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A leading critic of Islam says it is absolutely absurd that Muslims in the Sudan would call for the death of a British schoolteacher-simply because she allowed her students to name a teddy bear "Muhammad."Gillian Gibbons is safely back in Britain after being jailed for more than a week in the Sudan. The 54-year-old teacher was released after two Islamic members of Britain's House of Lords met with the Sudanese president; the teacher also sent the president a statement saying she did not mean any offense.Robert Spencer, director of Jihad Watch-a project of the David Horowitz Freedom Center, says Gibbons should have had the right to offend Islam if she wanted to. "Giving offense is something that is inevitable and if it punished in any way with this kind of violent intimidation then it has the effect of completely destroying the freedom of inquiry because you're a protected class that is above all questioning and criticism,"he argues.Western leaders-Muslim and non-Muslim alike-he contends, ought to be standing up for the principle of freedom of speech on Gibbons' behalf. "They have emphasized that she didn't mean any harm, that she didn't mean to insult Muhammad," Spencer notes. "And the question that occurs to me when I hear that is: what if she did? Would that make it okay for her to be arrested and imprisoned and threatened with far worse?"Spencer, however, argues that the reaction should be a surprise to no one, judging from the violence perpetrated by Muslims following the publishing of controversial cartoons of Muhammad in 2005. "It's the same thing happening over and over-violent, absolutely irrational, and absurdly disproportionate reactions to what should be considered to be no provocation at all," he says.What it basically amounts to, he suggests, is an attempt by Muslims to "strong-arm the West" into not criticizing Islam.As in the days of Noah....
