Message from a teddy bear

[Woodmonkey]

Message from a teddy bear

The pictures and sound bites scream: "Hollywood happy ending!" On Tuesday, British schoolteacher Gillian Gibbons, 54, arrived home in Liverpool after being pardoned by Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir from a 15-day sentence for "insulting Islam" because she had let her class of 7-year-olds call a teddy bear Mohammed. Days earlier, crowds on Sudan's streets, incited by hard-line imams, had sought her execution.

"I'm just an ordinary, middle-aged primary school teacher," Gibbons said Tuesday, overwhelmed at the media attention.

But this is not a happy ending. It concludes just one disgraceful chapter in a story that is far from over. Gibbons quite clearly had no clue — unlike publishers of Danish cartoons depicting the prophet Mohammed last year — that she might cause offense. It is absurd that she was imprisoned at all, much less menaced by protesters chanting, "Kill her by firing squad!"

If any value is to come from this sorry episode, it is to put moderate Muslims on notice: If you do not stand up, forcefully, and in a sustained way, the religion you claim is peaceful will be defined by intolerant extremists and manipulated by cynical politicians such as al-Bashir. And that, in turn, makes Western hatred of Islam, and a clash of civilizations, more likely.

To be sure, several Islamic groups did speak up on Gibbons' behalf. The Muslim Council of Britain called the sentence a "gross overreaction." Some Western Muslims argued the treatment is at odds with the Quran's order to treat visitors hospitably. The Islamic Society of Britain sent a bouquet of flowers to her son's home Tuesday. And Gibbons was pardoned after two British Muslim members of Parliament traveled to Sudan and intervened personally.

All welcome steps, but the need now is for the kind of momentum that builds into a sustained mainstream backlash.

One obstacle is that Islam has no pope, no central authority. It has never gone through a modernizing reformation. Clerics from different branches offer clashing interpretations and edicts, and they can be pressured by political leaders. Throughout the drama, in fact, al-Bashir played to two constituencies: the hard-line imams he often relies on, and Western countries that accuse him of stalling on promises to allow a United Nations force into Darfur, where government-backed rebels have killed hundreds of thousands of people.

Muslims who have tried to carve out a moderate path are often attacked. Some are persevering. Philosopher Tariq Ramadan, for instance, wants a moratorium on capital and corporal punishment.

There can be no more stark symbols of innocence than children, teddy bears and a motherly teacher. If this episode doesn't prompt moderate Muslims to struggle for a more tolerant faith that can bridge cultures, it's hard to imagine what would.

The Source