BBC News is trying to get one back at the old British colonies by making a joke out of Mrs. Gillian Gibbon’s arrest for calling a teddy-bear Mohammed. It sees Sudan giving a bloody nose to the UK while becoming red in the face from defeat. The old colonial master finally has the upper hand.
The BBC has cleverly associated Sudan’s bad human rights records and status as a dictatorial rogue state with Mrs. Gibbons’ blasphemy. Mrs. Gibbons is a school teacher at Khartoum. The BBC sees her arrest as farcical, something done to hide the cruelty of the Sudanese military under the Presidentship of Omar al-Bashir. It is unfair to club the two issues.
It is indeed true that Sudan has an abysmal human rights record. Thousands have been tortured, raped and children turned into sex-slaves in Darfur. The Government there has all but lost the confidence of its own people and the international community. Nor does it care much for reputations especially amongst Western countries.
Sudan is primarily interested in the China and Far East. This indifference to the West has incensed the British. The latter wants Sudan’s natural resources while Sudan wants nothing to do with the white West. Does this confirm Sudan’s rogue status?
The western media wants us to believe that Mrs. Gibbons did nothing and is a victim of communal forces. If she has trivialised the Faith of millions, she has done wrong. And for that she needs to be corrected. Incidentally, it is equally unacceptable that Islamist fundamentalists anywhere are destroying Buddha statues. It is beside the point whether President al-Bashir wanted to use her case to distract international focus from his regime.
In fact, al-Bashir’s pardoning of Mrs. Gibbons has put me in a tight spot. The moderates want to know why she was put behind bars at all. The military conservatives blame him for bowing to hated Western pressure.
Either way, where the faith of so many are concerned or when the lives of ordinary Sudanese hang upon the whims of tyrants, nothing is a laughing matter. The BBC’s joke is in the same vein as Mrs. Gibbon’s joke which landed her in jail. They stink of racial and ethnic prejudices. While Osama bombs the world, these arm-chair racists stir disharmony by their silly prattle.
Via: BBC UK
Image: n8w.com , simply islam, Sudan.net
