November 30, 2007...12:05 am
Working to Protect Human Rights Worldwide
Via Bryan at Hot Air: The title is the byline to Amnesty International. If you click the link you’ll see it’s at the search page with the name Gillian Gibbons in the search field. No results. Gibbons is the teacher in Sudan who’s in big trouble because she let her 7 year old students name a teddy bear “Muhammad.” Why do you think AI doesn’t have a file on her? Do they not know what’s happening? I suspect there are a couple of reasons why they aren’t rallying around her: Political correctness is one. Because it’s a religious issue, especially because it involves Muslims, AI doesn’t want to interfere or criticize. Secondly, AI isn’t politically neutral. Brennan at The American Pundit notes that there are 611 search results for “Guantanamo”. To be fair, he also includes a link to a BBC piece in which AI is asked to give a statement about the case:
The sentence is a mockery of justice and Amnesty International consider Gillian to be a prisoner of conscience.She should be immediately and unconditionally released.
Perhaps they’re too busy writing about Guantanamo to add anything about Ms Gibbons’ case. My point is that just by questioning them I and others are opening ourselves up to being accused of not caring about human rights. You see, the title of this post says they’re working to protect human rights. How can anyone be opposed to that? It’s the same kind of thing with National Organization for Women, Human Rights Watch, ACLU, etc. Many people take their names and descriptions at face value. If you disagree with them it supposedly means you disagree with their stated goals.
4 Comments
November 30, 2007 at 1:20 pm
I think it’s ridiculous that she is getting persecuted for it. She didn’t realise she wasn’t allowed to and it wasn’t even her who named it. The kids, who were very young and these things would matter to them, chose what they wanted to call the teddybear. And they had the name after a boy in their class. Big deal, end of, it seems so pointless when you hear headlines on the news - ” teacher is being held in custody for naming a teddy bear…” I mean come on, there are people dying out there and all they are concerned about is a teddy bear!
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November 30, 2007 at 3:45 pm
extrapreneur, it doesn’t make sense to most people. The religious extremism over there has a life of its own. They don’t care about the circumstances. She insulted the prophet and that’s all there is to it.
December 2, 2007 at 2:59 pm
[...] Muhammed Ali Revert To Cassius Clay? Jump to Comments The other day I mentioned the plight of Gillian Gibbons, who is in a heap of trouble because her students named a teddy bear “Muhammed”. Today [...]
December 3, 2007 at 8:03 am
[...] Gibbons Pardoned Jump to Comments Gillian Gibbons, the woman jailed in Sudan for allowing her students to name a teddy bear Muhammed, has been pardoned by the Sudanese [...]
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