Surprise Verdict in Sudan - Teacher Found Guilty! < /sarc>

Yeah, we didn’t see this coming:

British teacher Gillian Gibbons has been convicted of inciting religious hatred for letting her pupils name a teddy bear Muhammad and sentenced to 15 days in prison and deportation from Sudan, one of her defense lawyers said Thursday.

“The judge found Gillian Gibbons guilty and sentenced her to 15 days jail and deportation,” said Ali Mohammed Hajab, a member of her defense team.

Gibbons walked in without handcuffs, wearing a dark jacket and blue skirt, according to reporters in the courtroom before media were ordered out of the chamber. Riot police surrounded the courthouse.

Muhammad is a common name among Muslim men, but giving the name of Islam’s founder to an animal would be seen as insulting by many Muslims.

Apparently, it’s also insulting to give the name to an inanimate object too. It wasn’t a real bear, you know. It was a toy.

Appreciating your First Amendment rights yet?

As it turns out, it was a staffer at the school that turned Gibbons in for blasphemy. Original reports blamed a student’s parent, but according to the article, the parents supported Gibbons.

The best news out of all this is that she was deported. I’ll bet she can’t wait for that and I hope they count her time served. The sooner she leaves the better. Any more time than necessary gives some radical a chance to do her in.

And for those Brits who stumble upon this post, you’ll love this:

The UK is the second largest bilateral humanitarian donor to Sudan and has spent over £145 million supporting emergency relief operations in Darfur since April 2004. This aid is having a clear and positive effect. It has contributed to food assistance for an estimated five million people, non-food items for 300,000 households and access to clean water for 2.3 million people. Our £40 million contribution in 2007 to the pioneering Common Humanitarian Fund has provided 340,000 households with non-food items, assisted approximately 75,000 organised returnees, 105,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) and refugees and assisted future organised returns for over 500,000 IDPs. In Southern Sudan it has enabled nine million children to be vaccinated against Polio, one million against measles and resulted in a 19 per cent. drop in food aid requirements. The UK also has a £12 million p.a. bilateral programme with non-governmental organisations in Darfur which provides water, sanitation and health care to over four million people, of which 2.2 million are internally displaced in camps.

The UK has pledged £5 million to the Darfur Community Peace and Stability Fund launched by the UN and international partners to promote peace and reconciliation at the community level and contributed £73 million to the African Union Mission in Sudan to help support the protection of civilians in Darfur. The UK stands ready to implement a major recovery programme, pending the cessation of hostilities.

Hat Tip: Michelle Malkin