CAIRO: Some of Egypt’s most renowned Islamic thinkers have offered mixed reactions to the case of Gillian Gibbons, the British primary school teacher who was imprisoned in Sudan for insulting Islam.
Gibbons was found guilty by a Sudanese court of insulting Prophet Mohamed, for allowing her students to name a teddy bear Mohamed as part of a school project.
After being sentenced last Thursday to 15 days in jail, she was pardoned and given an early release yesterday morning.
Originally she faced a sentence of 40 lashes and a year in jail.
The case has caused public and political uproar in both Sudan and Britain, even resulting in the cooling of diplomatic relations between the two countries.
The Sudanese Council of Muslim Scholars urged the government not to pardon Gibbons, and hundreds of protestors marched on the capital Khartoum after Friday prayers calling for her death.
At the same time the Muslim Council of Britain is believed to have been instrumental in securing Gibbons’ release, as were the efforts of prominent British Muslims Lord Ahmed and Baroness Sayeeda Warsi.
Essam El-Erian, spokesman for the Muslim Brotherhood in Cairo, said that the case has been blown out of all proportion, and should have been resolved without either a trial or the level of publicity it was given.
“This was something that should have gone unnoticed, El-Erian told Daily News Egypt.
“It was a simple mistake. She didn’t know the culture of the people or the specificity of the name. It was not polite, but it was not a crime.
Prominent Islamic thinker and commentator Gamal Al-Banna was less forgiving.
He said that Gibbons should have been aware of the peoples’ sensibilities in the country she was working in, and argues that her punishment should not have been rescinded.
“She is guilty, so yes she should be punished by the appropriate means, he told Daily News Egypt.
“In England or France you are free to do [things like] this, but this is not the correct behavior in an Islamic country. [Religion] is a very delicate matter [there].
Sheikh Saber Taalab of the Cairo-based Islamic Research Center told Daily News Egypt that while insulting any prophet on purpose was unacceptable, an accidental insult – as in the case of Gillian Gibbons – should be overlooked.
“If she did not name it Mohamed on purpose it is not an insult, he said, “it is just a mistake.
The angered protests in Khartoum were to be expected, Sheikh Taalab continued, given the stature of Prophet Mohamed in the Muslim world.
“What would you do if someone insulted your president or your parents or someone close to you – you would do the same.
Sheikh Fawzy Al-Zefzaf, head of the Religious Dialogue Committee at Al-Azhar, was irate over the incident, saying that Gibbons was mocking a symbol of Islam, and insisting that she deserved a stronger punishment.
“It was a very uncivilized thing to do, Al-Zefzaf told Daily News Egypt. “(The Sudanese authorities) shouldn’t have let her go.
“I don’t care if she didn’t name the bear herself, she shouldn’t have allowed [the students] to name it Mohamed. I believe she did it on purpose.
“People insulting Islam has to stop. What would Christians say if I named a monkey Jesus, or Jews if I named a monkey Moses? -With additional reporting by Dalia Rabie.
