Khartoum Riot Police Arrest Bear

Khartoum's crowded prisons

OK this is just too good to pass up. I'm sure this will go "viral" as it's hilarious.
FROM THESPOOF.COM:
Khartoum Riot Police Arrest Bear
Written by Shaun Ferguson
Story written: 13 December 2007 Story not rated

A teddy bear is due to appear in a Sudanese court today charged with insulting Islam. If convicted it faces imprisonment and public flogging.

The children's toy was detained after riot police surrounded a family residence in a suburb of Khartoum early Friday morning. It had been brought from England by Mustaf Mustard, a Sudanese national who recently returned from a sight seeing tour of British military installations.

Mustard gave the teddy to his nephew Abdulla but claims that when the child unwrapped his gift and pressed a button on its belly it began proclaiming, "I am Mohamed" over and over again.

Outraged, he immediately called for the police and following a dawn raid by a heavily armed swat team the teddy bear was arrested without incident.

As it was carried out of the house to a waiting police van, a group of protesters shouted slogans including, "death to kafars" and "hang Bush, hang Blair, hang bears" .

Captain Vehav Vays, chief of Khartoum's religious crime unit, said the bear was being fairly treated and had signed a full confession.

Meanwhile, the owner of a London toy shop has told TheSpoof.com that the whole incident was a fiasco of misunderstanding. "The toy does not say I am Mohamed" he insisted, "It says "I'm a bonehead!"

TEDDY BEAR, THE GREAT SATAN

Of teddy bears and cartoons

Here's a good analysis of the "Teddy Bear" incident and how it applies to the ongoing violent reaction by Muslims over anything and everything they deem "offensive".
FROM JEWISHWORLDREVIEW.COM
Of teddy bears and cartoons
By Victor Davis Hanson

Here we go again. Thousands of Sudanese Muslims took to the street last week to threaten death to a British schoolteacher in Khartoum.

Her crime? She inadvertently committed the felony of allowing her class to name a teddy bear "Muhammad."

The teacher, Gillian Gibbons, has been pardoned by Sudan's president (after initially being sentenced to 15 days in prison) and sent home to England. Yet that happy ending doesn't erase the reaction in the streets of Khartoum. The tired story behind irrational anger in much of the Muslim world remains the same.

Watch out if Westerners somewhere are judged blasphemous to Islam when they draw a cartoon, write a novel, make a movie or discuss history.

In their furious reaction, thin-skinned Muslims may issue death threats. And they expect apologies. Sometimes the offense — like the reporting of a Koran flushed down the toilet at Guantanamo Bay — turns out to be false but still causes riots and murdering thousands of miles away.

Likewise, the reaction to this madness is now stereotyped. Often apologies — not condemnation — follow from contrite Westerners. To prevent a recurrence, Western writers, filmmakers, teachers and religious figures quietly edit their work and restrict their speech — but only when Islam is involved.
READ IT ALL:

PAT CONDELL ON THE TEDDY BEAR INCIDENT