A British teacher faces a jail sentence in Sudan for insulting Islam by letting her class of seven-year-olds name a teddy bear Muhammad as part of a school project.

Gillian Gibbons, 54, from Liverpool, has been accused of blasphemy - an offence punishable by 40 lashes under Sharia - and could be imprisoned for up to six months.

She had asked the children to pick their favourite name for the new class mascot, which she was using to aid lessons about animals and their habitats. In a class vote, the pupils rejected her own suggestion of "Faris", with 20 out of 23 deciding to call the cuddly toy Muhammad - also the name of one of the class's most popular boys.

Why bother even leaving England to teach these backward donkeys? They are savage barbarians. The US government and military finally got the go-ahead through political channels to deliver aid to the cyclone-damaged areas of Bangladesh, and the Imams are bitching about Americans on their land. Same as what happened during the tsunami. Why on earth do we bother trying to unmire these people?

Yesterday she was in isolation in a cell in Khartoum, and colleagues and the consular authorities were desperately trying to negotiate her release.

Unity High School, the British school where she taught the children of Sudanese professionals, expatriates and oil workers, stood empty, amid fears of adverse reactions from Islamic extremists.

Shameful.

Labels: Guys Named Mohammed, Islam, Sudan, Teddy Bears of Death