Life in a Theocracy: Update, Government Goes ‘Soft’ on Teacher, Crowds Call for Death

Great Reuters video summary of the story

Remember Gillian Gibbons, The 54 year old British school teacher who allowed one of her students to name his teddy bear “Muhammad”? She was sentenced by Sudanese officials today. She’s been in jail for five days, since she was arrested shortly after the incident. Her punishment could have been a year in jail, 40 lashes or a fine. In the end, the government decided fifteen days in jail was appropriate. Excessive, but at least she’ll survive without being killed or something. Right? maybe…

Blasphemer and Heretic

When the news that the British school teacher “only” got fifteen days in prison was announced, up to a thousand marched in Sudan’s capital protesting for her death. The BBC reports:

According to some agencies, some of the protesters chanted: "Shame, shame on the UK", "No tolerance - execution" and "Kill her, kill her by firing squad".

This kindg of surprised me… The government takes a lenient (by regional standards) approach to the problem, she’s only serving 1/24 the maximum sentence. But the people get upset? On one hand this could be a small group of crazies, unrepresentative of the population. According to Wikipedia, there are 2.2 million people in the city, and another 6 million around the city. Some reports are emphatically claiming the number was in the “thousands”, but BBC claims it was about a thousand. In a city of that size, this protest seems relatively minor. Given the government’s lenient action, and the extraordinarily small scope of the protest, this could all go away once she’s released from prison and deported.

On the other hand, it only takes one person to kill her. Widespread outrage isn’t necessary for an assassination attempt. With the Sudanese Government’s theocratic tendencies and their absolute corruption, I’m sure she doesn’t feel safe in prison from those thousand, chanting for her death. Let’s hope she is able to get out of the country in one piece.