“Certain picturesque barbarians”
The phrase above is from soldier and author Henry G. Prout’s interesting New York Times review of the 1899 edition of Winston Churchill’s The River War: An Account of the Reconquest of the Sudan. It is arguable that not too much has changed in that neck of the woods in the last hundred years. Times of London:
A British primary school teacher arrested in Sudan faces up to 40 lashes for blasphemy after letting her class of 7-year-olds name a teddy bear Muhammad. Gillian Gibbons, a 54-year-old mother of two from Liverpool, was arrested at her lodgings at Khartoum’s Unity High School yesterday, accused of insulting the Prophet of Islam. Her colleagues said that they feared for her safety after reports that groups of young men had gathered outside the Khartoum police station where she was taken and were shouting death threats.
Well, perhaps things have changed a little over the last century. After all, 40 lashes does not appear to constitute “fanatical frenzy.”
UPDATE
We were wrong. Apparently little has changed in the last hundred years. AP:
Thousands of Sudanese, many armed with clubs and knives, rallied Friday in a central square and demanded the execution of a British teacher convicted of insulting Islam for allowing her students to name a teddy bear “Muhammad.”…
The protesters streamed out of mosques after Friday sermons, as pickup trucks with loudspeakers blared messages against Gibbons, who was sentenced Thursday to 15 days in prison and deportation. She avoided the more serious punishment of 40 lashes. They massed in central Martyrs Square outside the presidential palace…”Shame, shame on the U.K.,” protesters chanted. They called for Gibbons’ execution, saying, “No tolerance: Execution,” and “Kill her, kill her by firing squad.”…
Many protesters carried clubs, knives and axes — but not automatic weapons…A Muslim cleric at Khartoum’s main Martyrs Mosque denounced Gibbons during one sermon, saying she intentionally insulted Islam…”Imprisoning this lady does not satisfy the thirst of Muslims in Sudan. But we welcome imprisonment and expulsion”…
Finally, a completely inappropriate and offensive response to this situation. HT: Ace