This is not good guys. Link
This teacher in Sudan has been jailed for allowing one of her seven year old students to name the class teddy bear muhammad, after himself (also supposedly the most common name in the world, according to npr – link). She is being charged with “insulting religion and provoking the feelings of Muslims”, the punishment of which is a rather broad “40 lashes, six months in prison or a fine”. The entire school has been shut down until January while tensions subside. (!) Remember when people would bring guns or knives to high school and get sent home, then we would all go about our business? News to the kids — if you want your christmas vacation to last a little bit longer, don’t forget to stick Teddy in your locker and leave an anonymous note.
This over-zealous knee-jerk muslim reaction is terrifying. Hopefully it doesn’t escalate to the point mentioned at the end of the article where a newspaper editor was kidnapped and beheaded for allowing articles to be printed that question Islam.
Here comes my semi-related 2 cents, prefaced with a bit o’ background:
For those of you who don’t know, it is a “sin and an unforgivable offense to draw the prophet Muhammad or depict him in any way”. For more info check the NPR link above. Some claim it is so people don’t start worshiping the picture/man, but I just don’t see how that fits since muhammad is supposed to be the living koran/quran/whatever and they certainly worship that (an entire battle was once stopped because one side raised Korans on their spears and the other refused to fight, even though they were on the edge of victory, running down their blasphemous opponents Link – search Battle of Siffin). Maybe there is a good reason not to show the prophet in any way, but this isn’t it and I don’t know what it could be.
That being said, here is what comes to my mind. Making it a SIN to draw/depict the prophet is rather extreme. At most you could attempt to create some mystery and intrigue around his figure, but that would pale in comparison to the deeds that earned him the title prophet anyway. For me, that leaves only the conclusion that ‘they’ are hiding his identity for one reason or another. I suppose it could be fear of assassination, but this kind of hiding doesn’t fit at all with what little I know of muhammad’s attitude and rise to power. Instead, the thought takes me back to The Princess Bride, specifically the Dread Pirate Roberts. If nobody knows what he looks like, a whole world of possibilities arise. With this kind of renowned anonymity (/coin term), one could pass on the mantle of prophet when you were bored of it like in the princess bride, feign immortality by simply filling the empty position every time a prophet died, or even coordinate an elaborate ruse if you had a few people with enough balls to claim such a title and order the clergy around.
Now, I’m not saying that is what happened, but those are the reasons I came up with for banning all pictures of what should otherwise be an instantly recognizable religious figurehead. Food for thought.
Recent Comments