On the BBC Newsnight television programme on Wednesday evening, the host, Jeremy Paxman, was joined by a Sudanese government official working in Britain, and a young fellow from the Muslim Council of Britain, to discuss the plight of a woman who faces the prospect of being jailed or flogged with 40 lashes for the crime of allegedly insulting Islam.
You can read the details of her supposed misdemeanour here. At the very worst, this woman is unwise for not realising the depths of mental insanity that is gripping the country she has chosen to live in, but she is guilty of nothing in my eyes. Quite what the British government does about this, including the possible use of military action, is another matter. At the very least this country should persuade any remaining Britons to get out of Sudan, break off diplomatic relations.
What I found so interesting about the BBC show last night was Paxman’s performance. He sat in the middle of these two men as they “debated” the issue of whether the thugs of the Sudanese authorities should show “mercy” to this woman. The Sudan government guy, who spoke with a subtle hint of a grin, kept going on about how this woman should have realised the “sensitivities” of the situation; his performance was one of the most hateful that I have ever seen on such a show. The MCB guy, who seemed very young and almost terrified, was pleading in the most abject fashion for the punishment not to be carried out. No wonder, this story hardly is going to make folk think well of his faith, now is it? All the while, Paxman, who is usually an aggressive interviewer to the point of gratuitous rudeness, sat almost dumbfounded as these two men spoke. But maybe it was deliberate: from his body language I could tell that Paxman thinks that Islamists like the Sudanese official are beneath contempt. Sometimes you are glad of Mr Paxman being around for a programme like this.
“At the very worst, this woman is unwise for not realising the depths of mental insanity that is gripping the country she has chosen to live in,”
Wrong: this massively understates the issue. It should be rephrased as:
“At the very worst, this woman is unwise for not realising the depths of mental insanity that is gripping the country she has chosen to make a real personal sacrifice to HELP”.
THAT is what is so wrong about this case. It is the lunatic persecution of a woman who is trying to help the citizens of that benighted country.
Looks as though the Sudanese authorities are trying to deal with this before tomorrow, when the mullahs will be out whipping the locals into a frenzy about the insult to Mohammed. Hopefully they will deal with it sensibly and tell the lady to exercise a bit more caution when dealing with Muslim sensibilities in their country.
What I saw was another underhand attempt to gain acceptance of the idea that in some ways naming something Mohammed could be considered as justifiably an outrage and would justify a reaction or punishment.
Inayat Bunglawala, for it was he, gave the example of if a pig had been named Mohammed. Why, Inayat, should anyone be lashed for that in Sudan either? Why should that be an issue in the UK, come to that? Mr Bunglawala should have just attacked the idiotic, medaeval reaction for what it was, but no, he used it to say, in effect, “in some cases it is not correct, but we reserve the option to rant in future at any perceived slight as we see fit”.
The Sec General of the MCB did not use this opportunity to show that such hat-stand, carpet-munching beard-pulling rabidity over their self-proclaimed prophet is to be rejected in all its forms, for I do not believe he thinks it should. No, they still maintain their fascist beach towel on the sun lounger of oppression.
Do you honestly believe that the British ‘government’ (read EU provincial stooges) will take ANY meaningful action on this, let alone military action? Apart from whining and cringing to the Muslims as usual? I am furious about this latest act of Islamist obscenity, but at the same time I can’t feel a great deal of sympathy for anyone stupid enough to go and work in a place like the Sudan. One good thing about this is that hopefully no more westerners in their right minds will try to go and help the inhabitants of these benighted Muslim countries – a bit hard on the ordinary people, I know – but, hey!, they’ve got Islam to console them for their misery, poverty and squalor, haven’t they!
Hard though it is, my position is that Western people should not go to these countries – and that we should NOT go to war if Western people get into trouble if they do choose to go there.
However, if these places are used as bases for attacks upon the West then things change.
If the local government supports attacks on the West (as the Taliban did with their alliance with O.B.L.) then action against them is correct.
Whilst I do tend to believe that Islam has a demented streak a mile wide I think there’s more to this story than the dreaded Bear of Blasphemy. The offence is just so off the wall that I am convinced this has essentially been concocted for some internal Sudanese reason or another. I suspect this not least because of the time lag from the naming of the Toy of Terror to the arrest of the teacher. The real target is probably the school or maybe they just want to scare foreigners out of the country so they can quietly get on with the rape and pillage of Darfur. I have no idea but I don’t think they are that sensitive.
Anyway, the Sudanese Ambassador has been summoned to the FCO and will face the wrath of Milliband. He must be terrified.
I actually thought the young guy did very well. We here complain when “moderate” Muslims talk semi-evil semi-bollocks, and rightly so. But he talked complete good sense. He said: this is crazy. And, if I remember it right, in exactly those words, and others very like them. Often you long for someone, on these demented occasions, to say simply “but this is crackers”. He did.
Had he not, Paxman would have, more. As it was, Paxman didn’t need to say anything much.
Plus, I didn’t think the young guy looked especially scared. No more than I’d be if I was on Newsnight.
More importantly, why are we allowing large numbers of citizens of such countries to settle in Britain so that such views can become decisive in elections here in future? Already, any candidate for Mayor of London must pander to Muslim sensitivities to have any chance of winning. One immigrant to Sudan is expected to submit entirely to local sensitivities. Thousands come to our country and expect to bring those sensitivities with them. Is that logical?
commando raid – can flog the hell out of some of these knuckleheads on the way out
Ms Gibbons taught at a multi-faith school attended by expat kids and the Sudanese elite. That must have given the beards the right hump. That’s what this is about. They have grabbed onto the slightest thing and are making a song and dance out of it. From the BBC
But Adel Darwish, the political editor of The Middle East magazine, says that Muslim children – “like children everywhere” – give their pets the names of characters they liked, be it a religious figure, sports hero or pop singer.
“Millions of Muslim children in Muslim nations give their dolls, pets and teddies Muslim names of the Prophet and his mother, daughters and wives.”
With the near impossibility of getting good sex and alcohol, no wonder some of the crazies are a bit tightly wound.
Seriously, though, they should take a f**king chill pill, and HMG should stop pissing about and rediscover a bit of Gladstonian spirit.
Surely the appropriate response is to secure the release of this woman NOW. Anything else is just hot air and politics.
It’ll turn out to be a shake down for money and or services, or at the least hey U.K. you owe us one (for not behaving like barbarians as is our right as barbarians).
Despite the horribleness of it all it makes me laugh when one of these barbarians, in Sudan or elsewhere, claims that this incident is part of a wider attack by the West on Islam. Other people’s paranoia can be fun to watch.
It reminds of one particular Muslim, a London based Imam I believe, who claimed that Americans ate turkey on thanksgiving day as a way of insulting the Turks. You can’t make this stuff up.
The last paragraph should also have been in italics.
I’ll just add that what makes this whole thing darkly (very darkly) comedic is that whilst the Sudanese cops etc are hauling Ms Gibbons over the coals for an imaginary crime, they don’t seem to be doing squat about the genocide in Darfur. Perhaps they ought to read a religious book other than the Qu’ran, perhaps the New Testament. You know the bit about motes and beams.
Oh, and I suppose their is a nasty irony in naming a toy after one of histories most notorius peadophiles.
Having said that I’m standing by my theory that the Bear of Despair is a stalking horse for the Beards and their real goal is the destruction of modern education in Sudan and it’s replacement with madrassa-style indoctrination. The Teddy of Terror was afterall a mere prop in a module of work based upon the UK National Curriculum. Much though I have derided that in the past it’s light years ahead of continual recitation of the Qu’ran and very little else.
It is unfortunate that Ms Gibbons is being used as a pawn in this game though I have to agree with Paul here. These countries just aren’t safe. Iran demonstrated that in 1979 when it took the US Embassy staff hostage. The ayatollahs were prepared to carry out a clear act of war against the most powerful country in the world. You and me just don’t have a chance.
Brian, given Inayat Bunglawala’s “previous” I wouldn’t give him the credit. He was simply in a position that was utterly untenable and there was no way he could wiggle out of it. The MoToons were probably at least wrong under Sharia the MoBear probably isn’t even that, even if Ms Gibbons had deliberately named it after the prophet.
Your judgement is way too harsh; the woman is “guilty” maybe of naivete, nothing more. Her plight is appalling.
Walter,
No, you can’t make it up. This is why people like Ms Gibbons always end-up offending Islamic sensibilities. They choose to take offense fairly arbitarily and their lack of understanding of Western culture is terrifying. let’s assume for a moment that there is a Zionist-Crusader plot against Islam – It amounts to some Danish cartoonists, a primary school teacher and an Anglo-Indian novelist. That should shake the Kabah to it’s foundations shouldn’t it? I deliberately left Iraq and Afghanistan out of this because if those invasions were a plot against Islam then we would hardly have allowed those folks to draw up Islamic constitutions. I think Afghanistan now styles itself as an “Islamic Republic”.
Julian,
Interesting point. It will be fascinating to see if all hell breaks loose after Friday prayers. If the Sudanese are like their neighbours in Somalia they’ll be peaking on the khat cycle about 2pm local time tomorrow.
I can see this bear becoming some sort of symbol of dislike of the Muslims, to be paraded proudly by people who have had enough of Islam’s whinging, uncivilised and violent ways.
Charles James Napier
“You say that it is your custom to burn widows. Very well. We also have a custom: when men burn a woman alive, we tie a rope around their necks and we hang them. Build your funeral pyre; beside it, my carpenters will build a gallows. You may follow your custom. And then we will follow ours.”
This seems quite apropos to me for some reason.
My only hope is that the islamists will continue to rub out noses in this sort of thing long enough for even the most obtuse to recognize that the only thing tolerant societies CANNOT tolerate is violent intolerance.
Anyone who is familiar with the writings of Theodore Dalrymple (or the scientific literature on domestic violence which is MUCH less well written) will recognize this as the technique used by serial spouse abusers to ensure that their victims must continuously obsess about the abuser in order to avoid punishment. Because this punishment is essentially arbitrary and cannot really this either causes slavish obedience or mere learned helplessness, either being an acceptable outcome for the abuser.
Brian Micklethwait: I may have been a bit unfair on the MCB man, but not that unfair: his whole demeanour did not look confident to me; some of his comments were good though.
…….andwon.
Looking back on that incident I feel a deep shame; not for the US per se but for the gutless Carter; the worst POTUS ever to be inflicted on Americans by the soi-disant liberal intelligentia. I know it’s easy to say but had the problem been faced then, we would not have it now.
Millennial oxymoron: Moderate Islam.
The Sudanese gent, who looks like Chuck Berrys younger brother, and appeared to be dressed to “go on” somewhere afterwards (possibly Annabels)
smirked his way through the entire interview.
He knows perfectly well how utterly butterly insane this is.
I have no time for Bungla, but this time the boy done good.
I’m with Nick, it is probably a plot to shut the school. It is already closed just in case some irrate gentlemen in beards appear outside bearing sharp implements and fire bombs.
I feel very sorry for the teacher, but the Sudan is last place on earth I’d chose for my mid life crisis.
But I rather hope there are many more incidents like this which point to Islam being the utterly barbaric thin skinned stupidity that it is. Then perhaps more people will wake up to It’s true nature and scope.
Then again, I bet the Teddy Bear was made in China.
Could this be a cunning Commie plot to cut the west out of the race for Sudanese Crude? 😉
~ With acknowledgement to Monty Python ~
SUDANESE OFFICIAL:
Gillian Gibbons?
GILLIAN:
Do I say ‘yes’?
OFFICIAL:
Yes.
GILLIAN:
Yes.
OFFICIAL:
You have been found guilty under Sharia law of allowing a Teddy to be named after the Prophet, peace be upon him, and so, as a blasphemer,…
COURT:
Ooooh!
OFFICIAL:
…you are to be sentenced to 40 lashes.
COURT:
Ahhhh! Will she be naked?
GILLIAN:
Look. I – It’s a recognised ‘right on’ educational practice to allow kids to name teddies and take them home, all I did was not tell them they were wrong, because that might damage their self respect, when they named it Mohammed.
COURT:
Oooooh!
OFFICIAL:
Blasphemy! She’s condoning it!
COURT:
Yes! Yes, she did! She did!…
OFFICIAL:
Did you hear her?!
COURT:
Yes! Yes, we did! We did!…
GILLIAN:
Look. I don’t think it ought to be blasphemy, just calling a teddy ‘Mohammed’.
COURT:
Oooh! She’s at it again! Oooh!…
OFFICIAL:
You’re only making it worse for yourself!
A shadow is falling on the world.
Milliband has put out a pathetic statement banging on about how valuable Muslims are to us here in England, how wonderful the religion is and how much we respect it.
The truth is that whatever Islam has been in the past, it is not now. We are dealing with a violent, angry and medieval ideology, managed by hateful men who increasingly are gaining access to the world’s most deadly weapons. Which makes Milliband’s statement so naive.
Sudan is a classic example. No amount of aid, ‘engagement’, nice sounding platitudes, appeasement or ‘diplomacy’ will change the direction this country is taking – under an arabic wahhabi sect, hellbent on extermination of all human beings who will not submit to their ideology. They draw inspiration from Iran, of course, the elephant in the room that everyone seems to have forgotten.
In this instance, our message should be clear – we will take violent action against your interests unless our citizen is released; all aid will be frozen for a specific time period; sanctions will be applied against the animals that run the place, in other words, don’t fuck with us, you 3rd world, primitive savages, or you’ll get a real taste of 1st world superiority – and your God wont be there to help you.
The wider picture is more grave. As I see it, extreme Islam is emboldened. Israel is being forced to concede to dictatorships like Syria. Iran is close to getting the bomb. Africa is starting to submit. Our government is failing us and is shying away from an inevitable conflict, just at a time when we could inflict defeat on our enemies.
TD,
This incident, like every similar one, is a self-inflicted wound by Islam. The guys and gals over at Load Islam and Islamicaweb forums are mortified about it. RAB is right about this – Islam is continually showing it’s true, bonkers, malignant colours. It is partly for this reason that I simply don’t see it taking over Europe through conversion. Immigration and birth rates are a different matter.
Now then!
Who’s for Mohammed Pudsy
next Children In Need?
Splutter of outrage!!!
But the Prophet never had a bandage
over one eye.
He had 20/20. He needed it to get his little willie into…
Nick: you are definitely on to something, but i could easily go with Walter’s take as well. I am surprised no one has mentioned a stark resemblance to the recent Bulgarian nurses “crisis” in Libia.
TD: conceding to Syria? Not so fast. BTW, a nuclear expert here in Israel says that the thing that we bombed last month was not an enrichment plant, but an actual bomb.
Folks, the FCO is very clear: “We cannot… interfere in criminal or civil court proceedings…”. If you’re going to go to a foreign country, their laws apply. They may be stupid laws, they may be distasteful laws, they may be evil laws — but you chose to go there, and you chose to perform whatever the action was.
Now, whether the Sudanese government has a decent grasp of realpolitik and chooses to intervene in it’s own legal process is something else.
So is the prospect of the FCO issuing a statement that “We must discourage, in the strongest possible terms, travel by British nationals to the following nations:…Sudan,…. We find that the legal and cultural settings of these nations are so foreign to the legal and cultural systems with which British nationals are familair, that there exists substantial risk of inadvertent transgression with potentially catastrophic consequences.”
Her plight is appaling because radical Islam is appaling, but I’m having trouble letting her completely off the hook in my mind too. People who go to foreign countries as aid workers are responsible for learning something of the local culture. It shouldn’t shock anyone, certainly not at this late date, that places like Sudan are full of unfair, misogynist, intolerant, supersitious chauvinists whose sensibilities are easily, and selectively, offended. Saying that we’re “appalled” that muslim radicals are acting out their stereotype strikes me as a bit complicit in the western media conspiracy to paint radical Islam out to be something much nicer than it really is.
If the western left were honest about radical Islam, we would expect things like this as par for the course. For my part, I’ve filed it away to put on my long list of reasons why radical Islam is every bit as bad as its cracked up to be – you know, for the next time some hippie tells me I’m being “intolerant” for calling it barbarian. I don’t feel much sorrier for this woman than I do for an animal rights activist who gets mauled trying to befriend a bear. It would be one thing if she didn’t know what she was getting into, but the natures of governments like Sudan’s are well known to anyone who opens their eyes. She ought to have known better.
She got 15 days prison. Message is clear – this Brown government will not protect innocent citizens. It is weak. That has already come across loud and clear to the Iranians, hence the farcical navy hostages. It will also come across clearly to the Sudanese and other would be Iran states: expect more hostage taking and humiliating episodes.
Dark times for England.
Alisa,
I’ve read up on that – it appeared on Defense Tech or somewhere which I think linked to an article in Haaretz (I think). It does look like the IAF hit something rather, er… special. I’ve just heard Ms Gibbons has just got 15 days followed by deportation. I sincerely hope we cut all aid to Sudan. This is unputupable with. There’s an obvious reason for that. A reactor takes time to build and the optimum time to hit it is just before it gets turned on. That slows the process down much more than hitting it early in development. I utterly fail to understand why the Syrians have been largely let off the hook.
I have sporadically followed this very thoughtful (at least what I read of it) blogging over at Harry’s Place.
Anyway, yeah, Walter has a point which must certainly be considered. I also think BladeDoc is onto something too. This is not a case of Ms Gibbons transgressing some fixed but farcical rule – this is making up law on the fly. And my understanding (and I think davem says this somewhere in his Syrian blogging) this is not just a tactic of domestic violence. The domestic violence version is merely the micro-version. The macro-version is stock in trade of totalitarianism – just keep shifting the goal-posts continuously so that everyone is utterly terrified.
I’m not saying BladeDoc is wrong at all. There is (I am sure) a link. And that’s Qatar which is allegedly a moderate Islamic state.
God knows about how it plays in less, er… liberal Islamic milleaus. I do suspect at root of this there is also the usual Islamic misogyny.
Ms Gibbons will have to take her punishment. We must accept that Britain cannot stop it.
She will be released early to show how kind muslim Sudan is the a British lady.
I am more concerned that the government here can prosecute me if I insult religion
Obviously it’s completely moronic.
But it astounds me how naive do-gooders can be. Surely this woman knew Sudan was run by complete idiots before she went to work there?
I don’t see this as justifying military action. As the generals have been complaining recently, our forces are stretched to breaking point anyway. They should cut the aid off, but then we shouldn’t be giving foreign aid in the first place.
Joshua,
You conflict me. Whilst the odds on me ever pitching my tent in an Islamic majority state are infinitesimal and always have been. I feel sorry for Ms Gibbons because I can’t help but feel that the specifics of what she was convicted of were invented after the fact. You can’t blame her for that. I do agree (and was greatly amused by) RAB’s comment that Sudan would be pretty much the last place he’d want to have a mid-life crisis. I wouldn’t mind having one in Southern Florida or, if Africa, Botswana or Kenya, but The Sudan… My wife did languages at University and she had an option of doing joint honours Russian and Arabic (or the GCHQ fast-track as they called it) and she stuck with just the Russian (and a little Czech and Polish) because she couldn’t face the idea of spending six months in Leeds Uni’s then chosen exchange site – Yemen. Maybe she could’ve hacked Dubai but Yemen? But despite all that, look at this. Sounds alright doesn’t it? Look at the rest of the site. I fail to see any references to naming soft-toys for a primary school class after a kid in that class who also shares his name with the prophet of Islam will result in criminal prosecution.
You know what really winds me up? UKGov moved Heaven and Earth to get Gitmo detainees released back into freedom in Britain and yet they did fuck-all for this poor woman. The RAF even sent a C-17 to pick them up (cost us GBP 30,000). Hey ya know last time I flew Trans-Atlantic I paid for it and had my shoes X-rayed and my laptop dusted for explosives and all I got for my trouble was an economy class seat in an A-330. Perhaps I should’ve declared war on NATO. We also use C-17s to repatriate our war-dead. I hopethey hosed it out after we transported “our” Taliban. You know some of them had left Birmingham (England’s second city) to Afghanistan for “computer courses”… Jeez Louise most Afghans don’t even have electricity.
Cynic you will treasure the following:
Neil Cavuto to Ann Coulter on Fox News (the quotes are NOT exact, but they are the gist of what was said).
“Ron Paul said last night that the United States government should not give aid to anti American governments, governments like that of the Sudan, but that we keep doing it – is he right?”
Ann replied.
“Of course he is right…. we should not take the money from the taxpayers and….”
As you know I am no great fan of Ron Paul, and Ann Coulter most likely thinks a lot worse of him than I do – but he scored with this point.
RAB.
The P.R.C. got a grip on the oil in the Sudan years ago. It is game over on that – although some important people may not understand this.
Anyway:
Stephen Marks (I will not say “no relation” as he is English and I am not sure he is not a relation) reported on Fox News that the government of the Sudan has been distributing leaflets and other such to the people to whip up hatred over this whole affair.
So, yes, it is a set up – radical Islam does not just appear, powerful people cultivate it.
“You know what really winds me up? UKGov moved Heaven and Earth to get Gitmo detainees released back into freedom in Britain and yet they did fuck-all for this poor woman.”
They should not be thoiught of a “Gitmo detainees”,but as NuLabor voters,NL are dependent on the Inner City vote in England.
BTW isn’t it ironic just as Broon gets to run in his new Smiley Hollywood teeth the world goes shit shaped? So the poor bugger is left with a toothy avuncular grin during times of great moment.
Poor Miss Gibbons,easy,Western influence is being eradicated from Muslim countries whilst Islam is inundating the West.
Nick, from your link:
Take a few extra hours, and you can witness an authentic live action genocide!
I am not saying that she deserves this, but she must have been following the news?
Well up until about three months ago I was an inner city voter as well. I do not believe Islam is inundating the West. It’s trying but it’s so obnoxious that it hasn’t a hope in hell.
Alisa,
Well, yes. But… I don’t believe that. I think people like Ms Gibbons thought they could help. However misguided that may have been they deserve our protection. Having said that the real question is about how we feel about what this implies about the welfare of women (especially) in such shit-holes. It is that that makes me militant. I have specifically not mentioned FGM but you really don’t want to get me started upon that.
“I do not believe Islam is inundating the West. It’s trying but it’s so obnoxious that it hasn’t a hope in hell.”
Depends how old you are,if you had lived in Manchester forty years agao,you would notice a distinct difference
WalterBoswell:
Do you have a link to that imam? That’s too good a story to pass up. I mean, if I REALLY wanted to insult Turkey on Thanksgiving I’d eat Greek food. And I’m just so sure that the Turks will really care what I do or don’t eat.
Hell, if this were part of a campaign of wider attacks on Islam, I think we’d have noticed. We have nuclear weapons and the coordinates of Mecca and Medina and a crapload of soldiers in several Muslim countries. Either we in the West are really incompetent at conspiracies or we don’t normally think that idiocy necessarily justifies mass murder.
I mean, I don’t think I reacted like this when Andres Serrano submerged a crucifix in a jar of urine. And I’m pretty sure I didn’t call for anyone to be killed over the guy in Chicago who smeared elephant crap on a picture of the Virgin. Hell, I don’t think anybody here even really rolls his eyes over the “Too many Christians, not enough lions” bumper stickers anymore.
I’ll shove off now. I’ve got the flu, and it’s making me cranky, and normally I’m all about tolerance and mutual respect but I’d be IP-banned if I said what I really think of Sudan and multicultural sensitivity right now. Being sick puts me in the “Wear a t-shirt in a mosque, which shows Muhammad (PBUH) being sodomized by a pig” kind of mood and makes me want to get all Joe Swanson on people who think like this.
Sunfish: unsurprisingly, that was in NYC, not Chicago.
hope you feel better soon:-)
Sunfish, you’ve confused me now. Like yourself, I am usually the very model of tolerance and reason, but I’ve just named my backside Mohammed and I only have a slight cold.
You don’t think I’m coming down with a secondary infection of some sort?
The final outrage!
Sunfish: being sick puts me in the “Wear a t-shirt in a mosque, which shows Muhammad (PBUH) being sodomized by a pig” kind of mood
PBUH meaning Pig Buggering Up Him, I suppose?
Conviction=deportation. I bet Jacqui Smith is jealous.
Greenepeace are running a public vote, until the 7th December, to ‘name a whale’. They’ve restricted voting to a list of 30 namby-pamby right-on names.
I’ve just created a Facebook group ‘Name the Greenpeace Whale Muhammad(Link)‘, the intention is to get people to write into Greenpeace with this fine suggestion and then sit back as one group of lunatics tries to behead another group of lunatics.
I’m awaiting the suspension of my Facebook account.
Unfortunate and undeserved though Gillian Gibbons’ plight may be she has done one thing that massively increased her chances of suffering such a misfortune.
She went to work in an Islamic state that appears to be at best ambivalent towards the genocide being perpetrated by the Government linked Janjaweed militia, possibly on religious grounds.
Anyone who puts themselves in the power of such a regime potentially puts themselves in harm’s way.
The same holds true in many other states, to a greater, or lesser extent. Witness the westerners who appear to have been… shall we say ‘wrongly convicted‘, by the Saudi authorities on bombing charges over (you couldn’t make it up) an alcohol ring -couldn’t possibly have been Islamicists…
By all means people should feel free to go, if they don’t find supporting such regimes with their skills and knowledge, or tourist pounds, repugnant – but they should also remember that all a British passport will get them these days is a right of entry back into the EU, including Britain.
It will be fascinating to see if all hell breaks loose after Friday prayers. If the Sudanese are like their neighbours in Somalia they’ll be peaking on the khat cycle about 2pm local time tomorrow.
You should be up for Prediction of the Day Nick!
The beards are on the streets demanding she be shot!!
Whether that is after a bit of public flogging I know not.
These people remind me of the sheriff in Blazing Saddles taking himself hostage, but no where near as funny.
RAB,
Don’t you see the progress being made here? They’re talking about shooting her, not stoning her. Fuck me, they might even reach the Enlightenment some time this millennium! The real scandal is that we, the taxpayers of the UK, bung those ass-clowns in Khartoum GBP 113m per anum. A lot of this money is to promote peace in Darfur… Well, that’s worked well hasn’t it?
Prediction of the Day, RAB? Predicting violence and threats from the followers of Moo-ham-head is like predicting the sunrise. I am amazed that strategically shaved monkey in Tehran hasn’t chipped in his two dinars.
Roger,
touche, sir! I was trying to come up with something like that and I couldn’t get beyond the Pig Buggering Ultra Haram. You have, alas, re-awoken my swear-blogging tendancies.