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British Muslims protested outside the Sudanese Embassy over the treatment of jailed teacher Gillian Gibbons. The small but noisy group demanded the immediate release of Mrs Gibbons, who is currently serving a 15-day prison sentence in Sudan after her class of seven-year-olds named a teddy bear Mohammed.

If we didn’t actually see it would we believe it? British middle school teacher Gillian Gibbons sits in fear of her life in a Sudanese jail because she named a teddy bear given to her students, Muhammad. The 21st century has now met the 14th century in real time and although the result sounds like a page out of “Ripley’s Believe it or Not” this is real life in real time this week in America and the rest of the world.

Many in the British press are aghast at the almost complete lack of reaction by the British Foreign Office over the outrageous jailing of British schoolteacher Gillian Gibbons in Sudan on the charge of insulting religion and inciting hatred, after her class of 7-year-olds named their teddy bear “Mohammed.”  Gibbons, a teacher with an impeccable record who went to Sudan to help local children, is now being held in a crowded cell with 20 hardened criminals in Khartoum’s notorious mosquito-infested Omdurman prison.  The jail was originally designed for 50 people, but now houses up to 1,400.  Yet the British Foreign...

But the point is that the right not to be offended is now the most sacred right in the world. The right to freedom of speech, freedom of association, freedom of movement, all are as nothing compared with the universal right to freedom from offense. It's surely only a matter of time before "sensitivity training" is matched by equally rigorous "inoffensiveness training" courses. East is east, and west is west, and in both we take offense at anything: Santas saying "Ho ho ho," teddy bears called Mohammed. And yet the difference is very telling: The now-annual Santa lawsuits in the...

In Khartoum today, a crowd described by some as numbering in the hundreds and by others in the thousands, marched in support of a death sentence for Gillian Gibbons, the British schoolteacher who was convicted of insulting Islam after her class of seven-year-olds named a teddy bear "Muhammad": The protesters, some carrying swords, screamed, “Shame, shame on the U.K.!” and, “Kill her, kill her by firing squad.” The demonstration followed Friday evening services in which imams denounced Ms. Gibbons, but some observers said that the marchers included "government employees ordered to demonstrate." Others said that the protest didn't seem especially...

My local paper (Naples Daily News/ Florida) has nothing on the Teddy Bear story. Does yours?

...There has been appropriate international outrage over the treatment of Gibbons, from virtually everyone except American “feminists.” Multiple Muslim groups in the U.K. have condemned the sentence. Even the popular little boy in Mrs. Gibbons’ class who suggested the name for the bear came to her defense, explaining that he named the bear after himself.

Carrying swords and machetes and waving green Islamic flags, protesters marched through the streets of Khartoum yesterday demanding the execution of British teacher Gillian Gibbons. "No one lives who insults the prophet," read one of the banners outside the British embassy. More than 1,000 Muslim demonstrators in the Sudanese capital called for her to be shot or stabbed for insulting Islam after her pupils called a teddy bear Muhammad. Gibbons, 54, of Liverpool, was sentenced on Thursday night to 15 days in jail followed by deportation in a case that has attracted international condemnation. Last night she was moved from...

Protesters burn the picture of British teacher Gillian Gibbons during a demonstration after Friday prayers in Khartoum, November 30, 2007. Hundreds of Sudanese Muslims, waving green Islamic flags, took to the streets of Khartoum on Friday demanding death for the British teacher convicted of insulting Islam after her class named a teddy bear Mohammad. (Mohamed Nureldin Abdalla/Reuters) Sudanese protesters burn the picture of the British teacher Gillian Gibbons during a demonstration after the Friday prayers in Khartoum, November 30, 2007. Hundreds of Sudanese Muslims, waving green Islamic flags, took to the streets of Khartoum on Friday demanding death for Gibbons...

Thousands of Sudanese, many armed with clubs and knives, rallied Friday in a central square and demanded the execution of a British teacher convicted of insulting Islam for allowing her students to name a teddy bear "Muhammad." In response to the demonstration, teacher Gillian Gibbons was moved from the women's prison near Khartoum to a secret location for her safety, her lawyer said. In Britain, Gibbons' son, John, told The Associated Press that her mother was "holding up well" and she made an appeal for tolerance. "One of the things my mum said today was that 'I don't want any...

KHARTOUM, Sudan (CNN) -- Hundreds of protesters brandishing swords and sticks gathered outside Khartoum's presidential palace Friday to vent their anger against a British teacher jailed for allowing children to name a teddy bear "Mohammed." About 600 Islamic demonstrators piled out of mosques, chanting: "By soul, by blood, I will fight for the Prophet Mohammad." Some of the protestors demanded the teacher's execution, according to the Associated Press. The decision by a Sudanese court to jail Gillian Gibbons late Thursday was widely criticized outside of Sudan as too harsh, with British Foreign Secretary David Miliband saying he was "extremely disappointed"...

KHARTOUM, Sudan — Thousands of Sudanese, many armed with clubs and knives, rallied Friday in a central square and demanded the execution of a British teacher convicted of insulting Islam for allowing her students to name a teddy bear "Muhammad." The protesters streamed out of mosques after Friday sermons, as pickup trucks with loudspeakers blared messages against Gillian Gibbons, the teacher who was sentenced Thursday to 15 days in prison and deportation. She avoided the more serious punishment of 40 lashes. "Shame, shame on the U.K.," protesters chanted.

The British teacher who let her pupils call a teddy bear Mohammed escaped a flogging yesterday - but must now endure 15 days in a notorious Sudan jail. Gillian Gibbons will be incarcerated at the squalid Omdurman women's prison in Khartoum, which is massively overcrowded and infested with mosquitoes. The 54-year-old from Liverpool was said to be "stunned" by the sentence imposed for insulting Islam - after which she will be deported from Sudan. Last night, her conviction and punishment were furiously condemned and the Foreign Office was criticised for not fighting her case more forcefully. "The sentence is a...

GOLDEN, B.C. – Rescuers who helped find a 3-year-old girl alive in the crumpled wreckage of an airplane in the rugged British Columbia mountains say they knew she was OK when she cried for her teddy bear. The girl, Kate Williams, miraculously survived the crash on Sunday because she was strapped into a child's car seat, said Mike Plonka, a member of Golden's search-and-rescue team. Her pilot grandfather, Allen D. Williams, 65, and Steven T. Sutton, died in the accident. The plane was found nose down and flipped over in the icy water on the edge of a riverbank. "What...

INDIANAPOLIS -- A math teacher whose name is used in a student film featuring an evil teddy bear that orders other stuffed animals to kill a teacher is suing the four children who made it, alleging it defamed him. Daniel Clevenger's lawsuit, filed May 16 in Henry Superior Court, is the second round of legal action related to the 78-minute film "The Teddy Bear Master." Two months ago, school officials settled a federal lawsuit filed by three of the students to fight their expulsion from Knightstown Intermediate School.

Jonesboro, Ark. (AP) -- A woman who reached into the open window of a car and stole a 3-year-old's teddy bear faces a felony charge for breaking and entering, Jonesboro police said Tuesday. Tonya Marie Taylor, 24, of Bono has a court appearance set for May 31 for allegedly taking the bear on Thursday, Jonesboro Police Detective Vic Brooks said. Brooks said Taylor didn't offer a reason for taking the bear. "That's a real good question," he said. Police were called to the parking lot of a video store, where the child's mother reported the theft. The woman said she...

"Barney the guard dog went berserk at a teddy bear exhibition in England and ripped the stuffing out of Elvis Presley's beloved bear Mabel, exhibitors said on Thursday." Check out link for rest of story... http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060803/ts_nm/elvis_dc;_ylt=AuzpyL0jdYtCWkACMspBlt6s0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTA3ODdxdHBhBHNlYwM5NjQ-

BARNEY, you ain’t nothing but a hound dog. You just ate Elvis’s teddy bear. It was a scene of carnage at a teddy bear display in Wookey Hole Caves near Wells, Somerset, when a dog employed to guard the collection went berserk and inflicted fatal injuries on some of the prized exhibits. Barney is a Doberman Pinscher, a dog first bred by a German tax collector around 1890 to protect him from his clients. Mabel is German, too, having been made in 1909 by the famed toymakers Steiff and is therefore an aristocrat among teddy bears. What made Mabel really...

This was received and forwarded by my great friend, a patriot who is serving missions in Iraq & Afghanistan. His is not the name that appears on the story, but he checked and confirmed there is a marine sergeant by this name. "A little girl was sitting in the road, and she just wouldn't budge." A story from Iraq, as told by a U.S. Marine Sergeant. As you know, I asked for toys for the Iraqi children over here, and they've come over by the box. On each patrol we take through the city, we take as many of these...

"Teddy Troopers’ perform important mission in Iraq" Spc. Derek Del Rosario Aviation Brigade PAO CAMP TAJI, Iraq – July 13, 2005-They can be seen parachuting into various areas around Baghdad. Specially trained individuals recruited during Operation Iraqi Freedom 3, whose primary mission is to bring smiles to the faces of Iraqi children. These airborne “Soldiers” are actually “Teddy Troopers” or “Para-Bears,” stuffed animals with makeshift parachutes jumping into the arms and hearts of children during Operation Teddy Drop. The commander for this unique operation is Chief Warrant Officer 4 Randy M. Kirgiss, pilot for C. Company, 4th Battalion, 3rd Aviation...