Sudanese Teddy Bear Feared Dead
Gillian Gibbons, the British school teacher jailed in Sudan for allowing her students to name a teddy bear Muhammad, could be released within days, British officials said today. British officials also confirmed a BBC news report that the teddy bear had been abducted by a group of militants and hauled off to an undisclosed location on Saturday.According to the BBC, Sudanese militants broke into the school Saturday morning and found the distraught bear hiding inside Ms. Gibbons' desk. Several of Ms. Gibbons' students, tried to shield the bear from harm, but the miltants reportedly grabbed the bear, threw him in the back seat of a waiting jeep and drove off.
However, according to several eye-witnesses, including one bear who spoke to reporters on condition of anonymity, the hapless teddy bear was beheaded shortly after his abduction.
"Yes, they killed him," said the eye-witness bear, who identified himself as a long-time friend of Muhammad's.
"This innocent, lovable and cuddly bear did not deserve to die this way!" the bereaved bear lamented. "He did not ask to be called Muhammad, nor did he wish to be called Muhammad. His name was Teddy! That's the name he was given at birth, and that's what all the bears back home in the toy store used to call him!"
Meanwhile, CNN is reporting that 25 Sudanese militants and 16 teddy bears were killed today during violent clashes that broke out between the two groups earlier in the day.
Sudan's president, Omar al-Bashir called on the country's teddy bear population "to end the violence immediately" and to "respect the law of the land".
"The fact of the matter is, Ms. Gibbons' students committed an act of blasphemy when they named that teddy bear 'Muhammad'!" Al-Bashir asserted. "Thus, I believe that both, Ms. Gibbons and the teddy bear deserve the death penalty to atone for the students' heinous crime!" Del.icio.us I DiggIt!
posted by Postman at
Sunday, December 02, 2007
<< Home