[quote name='RBM']As someone from the school (I missed if she's a graduate or from the school's faculty/staff) mentioned on NPR just now, it makes more sense if you understand the locals' perspective: evidentally, the idea of teddy bears isn't that common, there.
Therefore, when the sensationalist media touts that a British (read Christian) teacher at a prestigious (read uppity rich) school named (of course they won't say in the headlines that it was a student who actually did the naming) a teddy BEAR (which most folks there will simply interpret as "an animal," according to the lady interviewed on NPR) Muhammed.....it all boils down to:
"Christian teacher names an animal after The Prophet."
When they interviewed locals about the story, most expressed outrage..and were unable to answer even simple questions about the matter. Most admitted after some prodding that they had not bothered to find out what the full story was about. Thank goodness we are rational people here in America, and we do not parrot headlines like airheads.
....yeah.
Anyway, that being said, it is still sad that they found her guilty and are deporting her. The student of course had long since come forward to state publically that she had simply allowed him to name his teddy bear after himself. Eh. Nothing to do about it but sigh.[/QUOTE]
Wait, what? The student isn't calling for her bloody death? But ... isn't he Muslim too? Maybe he's some pure hearted American Christian they imported. I don't get it. Really, why are people in a war-torn, genocide wracked nation responding with violence? I can't imagine where they'd learn that. It's not like we don't have setbacks in the US, you know. I spilled my gingerbread latte on the way to work today, and you don't see me waving a knife in the air. That shit cost me $4.85. For a LATTE, PEOPLE. I don't know. We use the word "tolerance" a lot these days, but what good is doing the right thing if other people aren't going to do it either? What kind of moral code is that? Ol' grandad used to say this sort of thing would happen because they're brown and brown people are naturally ignorant and savage, but I'm glad we left that stupidity behind, here in 2007. We know better. It's definitely because they're Muslims.
EDIT: Not really sure why I quoted you on that, RBM. I may have started on one topic and finished on another, and I'm too lazy to clean it up.