British teacher accused of insulting Islam pardoned

The British teacher jailed in Sudan for allowing her students to name a teddy bear Mohammad has been pardoned, a Sudanese presidential adviser said yesterday. A source in a British parliamentary delegation said the teacher, Gillian Gibbons, was expected to be released soon.

Asked whether Gibbons had been pardoned, the adviser told Reuters by telephone from inside a meeting with Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir: “Definitely, yes.” The news came as two leading British Muslims met the Sudanese president in an attempt to secure an early release for Gibbons, who was sentenced last Thursday to 15 days in jail for insulting Islam to be followed by deportation.

The two British peers, Lord Ahmed and Baroness Sayeeda Warsi, had launched a private initiative to secure Gibbons’ early release. The peers delayed their departure after Bashir confirmed a last-minute meeting following a two-day wait.

Gibbons let her pupils at Khartoum’s private Unity High School pick their favourite name for a teddy bear as part of a project on animals in September. Twenty out of 23 of them chose Mohammad – a popular boy’s name in Sudan, as well as the name of Islam’s Prophet.

Sudan’s influential Council of Muslim Scholars urged the government not to pardon Gibbons, saying it would damage Khartoum’s reputation with Muslims around the world.

Hundreds took to the streets of the capital on Friday, many waving swords and Islamic flags, calling for her death. “Retracting this light sentence ... would wound the sensibilities of the Muslims in Sudan,” Council Spokesman al-Sheikh Mohammad Abdel Karim told Reuters. “This is not a matter to be settled politically. This is a matter which goes to the very core of Muslims and their sensibilities.”

But many ordinary Sudanese said they thought it was an innocent mistake which could be forgiven after an apology.

Gibbons was being held in a clean and private environment at an undisclosed secure location.

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