I couldn't agree more! I'm glad MPAC are speaking out on this. I just wish every Muslim organisation and mosque in the country was putting out a press release and contacting the Sudanese embassy.

My perception that white christianity or the white christian media (including the bbc) that are controlled by white christian politicians have anything to offer the world other than supporting white christian missionairies that want to control and impose christianity upon innocent muslim children has been confirmed tonight by the archibishop of christianity dr rowan williams.

His view along with the government view seems to be muslim courts should be under the control of white christian western countries and the white western public. The white christain media's only role seems to be to try and whip up white christain hysteria and racism against muslims and Islam judiciary without a single utterance by a muslim court. They border on evil and are a danager to any right minded and law abiding muslim. They seem to have not forgot their racist ways that the white man and woman kowns best are evil as evidenced by their illegal wars that have killed thousands of innocent muslim civilians.

Don't they thank god that their missionary was at aleast allowed a trial by muslims with out just being locked up for being a christain. Muslims are locked up without trial in our country just for looking like a terrorist. We sink to what we know best and that is to try and impose our racism on others.

It makes me seethe.

As i have said before this incident is the tip of the ice berg, its ridiculous and muslims need to look in the mirror and see what they are doing is harming the wider community.

True, although as someone working abroad and in such area where things like this are sensitive, she should have been aware of the religous issue it might have caused. As for the Sudanese Courts, i think they should accept an apology from her, as Allah is Most Forgiving.

You guys are so full of it - As soon as the Western Media start throwing pebbles along comes MPACUK and starts throwing rocks. Whether it is harsh or not - its their laws and their punishment - keep you big noses out of it and for once stop being the puppets of the west.

The laws of the land must be respected, if government ministers can sit back and say the obvioulsy flawed trial and execution of Saddam was the right of the soverign Iraqi governemnt, then surleyn Sudan has the same right..why indignation at this...?? hypocrasy..

having said that the Sudanese shouldnt use a woman in captivity as a barganing chip for pressure against critism for its wilfull neglect in darfur that is leading to the slaughter of a large number of muslims...

Liberty - the laws of the land are not respected in Sudan, unless they have actually legislated for genocide against Blacks.

MPAC - the name of Islam has indeed been dragged through the mud by bigots, providing by that you mean the bigots of Khartoum.

its quite rich to see zionists such as paulm keep repeating a lie as goebells taught,that there is a genocide against blacks in sudan.
it would sound genuine if the zionists in israel were not doing the same to the palestinains for the last 60 years,that they label sudan for.
sudan as far as i know has not claimed that they have freedom of speech to insult or slander,they have laws against insult and slander.
if the police and judge had sufficient evidence before them,then they have acted to their laws,whether we like it or not.
personally i feel this has been connived at with what labour is going through at the moment.

What Palestinian Genocide. Don't you think Abbas would have brought it up at Annapolis? Wouldn't the UN condemn it? There is so much rubbish posted about a Palestinian Genocide that it loses credibility as an argument. ANyone who truly believes such an idea is idealogically dangerous.

Shan, you are correct that Sudan openly admits that they don't have freedom of speech, and it is a criminal offense to insult religion.

However, in this particular case, how has Islam, or any religion, been insulted?

A group of people, may have been offended, but that's not the same as 'insulting religion'. But assuming a crime *has* been committed, does Islam not teach and advocate compassion? After all, this was an innocent mistake.

I don't agree with your last statement about how this is being used to deflect from Labour's donations scandal, as I've not heard any ministers or MPs use this issue to divert the spotlight away from themselves. In fact, only Milliband and Gibbons's own MP have issued statements regarding their dissappointment at the verdict, and it's their job to make such statements.

I am pleased that the Muslim Public Affairs Committee, MPAC UK, has strongly condemned both Saudi Arabia and Sudan for its dreadeful actions. However, we now await similar condemnation on both cases, not simply on one case, but both Saudi Arabia and Sudan from British Muslim organisations.

These cases are both dreadful and deserve full condemnation from all sections of our society, and I sincerely hope that the Foreign Office is doing everything possible to pressure Saudi Arabia and Sudan on both specific cases.

I hope very much that the voice of the moderate Muslim community, particular those whose voices are drowned out, fully condemn these actions. Yesterday, there was an excellent article by British Muslim, Saira Khan, who argued that we cannot allow this to continue. And this is an opportunity for [British Muslims] to condemn the sudanese and [Saudi Arabia] in both cases. She is absolutely correct. As a country, she argued quite eloquently, "We must speak up for Mrs Gibbons - a thoroughly decent woman who never meant to cause offence."

She concluded her article by affirming that, "This is the moment for the Council of British Muslims [Muslim Council of Britain], the unelected body (of men) who claim to speak for Muslims in this country, to step up and condemn in the strongest possible terms what is going on in Sudan - and indeed in Saudi Arabia, where a young women faces being publicly lashed 200 times for the "crime" of being raped."

We need to make it absolutely clear, the vast majority of people in the moderate Muslim community and across the Muslim world totally abhor these horrific acts by Saudi Arabia ans Sudan, and refuse to remain silent.

I heard it said on the radio today that Christians would not get upset about the use of the name of Jesus (Isa) in a similar situation. I, as a regular worshiping Christian would not, and I don't believe any Christians in the UK would either, but I would not like to be so sure about all Christians throughout the world. I suspect that that there may be so called Christians in the world who would be just as embarassing to other Christians as the Sudanese are being to many Muslims at the present time. Incidentally, Islamic Torch, I don't see the Character of Allah reflected in your words do you?

mashfiq the lies continue as usual, th women was not lashed 200 times because she was raped.
the rapists were sentenced for their crimes and she was for her crime,which was having a affair,which she admnitted to her husband and the police.
every soveriegn nation has a right to make their own laws,like britain were laws are made to target certain communities, i have not heard muslim nations telling their christian minorities to go around condeming britain for their laws.
so do not patrionise,you do the crime you do the time,not your family or community.

What a PATHETIC response by MPAC.

WE have seen countless cases against muslims in Britian and around the world not to mention Abu Ghuraib and Guantanamo. The West dont give two hoots about Justice to Muslims and when one women is hard done by yes, I agree it is wrong, MPAC start weeping tears of sympathy. The media is using this to blacken the name of Islam. we should put this one case in to context with the thousands of miscarriages of justice against the Muslims. did the media jump up and down when moazaam baig was releases after YEARS of imprisonment!!!!!!!!!

This is capitulation and appeasement by MPAC.

The rules governing what is, and what is not, acceptable are very clear. This woman was involved in transgressing those rules.

Does MPAC take take the British dollar above faith ?

Max, come on!

Give credit where it's due: MPAC is absolutely right in condemning the Sudanese idiots.

And, yes, the media DID give Moazzam Baig loads of airtime. Were you asleep?

Ban the mullahs, read the Quraan, I say.

Wherever you see injustice, Islam isn't there.

Wherever you see oppression of women and girls, Islam isn't there.

Wherever you see bearded fools with trousers several sizes too short screaming and foaming at the mouth about 'Sharia' law, Islam isn't there.

MPAC's got it just right.

Shan - whatever the story, you always bring it back to Zionism. As Melanie P. points out, there is and never has been a genocide in Palestine by Israelis. The number of Palestinians in Palestine has mushroomed thanks to the levels of health care and economic development Israel has introduced, even to the point that MPAC was outraged recently that there was a case where a Palestinian was denied care in an Israeli hospital.

By contrast, Jews have been hounded out of every Arab land (including Sudan, incidentally) such that today in every Arab country the Jewish population is less that 1% of what is was 60 years ago. But dreadful though this has been, even this I would not call genocide.

There is some kind of crazy sickness whereby regardless how awful the story, regardless of how many lives are involved, all can be explained away by blaming the Zionists.

As I have pointed out here before, the best calcutation is that of Muslim lives lost in conflict in the last 50 years, 0.3% have been in the Arab Israeli conflict, 90% at the hands of other Muslims.

So for every ONE Arab who has died at the hands of Israelis - often on the battle field, or manning rocket launchers into civilian areas, or indeed in suicide attacks, around THREE HUNDRED Muslims have died at the hands of other Muslims.

Is it not time, Shan, that you and people like you got a bit of a grip and a bit of perspective on things?

This woman hurt the feelings of the parents. A complaint was lodged and a court found this woman guilty so whats the problem. Why are MPACUK releasing a statement, who are MPACUK to tell the Sudanese on how to run their judicial system.
Lets face it this woman will come back to UK, sell her sobbing story to a tabloid paper and make a couple of hundred thousand pounds and then she will be laughing all the way to the bank.

Abu Zainab, I assume you are an Islamist, Islamic fundamentalist. Well, a good opportunity for me to debate with one, as I don't ever get the chance to do so. I usually debate with fellow co-religionist who do not believe in conspiracy theories or are not extremist.

Anyway, this woman did nothing wrong. So firstly putting facts correctly would be a good start. Her class pupils have claimed responsibility for naming the teddy "Muhammad", so why don't the Sudanese Islamist who control the Government lock their fellow co-religionist up for what has happen? Surely if the kids have claimed full responsibility for doing so, when will the extremist in Sudan take action.

Secondly, this woman is a British citizens, who willingly went to Africa to advance moderate Muslims, by teaching in one of their schools. What is wrong with that? She could of said "forget them", I want to help British kids. But she had such a good heart to go out to Africa to help children. We are likely to have genuine sympathy for someone who is a British subject, and ensure that it never happens to a British citizen again.

Thanks

The character of Allah comes in all sorts - look up the 99 names of Allah and you will see the character of Allah - why is you christians come up with all this that you are peaceful and so understanding - when in reality your so called Christian leaders The Pope - The Bushes - and the endless PM's of this country - go around killing innocent Muslims - and as for the Sudanese Muslims - they are us and we are them - we are all one Ummah.

I think you need to calm down - and stop being so critical about those who choose to follow the Sunnah of the beloved Prophet (PBUH)

All this rhetoric makes me sick.

America still electricutes its prisoners, i mean what a cruel way to kill someone off. They have a medievil legal system which does not work

and they complain about the Saudi's and Shari'ah law?

Hope Bush gets the lectric chair

To mashfiq

your real name is not Mashfiq and i don't think you understand the difference between a Muslim and an Islamist. There is no difference, all is an invention for "community cohesion lies"

She went there to earn more money full stop. Secondly 15 days in prison is better than the 58 days proposed by your government isn't it???

Does nobody posting here get it? You are not allowed to criticise Muslims or Islam. It/they are above criticism. If you do you are Islamophobic. Anything that SEEMS bad to non-muslim eyes is either because:
1. You don't understand Islam and cannot because you are not Muslim.
2. It's non-Muslims' fault in the first place. That is a blanket cover-all for the teddy-bear story and anything that may come in the future. Submission - that's the name of the game

Now, I hope everyone here has understood and desists from these silly criticisms.

That goes for me too.

On the other hand all criticism of Israel/Zionists-qua-Jews is always acceptable and never anti-semitic even if it looks and sounds like it.

shem if we muslims were not open to criticism than so many zionist would not be allowed to hug mpac blogs all the time.
paulm i understand clearly what melaniep means and stand for she considers palestinian to be animals,as she said palestinians have never existed,so in her thinking they must be animals.
in palestine there has been a massive cultural and human genocide, millions of palestinians made refugees,hundreds of thousands killed and tens of thousands in israeli jails,this must be one of the longest concerted cultural and human genocide and oppression on any people.

Thank you MPAC for taking a stand against narrow-mindedness and hysteria.

Unity school’s mission statement talks about providing ‘all its students, whatever their gender, nationality, religion or ethnic origin, with an education of the highest quality.’ As five truckloads
of police in riot gear guard the gates the tiny tots certainly aren’t getting that. What happened to proper protocol? When a parent is upset with something at school normally you’d write to the Headteacher, discuss the situation and come to a compromise or either give or receive an apology. Not in Sudan, straight to the police, bring in the law because obviously the teachers don’t get the respect from the parents that they deserve. That’ll really help the kids advance and make for an ‘interesting’ working environment. As Unity say the ‘emphasis is placed on enhancing and developing potential whilst encouraging self-discipline and mutual respect.’ That is now a joke….don’t you think?

A teacher allowed a group of children to call a bear a name. The kid’s families didn’t appreciate the name even though one of the group shared the same name with the bear. So if the child with the same name misbehaves and his parents scold him, will they be ‘insulting’ their own faith or merely keeping their offspring in line?

This is a complete over reaction and it’s not doing anyone any favours from any corner of the world it’s just more intolerance and misunderstanding between humans….again. No one was hurt; she didn’t name the bear the kids did. Maybe they should learn about responsibility and face a few lashing themselves to share in the class project. Do you see how off the wall this is??

I’m saddened by some of the postings, as I think the ‘us’ and ‘them’ mentality is outdated and irrelevant and most of all shows a complete lack of humanity. I say this to both sides, we’re all humans and to each their own. I wouldn’t force my beliefs, ideological outlook, personal points of view on another sole and I wouldn’t expect anyone to try and brain wash me either or for that matter put me on death row over a stuffed toy.

If you’re thinking about taking a career break abroad to share your knowledge and wealth of understanding and open-mindedness then be very careful in where you choose. Good luck to you all and I hope Gibbons is back safe in Liverpool very soon.

Islamic Torch,

Our beloved Prophet (PBUH) did not shout and scream in the street; he did not thrash women and girls; he did not wear trousers, but Arab dress; he did not watch TV; use a gun; fly in aeroplanes; use telephones (so, how DO you know that all of those activities ARE lawful?). There is no evidence whatsoever that he made little girls of 4 and 5 wear the hijab. His life was epitomised with justice, compassion and wisdom. When you see the bearded jobless with the 'dawa tables', do you hear the words 'justice', 'compassion' and 'wisdom' coming from their mouths? Or do you hear 'fight', 'destroy', 'punish' being spouted up and down the High Streets?

Its time that you paid more attention to the real Islam, which was beautifully practised by our Prophet (PBUH), and move away from Arab cultural practices, including wearing desert dress in the street of London (you wouldn't wear a pinstripe suit in the Sahara, would you?).

Had our Prophet (PBUH) been in London today what do you think he would wear?

And remember that one of the reason why some pagan Arabs embraced Islam was because an illiterate man was reciting exquisite classical Arabic verses. So, you can be sure that he would have spoken perfect English.

How many mullahs speak proper (let alone perfect English) and yet insist on harranguing passers by with completely alien ideas in unintelligible accents?

I don't citicise some of the brothers/sisters out of malice but because I think they attract ridicule, when they should be attracting respect towards Islam.

If Islam doesn't free you, then it isn't Islam that you are practising!

This is one of the reasons why I fully support MPAC, in its drive to bring commonsense into the British Muslim community.

We must excuse this if it was a genuine mistake, but its opened the floodgates to rampant islamaphobia. Also its very dangerous to intefere in the legal process of another nation, imagine if Sudan tried to co-erce the UK governmnet into changing their legal process, i'm sure the chav natives would be up in arms.

It seems as if one disagrees with someone then one is an Islamist/Fundamentalist. Tell me what one of them is - I thought anyone who abides by their religion, follows its fundamentals is fundamentalist.

She went there to earn a living, she is not working for free. Any primary school teacher will tell you that he/she is responsible for the children in class. Therefore the naming of the teddy has led to an insult according to the the culutre of Sudan, if you dont like get out as the English people keep telling us. The Sudanese court found her guilty this lady had legal representation in court so she has done something wrong. Let the law take its course as the law in UK takes its course when it comes to the Muslims here...

To Shamsur,

Your name is not really shamsur, it is Osama Bin Laden. And you are an anti-semitic and homophobic Islamist, so go and take a jump off a building.

Islamic Torch and shamsur grow up! You're pathetic.

Good on the MPACUK for doing what's right.

i have to agree with drima and aazad, Islamic torch you shoudl remname yourself judgemental darkness your comments are pathetic..well done to mpacuk at least they are fighting the fight against Islamophobia...

Fundamentalist exist everywhere. You are right, people practicing the fundamentals of religion. However, the fundamentalist culture growing, not from Islam, but being preached by a fringe group of so-called Muslims like yourself, pose the biggest threat to Islam and British Muslims.

She went there to earn a living?

Of course she went there to earn a living. Every single person has to work to earn a living, that is not abnormal. However, she decided to earn her living by helping children in probably the poorest continent's in the world. She left her life here in the United Kingdom, to live in Sudan and help those children. If you don't recognise what she has done, then you are a fool like Anjum Choudhury, your ideological father from Al-Mujjiroun or Saviour Sect or whatever they call themselves now.

she is not working for free? course not you Islamist extremist.

Any primary school teacher will tell you that he/she is responsible for the children in class?

They are!!!!!

Therefore the naming of the teddy has led to an insult according to the the culutre of Sudan, if you dont like get out as the English people keep telling us.


Abu Zainab, I swear to God, you are so dumb, please come back when you have something mature to say. The Sudanese kids in the class, whatever age they are, decided to choose the name. The teacher, the good person that she is, accepted the childrens choice. Did she know that by accepting, she would be sent to prison? LOL That is hillarious! Sent to prison for listening to Sudanese children naming their teddy "Muhammad" and now they want her to die in prison. Did you not see the Islamist demonstrating for her sentence to be increased, we should send a hold army unit in to sort it out. I am sure it will be resolved in five minutes if that was done.

You then argue the Sudanese court found her guilty this lady had legal representation in court so she has done something wrong. How do you know she had legal representation, are you her lawyer? Did you see in the court room, did the Islamist propaganda coming out tell you this crap. The lawyer was probably Muqtada Al Sadr's dad and he probably wanted her imprisoned too.

Let the law take its course as the law in UK takes its course when it comes to the Muslims here...

Oh, Abu Zainab, stop playing the Muslim victim card? If you don't like your treatment in Britain, then why don't you go and live under Sharia law in Saudi Arabia. Maybe you can sit in a car with a female friend and subsequently be locked away and raped by the authorities there.

The Pope goes round killing Muslims? Well he kept that quiet! When will leaders of major faiths learn to stop slaughtering people? I would frankly not be surprised to learn that the Archbishop of Canterbury gets his kicks from setting fire to tramps and the Dalai Lama spends his afternoons wandering round housing estates shooting at cats!

Come on global religous figures, get your act together and stop killing for fun!

We don't know all the facts, but it seems very likely that by what most Muslims consider to be the law on this matter, Gillian Gibbons is 100% innocent. If Sudanese courts were sceptical of her good intentions, should we be surprised? Think of colonial history, the Danish cartoons, Iraq, the rest of the 'war on Islam' - and how did the British media react to this woman's arrest? The whole debacle has been extremely divisive. It's time to curb the 'fury' and stop pointing fingers. Building trust between peoples is much harder than smashing it, but if we are genuinely compassionate human beings, that should surely be our goal.

Firstly dont judge me you fool, your a nutcase. At least she was tried unlike those in Guantanomo bay.

Abu Zainab or is it Abu Izadeen. Or is he your father? I think you are the nutcase, particularly when you Abu Izadeen disrupted the former Home Secretary John Reid during a visit to Waltham Forest. You said to him "how dare you come to a Muslim area", "Islam is peace" hahahaha LOL.

Anyway, at least we don't lash or even rape our women for being around men. We in the Western world are civilised, unlike your friends the Talibali boys from the Afghani mountains.

Mashfiq - are you a Zionist or a Neocon?

I am your father, Abu Izadeen, now get off the internet boy, or you will get wiped with daddy's belt.

Thanks

Mashfiq aka the moderate, true Muslim.

I think Islamic Torch and others like him posting stupid comments in favor of un-Islamic behavior of the Sudanese Government are the members of HT and Al-Muhajiroon. What did the so called Islamic Government do to protect the followers of Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) when they were being killed and raped even during the month of Ramadan, and continue to sufer even now in Darfor? If you want to, as you say, "give bloody face to Britain" you are free to do so but for God's sake do not give the name of Islam to your shallow and stupid nationalism.

May I remind the sympathisers of Sudanese Government only one recent incident: The impact of good Islamic behaviour of the Taliban on Ivan Ridley when she was arrested in Afghanistan.

Compare the impact on her of this treatment to the outrage created when the bigots in Iraq slaughtered western captives and released sadist and gruesome videos on webs. Compare this to the reaction the un-Islamic behaviour of the Sudanese government has generated.

The problem with us, the Muslims, is that we do not want to follow the Seerah nor do we want to learn from it. We want Islam to change and be interpreted according to our desires. To quote a well known Indian scholar late Maulana Manzoor Nomani, “We the Muslims have become live posters against Islam.”

Let me remind me two more events from the Islamic history:

When Caliph Ali (May Allah be pleased with him) overcame an enemy in a battle and was about to kill him, he spat on Ali’s face. Ali immediately left him and asked to start the fight again. Surprised, the man asked him the reason of this behaviour. To this Ali said that by spitting on him the later had aroused his anger and he did not want to kill anyone for personal reasons. He was fighting for principles ie to spread justice and please Allah SWT.

Another incident relates to Khalid Bin Waleed (May Allah be pleased with him) when he was chasing a retreating enemy. At this moment the man said Shahadah. But assuming that his declaration of shahadah was an attempt to save his life, he killed the man. When Prophet Muhammad learnt this he expressed his horror. In shock and sadness he is reported to repeatedly ask Khalid Bin Waleed, “He declated shahadah and yet you killed him?” It is said that the Prophet (Peace be upon him) used to pray, “O Allah I have nothing to do with Khalid’s action.”

May Allah SWT guide us all.

It's upsetting to see the discussion digress from the issue at hand, the imprisonment of Gillian Gibbons. On that matter, excellent press release MPAC!

On to the issue of genocide in Palestine. I find it worrying that you expect a man who is not a representative of the Palestinian people to find a way out.

O come and whip me!! Yitzak