well, OK, I'm dreaming. But it will still be fun to drive them more crazy and hoarse nonetheless.
One thing I haven't quite understood. Just what is the risk of idolatry here? Was anyone actually going to worship this teddy bear?
And if Mohammed was perfect, then why is it OK to name people after him but not a toy bear? After all, man has many flaws, and Muslims certainly have their share. Few, if any, men named Mohammed live up to his particular ideal. So isn't that an insult to the prophet too? Teddy bears, on the other hand, can't make any mistakes at all, can they? And they are far, far cuter. So how is this an insult?
UPDATE 05/12/2007 06:18:00 PM:
Didn't take long for someone to try to profit off this idea! You can now buy your own official Teddy Bear Muhammad right here (I still think mine is cuter though).
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1 comments:
And if three people do it, three, can you imagine, three people name their teddy bears mohammed? They may think it's an organization. And can you, can you imagine fifty people a day,I said fifty people a day name their teddy bears mohammed. And friends they may think it's a movement.
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