Tuesday, December 04, 2007

Life Changing

Gillian Gibbons is back in the UK, and she's got a whopper to tell:
Gillian Gibbons, the teacher jailed in Sudan for allowing her pupils to name a teddy bear Mohamed, arrived back in Britain today and declared: "I never imagined this would happen. I am just an ordinary primary school teacher."

Ms Gibbons, 54, touched down at London’s Heathrow Airport at 0700 GMT. She had spent more than a week in jail in Sudan when she was found guilty of insulting Islam after allowing her seven-year-old pupils to give the bear the same name as the sacred prophet.

Looking happy to be home, Ms Gibbons added: "I went out there to have a bit of an adventure and got more of an adventure than I bargained for, I don't think anybody could have imagined it would snowball like that."
Oh really? You think?

How about having to worry about some Islamist lurking the shadows who might teach you and your family a lesson for the teddy bear incident?

If you think this is far fetched, ask Theo Van Gogh. He was murdered for directing a film about Islam called Submission. Simply pointing out that Islamic law is misogynistic fueled fatwas and death threats which he did not take seriously. A jihadi murdered him.

Or, you can ask Salman Rushdie who's been forced to maintain heavy security after publishing the Satanic Verses and Islamists in Iran demanded his head on a platter in a fatwa.

Or, you can ask Ayaan Hirsi Ali, who's been forced to maintain heavy security after death threats for questioning Islam's misogyny and violent tendencies.

Just because Gibbons has returned to the UK doesn't mean that she's safe. Keeping a low profile may not be sufficient. I seriously fear for her life, and she'd be wise to keep an eye out. Better yet, she should look into security arrangements because the jihadis are more than likely to make a political and religious statement by going after her.

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