Khartoum (Sudan): A British teacher was arrested in Sudan for allegedly insulting Islam by naming a teddy bear Muhammad, taken as a reference to Islam's prophet and founder, the Sudan Media Center said on Monday.
The teacher, who wrote the name on the bear, was interrogated, the semiofficial center said. The teacher was arrested on Sunday after the Ministry of Education filed a complaint, acting on behalf of a parent of one of her students.
The British Foreign Office identified the teacher as Gillian Gibbons, 54, and said her 7-year-old students named the bear when she asked them to. It was not clear whether Gibbons intended to name the bear after the prophet, as Muhammad is a common Muslim name.
The Sudan Media Center, which is deemed close to the government, said legal procedures were under way against Gibbons, who taught at the Unity High School in Khartoum, which teaches students aged 4 to 18.
The school could not be reached for comment, and the British Embassy in Khartoum did not return calls.
A Sudanese government official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to speak to the media, said Gibbons was still being detained for completion of the investigation.
Abdul Mageed Khogalli, a member of the government's Commission for Non-Muslims, said he was aware of the case but could not comment. While in England, former colleagues said they were shocked by the news.
Jill Langworthy, 34, who taught at the same school in Liverpool as Gibbons between 1997 and 2000, said she received an e-mail from her former colleague last week in which Gibbons said she was having a wonderful time in Sudan.
Langworthy said the lesson Gibbons was trying to teach her students using the teddy bear was common in Britain. In the lesson, students name a teddy bear, take it home and write a diary entry about it, she said.
“She's a wonderful and inspirational teacher, and if she offended or insulted anybody she'd be dreadfully sorry,” Langworthy said.
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