The English teacher arrested in Sudan after allowing a child to name his teddy bear "Muhammad", the name of the prophet of Islam, made the headlines to most newspapers in London. Needless to say, this is yet another disgraceful attempt by politicians to (ab)use religious beliefs and sacred figures.
Obviously the matter is blown out of proportion, and let's be honest some people just love that.
a closer look at the event will reveal that the true intention behind it is the Sudanese government challenge to Britain, kind of arm twist, especially about Darfur's humanitarian crisis.
The Ulemas were quoted to say that this represents :"another ring in the circles of plotting against Islam". The spirit of conspiracy is very clear in the words of these religious officials; a title which is opposed to the corp of Islamic philosophy of absence of mediators between the divine and humanity. These kind of people are trying to set fire in the normal moderate majority of the population; and it's a very bad timing... very bad indeed. Because on the other bank, there exist a bunch of polemicist who will, unashamedly, use this to perpetuate their image of Islam as a barbarian backward religion and discriminate against the Muslims.
What the world needs is to strip these two groups, extremist Ulemas and ignorant xenophobes, from their "raison d'être". hatred flows from generation to the next, and poverty and injustice does no good in reducing it. A better understanding based on fair dialog between civilisations is more than necessary. When moderates are silenced by dictators or, much worse, by interests, only the ignorants on both extremes of the spectrum are making their messages heard!
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