Sudan Detains British Teacher Over 'Muhammad' Bear

LONDON, Nov. 27 -- British officials were working Tuesday evening to secure the release of a British schoolteacher arrested in Sudan on allegations of blasphemy after children in her class in Khartoum named a teddy bear "Muhammad."

Prime Minister Gordon Brown said that he felt "very sorry" for Gillian Gibbons, 54, of Liverpool, and that officials were working with the Sudanese government "so that she can be released soon."

In a case echoing last year's controversy over Danish newspaper cartoons lampooning Muhammad, Sudanese authorities said Gibbons had insulted the prophet by allowing her 7-year-old pupils to give his name to a toy bear.

"We don't have any teddy bears over here, so in Sudan, for us, it is a fierce and dangerous animal," Khalid al-Mubarak, a spokesman for the Sudanese Embassy in London, told the BBC. "The cultural background is very different. That is a very important point."

Students in Gibbons's class named the bear in September as part of a class study of animals and their habitats. Gibbons was arrested after some parents complained to authorities.

Mubarak called the matter a "storm in a teacup" and said he believed it would be treated "as a minute complaint."

Foreign Office officials said that they had visited Gibbons in police detention on Monday and that she had not been formally charged with a crime.

Friends of Gibbons told reporters Tuesday that she had been fascinated by Sudan and went to teach there to learn more about its culture. Sudan is a predominantly Muslim country.

Gill Langworthy, who taught with Gibbons in Liverpool, called the episode "an innocent mistake" and said Gibbons would be "devastated that she has insulted and offended anyone," according to Britain's Press Association.

In Liverpool, the city's Anglican bishop and top Muslim leader issued a joint statement calling on Sudanese authorities to show mercy.

"We, as Christian and Muslim leaders in the city of Liverpool, appeal to the Sudanese government to show compassion in the name of God the most merciful and release Gillian Gibbons," said the statement from the Right Rev. James Jones and Akbar Ali, chairman of Liverpool Mosque.

The Danish cartoon controversy that began in late 2005 led to violent protests around the globe by Muslims outraged over the perceived insult to Islam. The Sudanese case has not led to similar protests.

"I don't consider it to be blasphemous," said Humera Khan, a member of al-Nisa, a Muslim women's organization in London.

In an interview, Khan said that in addition to the issue of reverence for Muhammad, Muslims generally do not give human names to objects or animals. "Our relationship with inanimate objects and animals is not as sentimental as in the West," she said.

Khan said Gibbons "should have been more aware" of the cultural sensitivities in the country where she was living. But, she said, the Sudanese "government shouldn't have been so stupid, either."

"I just hope this gets over and done with quickly," she said.