"Today's the day the teddy bears get 50 lashes..."

If this continues there's going to be national press hysteria, if there isn't already.

British diplomats will probably diffuse this though, I'd imagine.

Did General Gordon die in vain/ they don't like it up 'em etc

Sudan solution?

One Muslim teacher at the independent school for Christian and Muslim children said she had not found the project offensive.

"I know Gillian and she would never have meant it as an insult. I was just impressed that she got them to vote," the teacher said.

Is this a comment on the difficulty of getting kids to participate or the difficulty of bringing democratic practices to the Sudan?

Sudan solution?

Louis Jagger of the King's African Rifles has already discussed the matter here

... and how am I supposed to know that's a thread about teddy bears?

Maybe the word "Sudan" might've helped?

Of course, the two are inextricably linked, always have been, always will be

What they should've done, right, yeah, is enable a culture of disapproval re naming your children after the prophet, ala Christians general non-use of Jesus as a child's name.

Some topics deserve their own thread, this is probably one of them since it's about something very specific and largely if not entirely unrelated to the situation in Darfur.

Thank you Matt

it was more Boris Johnson than King's African Rifles, but i hold my hand up nonetheless, for a piece of posturing rhetoric gone horribly wrong

Someone should phone up Build-A-Bear (BRANCHES IN 50 LOCATIONS NATIONWIDE) and ask them if there's been an upsurge in people called their bear Mohammed in the past 48 hours.

Surely this is an inconsistent application of the law anyway? How many lashes is each child going to get?

^^^creepy

I think I'll get a cab home tonight, see what the driver has to say about this

http://www.diggerhistory.info/images/leaders/kitchener-master.jpg

I'M JUST ASKING FOR CONSISTENCY.

</ilx troll>

Or darraghmac

xxp

Can we use this thread to talk about Build-A-Bear as well?

Because I fucking loathe that shit.

kitchener for ilx mod

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/7/79/Pwbotha.jpg

Would he be ILX's first gay mod? (xp)

buildersbare.com

lol gays

Because I fucking loathe that shit.

On March 7, 2006, Build-A-Bear Workshop announced that it had given $1 million (US) to the World Wildlife Fund through the sales of its WWF Collectibear® stuffed animal series. For each plush animal sold one dollar goes to WWF to protect and conserve wildlife around the world

sound quite sound to me!

culture of disapproval re naming your children after the prophet, ala Christians general non-use of Jesus as a child's name

...except in Spain and Latin America, for some reason.

New Build-A-Bear-ial album. More info?

From hearing about this, this morning, it seems a case of:

The kids named the bear after a vote.
The parents didn't object, the teacher didn't either.
One other teacher did, and complained to the authorities.
Who have to react, but are now in the 'oh what do we do now?'
now everyone is up in arms.
Not least, other muslims who are "this can only be bad for us"

Presumably, she gets deported and everyone loses out really.
Including the complainee who gets less support from her colleagues after this.

sorry to disappoint you dom?

http://content.answers.com/main/content/wp/en/thumb/d/d1/200px-Animals_Don

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7117430.stm

"Inciting hatred"

An ex-girlfriend of mine had a habit of stealing poofy cloth hearts from the Build-A-Bear Workshop.

and then naming it mohammad

What we really have here is a non-Muslim teacher in a school run by a non-Muslim board that allows Muslims and non-Muslims to educate and be educated together. While some would applaud this, I am sure that many "Islamists" in Sudan would be appalled at such a thing and have been waiting for an excuse to close the school down. There are bigger issues than soft toys and ignorant children and teachers.
Jon, Birmingham

Hmm..

shakes head at planet!
what a complete farce!

kind of "this is obviously ridiculous and wrong" with a hint of "wau look other countries don't share our values on stuff"

Burn the bear!

Our Hannah wants a Build-a-Bear for her birthday. I walk past the shop sometimes. It looks scary.