Just a cheap pop at the west... thanks guys..

Adam Webb, Mk, UK

"I deeply respect Islam."
Sure, love. Don't we all when slammer time beckons.
When on the road in third-world Asia, Rule 1. Avoid Islam like the pest. Rule 2. See Rule 1.

Andrew Milner, Yokohama, Japan

josie, Where do you think the Muslims got the idea of banning false idols? Chirstianity! thats right, just like a previous reader said, it is the second commandment.

You think she should go to prison? should she be flogged too? Oh, and I hope you don't mind, I can't speak french.

will, Wenzhou, China

to 'aryan muslim,edinburgh,scotland-the facts are(according to lawyers who dealt with guantanamo bay prisoners)1)the prisoners were entitled to geneva convention rights 2)they were,most of them,innocent of what they were accused of

loiusa hancock, london,

Yes, louis, why not call a teddybear Jesus? It's a perfectly normal name in Spanish-speaking countries. As Mohamed is in Arabic countries.
Stop criticising the teacher. She just allowed the class to name a teddybear after one of the pupils. This has nothing to do with being naive or not understanding the culture of a country.

Christian
(oh, can someone please all the police to arrest my parents? My name is Christian, but I'm an atheist. blasphemy! somebody needs to do something about it! quick!)

Christian, Barcelona, Spain

Yes you do have a point, saud, riyadh....Now I wonder why that would be? Beats me!!...I would like to be able to help you except I am not a woman living in Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Aghanistan....or a widow in New York. So...Sorry mate, can't help you on that one but you could try asking Ayaan Hirsi Ali.

ant, Limoges, France,

To Keith, Los Angeles:

The internees in Guantanamo Bay are not "prisoners of war" but "Enemy Combatants" as your president put it as eloquently as he could. They have no rights whatsoever, nevermind missing something in an article you missed the entire point!

Aryan Muslim, Edinburgh, Scotland

Josie. Bristol.

The second commandment is the one about idols.

Allison, Roundabouts, England

To Josie from Bristol

We Americans rarely execute polygamists.

Michelle Ferguson, Merriam, KS, USA

Not nice being a pawn in international / interfaith politics. However, it is now clear that that's the risk you run in the Sudan. Overall, though, a storm in a teacup and mainly useful as a warning to others. If it's not teddy bears it will be something else. Politics knows no bounds in some places.

Colin , Shrewsbury,

I wondered how long it would be for the harsh indifferent comments about this woman to come about (james goodson, louise raynor). She was treated unfairly by a law which is the complete antithesis of what Islam preaches - eg mercy, love, respect etc... The majority of Sudanese people will undoubtedly feel embarrased by what has happened but will be too scared to voice their opinion - sharia law was only latterly compared to the rules of the third reich.

Good luck to Ms Gibbons - her sensitivity to other cultures is illustrated by the fact she feels no ill feeling towards the govt/people who incarcerated her, and the fact she was prepared to contribute to their society in the first place. I don't imagine her pay will have been incredible.

Saud, Riyadh - Emirates have upgraded her for financial/profile reasons. The west don't hate muslims - we've plenty of mosques in the UK. We tolerate all creeds and persuasions - the same could not be said of Saudi Arabia however.

Barney, Liverpool, UK

before going to a dangerous country, especially those muslim ones, you must think and rethink of everything and then eventually decide NOT TO GO, even if the job you've been offered is THAT GOOD for you(!). Life is MUCH MORE IMPORTANT than money!
Mrs Gibbons : All The Very Best Wishet to YOU, and a VERY HAPPY CHRISTMAS!

Riccardo, Genova, Italy

Louis Raynor, your comments don't sound the most sensitive: "...she is really just a silly insensitive woman" - as far as Gillian Gibbons' friends & former colleagues are concerned, & one presumes they know her better than you do, she is a most fair, open & culturally sensitive person that one should like to meet.

May be she would be happy to call a teddy bear, Jesus Christ, if her class asked for it; may be she would not think it appropriate, we will probably never know. However, the name "Mohammed" is very common in most countries that have Mohammed as their Prophet; whereas, in the UK, Jesus is reserved for Jesus, as in Christ.

As far as whether she is, as you say, "...a silly insensitive woman" - the fact that Muslims could not agree as to the matter of the bear's name rather suggests the matter is not quite as clear cut as your judgemental comments suggest.

It would seem, judgemental comments like yours had people in Sudan calling for Ms Gibbon's death, remember!

Paddy Coffey, Torpoint, UK

Really Nir? Europe loses?

I don't think so. The Sudanese didn't flog her or execute her because they realised they didn't want to risk substantial sanctions and everybody in the Muslim world thought they looked stupid, let alone the West.

Gillian Gibbons spent 8 days in discomfort for no reason but she wasn't hurt and she didn't die, and the people who now look really sad are the Sudanese government and the hardliners who called for her flogging or execution.

The British government treated the episode like the mild irritation it was.

How much neutral respect has Sharia law earned for itself in the last 10 days? Not a lot, I suspect.

John Mc, London,

Sad but true Mr or Ms Nir from Jerusalem; equally true is that it is not possible for a European to critisise anybody or anything Israeli or Jewish without being seriously maligned.

True, without death threats, but else .......

Paul, Kampala, Uganda

To Abdul Rashid -

Prisoners of war and school teachers abroad have different rights in captivity, regardless of their captors. Proportionally, you’d have to do some pretty wicked stuff to that teddy bear to end up in Guantanamo Bay. Unless, of course, it was a suicide bomber bear, and I just missed that part in the article.

Keith, Los Angeles, California

Matthew from Surrey,
There are two major flaws in your argument, the first being your 'lumping together' of two very different religions. A significant rule of Islam is not to create 'false idols' which is exactly what Ms Gibbons did in the eyes of Islam, whereas in Christianity there is no such rule. It may seem trivial to you what she did, and you argue that in England she would have recieved no punishment, but in England we would all baulk at bigamy because as a largely Christian country, monogamy is emphasized hugely and is the law. Whereas in other cultures it is not always. She broke a law therefore she should go to prison.
Your second major flaw, and this I rebuke entirely, is typical of the 'ignorant Brit'. Why should it be the responsibility of the Sudanese people to 'educate foreigners' ??! It's like expecting the French to know English when on holiday in France (not uncommon apparently).
Ignorance of the law is absolutely no excuse.

Josie, Bristol,

When someone naive goes to a country like Sudan and gets into trouble all the stops are pulled out by the media plus two Lords take up her case. If an old pensioner, who has paid her taxes and lived a trouble free life is mugged, burgled or just needs care in her home, then the police the government and the media are not interested. Funny old world.

Doug George, Chester, England

Ms Gibbons should count herself extremely lucky to get out of the case alive. In a similar situation in the moslem-dominated north of Nigeria, a teacher was lynched by her female students last March. She was accused of seizing a copy of the quran from a student spying from it during an Islamic Studies test. Perhaps Ms Gibbons would have sufferred the same fate if she had been a citizen of a country with less influence in global politics. I think it's about time the world found a solution to the victimisation caused by religious fundamentalism instead of shying away from the ugly reality.

ola, lagos, nigeria

now no one is talking about the good treatment she got from the muslim airlines--emirates-- "upgraded to first class"etc
this thing showed how much the west hate muslim -giving a small reason hell broke lose with insults etc

saud, riyadh,

Why have we stopped talking about the Saudi rape case?

Dougall, Lesotho, South Africa

A lesson for anyone dreaming of "an adventure" - learn first about the country where you are thinking of going, its traditions and current political climate. We live in a big world, most of which does not look or function like Manchester.

Sergei Cristo, Surrey, UK

How grateful I am to UK Muslims right now! I am a Christan and know very little about their faith. I was appalled at the reaction in Sudan. If Christianity is insulted the person responsible wouldn’t get a reprimand, if Mohammed is insulted the person responsible must die!

I can only hope those calling for such inhumane treatment were a minority.

It would seem, from reports, that Ms Gibbons was unaware of her "heinous crime". Next time might the Sudanese people consider educating foreigners so that we know to be sensitive to their beliefs instead of calling for their execution.

Matthew, Surrey,

at the end ,she is really just a silly insensitive woman.

Would she call a teddy bear Jesus Christ?

louis Raynor, london, England

I wonder if the Muslims locked up in Guantanomo Bay by the Christian fundamentalists Bush and Blair and who have been incarcerated without trial and with even less evidence than Ms Gibbons was convicted on will be given a Presidential Pardon? Wishful thinking I guess as the West has demostrated on many occasions the freedom of one westerner is worth the lives of many millions of Muslims

Abdul Rashid, Washington, USA

"At one stage Lord Ahmed came dangerously close to joking about Mohamed and the teddy bear, but Ms Gibbons interjected: "We don’t joke about that any more.""

So who wins?

In Denmark they don't publish caricatures any more, in Berlin they don't show opera any more, in Holland they don't make movies any more...

Europe has been defeated...

Sad..

nir, Jerusalem, Israel

Perhaps as a stranger in a foreign country she should have imposed a name on the bear. "Teddy " or "Ted" spring immediately to mind.

Elizabeth, Cambridge,

"The Sudanese people I found to be extremely kind"

That'll be the people who were calling for her execution then.

James Goodson, Hampshire, UK

Well done

sarah, London,

While the Sudanese culture is undoubtedly differnent to the UK and people may indeed find the circumstances of this case to have 'insulted' Islam it seems to me that there's hardly an religion/organisation/body of people/ethnic group anywhere in the world that isn't ready to be 'insulted' over something or other these days. Perhaps our victim mentality has something to do with it. But it's depressing nonetheless.

Sheila , bexley, england

Three cheers for Ms Gibbons. It is the adventurous spirit in her genes that makes British the greatest explorers in history and it is the understanding and acceptance of other cultures in her blood that makes Britain a mutli-cultural and mutli-religious society.

Charles, Hong Kong,