If it wasn't so tragically sad it would be funny!

Yesterday, to the relief of her family, and everyone in Britain who had been following the story, Mrs Gillian Gibbons, a 54 year old British teacher, arrived home in the UK after a nightmare ordeal in which she was tried and imprisoned in a Sudanese court for allowing the children in her Khartoum infants class to name a teddy bear Muhammad - the name of Islam's most revered prophet and , of course, thus an insult to the religion.




It took a visit by two British Muslim peers who sought, and gained, an audience with the President of Sudan, to gain a pardon and immediate release for Mrs. Gibbons, a woman who was described by her Muslim teaching colleagues as 'an inspiration, a woman who had such a way of communicating with children'. She had, apparently, attempted to get the interest of her young class by getting them to think of names for the bear and so many Islamic boys are named Muhammad (that's OK apparently) that the name was the clear winner. The poor woman found herself in trouble only when one of the boys told his parents, innocently, about the naming of the bear and the parents felt this was such an insult to the faith that they had to inform the security services.

Mrs. Gibbons was arrested, tried and jailed for a short term but that didn't stop the fanatics. The least that was demanded was a public flogging and indeed, Rent-a-mob was out in Khartoum last week demanding that she be re-tried and the death sentence imposed. Fortunately they were just a set-up job by a few extremists but this has caused major diplomatic ructions over something so - on the face of it - stupid.

For once the Muslim Council of Britain, which I have in the past criticised for its equivocation, was clear in its condemnation of Mrs. Gibbons arrest, for which I admire them. They said, as we all believed here, that this was a tragic and well intentioned blunder with no attempt to insult Islam. It seems that much of Sudan thought the same and there did seem to be an inclination to get out of this without losing too much face in appearing to give in to British demands for Mrs. Gibbons' release.

There seems to have been a recognition, in Sudan and in Britain, that there was more to this than met the eye and that Mrs Gibbons was being used as a means of working off two targets of anger. First the UK has refused to supply Sudan with military equipment unless they allow independent observers into Darfur where the situation is now appalling. Second, and perhaps more directly linked, the Unity School at which Mrs Gibbons taught is an independent school which works on a type of British based curriculum and teaches all children - Islamic and Christian children together. Hard line Islamic fundamentalists have long opposed the continuation of this practice and the naming of the bear gave them a perfect opportunity to make a big issue.

All this seems so silly - and I have no wish to single out any one faith for particular criticism - but I do think it highlights how much of a stranglehold religious beliefs of any sort can take on the minds of human beings. I honestly believe that religion is the most destructive force in the world and does far more harm than good - always has. At present Islam is in the firing line for what are perceived to be inhumane practices and attitudes linked to religion but don't forget that the Christian Church has had its fair share of atrocities all in the name of the true faith. More people have been killed in the name of religion than in any other single cause.

I don't believe that God, Jesus or Muhammad - if any of them had the power accredited to them - would have sanctioned much of the stuff that is going on in their name. If only, in my dream world, we could abandon all this deference to some deity and look at how we relate, as human beings, to one another, wouldn't the world be a better place?




Would this have solved the whole problem?