It’s amazing what international pressure can bring about. Now if the normal Muslim world would join us in stopping to Islamic driven genocide in Darfur, we might actually save more lives.
Relieved and Apologetic ‘Teddy’ Teacher Back Home
Gillian Gibbons’ terror disappeared as soon as she arrived at her son’s house in Liverpool, England, Tuesday.
The grade-school teacher who was jailed in Sudan for allowing her students to name a teddy bear Muhammad was met at London’s Heathrow Airport this morning by her son John and daughter Jessica…Gibbons, 54, called the eight days she spent in a Sudanese prison an ordeal.
“I’m just an ordinary middle-aged school teacher who went out to have a bit of an adventure, and got a bit more than I bargained for,” Gibbons said at a brief press conference at the airport. “I don’t think anyone could have imagined it would have snowballed like this.” […]
“It has been an ordeal but I’d like want you to know that I was well-treated in prison and everybody was very kind to me,” she said. “I was very sorry to leave Sudan. I had a fabulous time there. It’s a really lovely place, and I managed to see some of the beautiful countryside while I was there.”
All of us are thrilled that Mrs. Gibbons is home and safe. And it’s obvious she is an apolitical, naive woman. There she was in a nation which is carrying out one of the most active genocides in the last 50 years, and praises it for its ‘lovely countryside.’ I suppose I envy to some degree those who are not political and see things through a certain limited lens, but I don’t.
The truth is, of course, Sudan’s ‘government’ consists of Arab Islamist carpetbaggers in Khartoum, which is systematically murdering black Africans in Darfur. It’s Islamic law oppresses and murders the spirit of women everywhere. The Teddy Bear madness was simply a microcosmic look at the cancer that lies beneath–a cancer which, on a dime, thirsts for the murder of virtually anyone, as it reaches for excuses for its murderous rage–in this instance it found a plushie and a naive woman, good enough for them to justify more murder, more rage, more death.
Gillian Gibbons may be out, but there are hundreds of thousands of black African women and their children facing that same insane rage, but instead of being greeted by Muslim members of the UK’s parliament, they’re greeted in the morning by Arab Islamists wielding machetes.
Sudan is one of the most God forsaken places on Earth. The only other place that even comes close to it is Somalia (for wretchedness).
Unfortunately it seems that even after coming so close to being lashed to death, Ms. Gibbons has retreated back into the “ignorance is bliss” hole.
Then again, she can afford to do that, can’t she, being safe at home in Liverpool? That is, until the Islamists take over there as well. And they’re off to a helluva good start.
I enjoyed your comments on the situation of Ms Gibbons. The silence is deafening from those of the chattering classes who “KNOW BEST”.
It is long past time for people to wake up about the intolerance of Islamist fanatics..
Regards
So everything was wonderful until that business about an angry mob wanting to behead her. Yeah, I think I’ll go. I suppose it’s lost on this congenial lady that she’s free because others were outraged over the absurd injustice inflicted on her. If we stick our heads in the sand we’re just making it a cleaner shot for the machete-wielding zealots.
“I a managed to see some beautiful countryside” WTH does that even mean? Maybe this is Stockholm syndrome, maybe she is on a bit of valium to help her with her ordeal..
As Tammy said, she could do some good with her awful experience, expose the horrors that African woman and children are going through..but no, she would rather relive her vacation snaps.
I am glad she is home, safe..if only others were too.
Everything said is true, esp. Ripper’s point on Sudan and Somalia being God forsaken- but Ms. Gibbons is not safe in The U.K. either. Her words are tempered by the fact that she’s a marked woman and I think she knows it. God protect her.
I am really quite disappointed with some of the reaction to Gillian Gibbons’ words.
This is a woman who was not out to be in the spotlight. She simply went to an area of the world – where few would willingly go, btw – to do something good. The fact her young students and their families came to her defense (and a risky move that would be!) should serve as a strong testament to just what this woman has meant in their lives. No doubt her students welcomed her presence.
Has it occurred to anyone that maybe she is choosing her words carefully in order not to make things unpleasant or risky for those she left behind? And as Word-Drum pointed out – she’s not completely in the clear either! She’s home in Britain, but that’s not necessarily a safe haven.
Ms. Gibbons no more than gets off a plane and the criticism flies. So she noted the beautiful countrysides – what is wrong with that? There are, in fact, beautiful countrysides in Sudan, but that does not mean Ms. Gibbons was oblivious to the suffering taking place elsewhere in that country. Being that the school where she taught is a private school serving Christian and Muslim children, and largely supported by non-denominational Christians, I can understand why she did appear, at least to one press account, of choosing her words carefully.
Though I agree Ms. Gibbons is probably very mindful of the fact her fate could have been much worse, it is really sad that a petty assessment (already determining she suffers from Stockholm Syndrome) would be applied to this situation.
We will never know the impact Ms. Gibbons had on her students and their futures. It was obviously strong enough for a little Sudanese boy named Muhammad to do something the feminist establishment was too gutless and weak to do: he came to her defense.
This one woman – through no intentional act of her own – may have very well opened some young eyes in a way we never will.
I had a lovely cat named Persia Mohammad Persia . Her friends called her p-mo. I named her years before 9/11 and the war on terrorism for no other reason other then that was what she wanted to be called. When she became ill in old age, earlier this year, I brought her into the vet in a very, very pc groovy we are the world we are the children neighborhood. She ended up being seriously ill and I ended up going back many times and filled out the required tons of paper work( which you now dictate and some drone types it in). They absolutely refused to refer to her by her name- office staff, technicians, doctors. I used to watch their faces twitch every time I said,” Her name is ‘Persia Mohammad’ not ‘Persia Persia'”. they would stop and the facial ticks would start and they’d make gulping noises. It was grotesque. Because i was upset over her illness and was half out of it , it took me awhile to catch on that I made them insane uncomfortable merely because of what my cat was named. So, of course, I eventually made a point of saying her full name every time and pointing out on any printed material that her name was spelled wrong.
Not one of them had the courage to say why got the dts every time I said her name- the same people who i know for fact get up at poetry night or rampage around at the protest and say the vilest things about the sitting President, American troops in Iraq and anyone who disagrees with them or- GASP- might vote Republican.
They can’t face the truth that people who want to kill other humans because they name a beloved toy teddy Mohammad or because they are Jews or because they are not muslim are not entitled to respect or tolerance. Attempting to restrict my speech in America by tacitly demanding respect if not silence about the most vile acts that occur in most muslim countries instead of speaking out against the insanity is contrary to every american value of justice and freedom. Bowing to them and acting like a shrinking flower every time they claim they’re offended will not stop them from hanging homosexuals, launching rockets at Israel, committing genocide, degrading and treating women like slaves, or flying planes into buildings. It will not protect you.
Islam means submission- and submitting to institutionalized hatred and barbarity and to tyrants gives them what they want. The war against terror will not be won by Americans who do not have the courage to speak out definitively when someone wants to jail, kill or whip someone who names a teddy bear Mohammad . A cat named Mohammad is entitled to more respect then a man named Mohammad who stones a woman to death for adultery or orders a woman who was raped whipped.