British School teacher Gillian Gibbons allowed Sudanese six- and seven-year old students to name a teddy bear Muhammed, so she has been arrested and is being charged with offending religion and inciting religious hatred. [BBC] Her offense could get her 40 lashes and a year in prison, according to CNN. Imagine the reaction if she prevented the children from naming the bear Muhammad.

This prompts the BBC to ask “What can’t be named Muhammad?” The answer, like most religious “immutable truths” remains debatable. Most important, religion retains its right to be offended by anything it dreams up.

[permalink] . This entry was posted on November 28th, 2007 and is filed under 6th century desert religions, who believes what. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response below.