roachboy

first off, this situation in the sudan self-evidently is not indicative of islam in anything like a general sense, simply because muhammed is an extraordinarily common first name across most arabic-speaking countries where islam is a dominant religion--INCLUDING the sudan.
so ANY attempt to make this about something more than the bizarre-o situation that confronts this woman in the sudan is ludicrous.
and it is even more ludicrous that i--or anyone else--should feel the need to even say as much.
you'd think it self-evident.


it is obviously about the fact that this very common first name was interpreted by one of gillian gibbon's CO-WORKERS (i capitalize this because it amazes me) as blasphemous because the name was given BY THE STUDENTS OF HER CLASS to a teddy bear...(this tidbit about the co-worker is in today's guardian)

there's a ton that i do not understand that happened between the lodging of some complaint to the present situation, and so i'm not even going to try to say anything about it.

what is even more baffling is that this whole ridiculous affair is being used for political purposes. that you can see a rationale behind, i guess: i mean it's not as though the sudanese government has not come under a ton of pressure from the international "community" for the civil war in general and over allegations of its support for militias in darfur.

but still...sheesh...

__________________
a gramophone its corrugated trumpet silver handle
spinning dog. such faithfulness it hear

it make you sick.

-kamau brathwaite