Be Afraid, Be Very Afraid

News report:
(CNN) -- Sudan has arrested a British teacher for insulting faith and religion, the British Foreign Office said Monday.
Blasphemy is punishable with 40 lashes under Islamic Sharia law, Britain's Press Association news agency reported.
http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/africa/11/26/sudan.bear/

In a past article I laid into George W. Bush for being dumb but the Sudanese Government has topped even Georgie Boy. Does religion make people dumb or do dumb people fall for religion? I don’t suppose I should expect less from an Islamist country. I worry about America becoming a Christian theocracy but I am seriously frightened by Islamic governments. A class of 7-year olds names a teddy bear Mohammed, a common enough name in the Muslim world, and the teacher is arrested for blasphemy. She faces imprisonment and possibly 40 lashes. It sounds like something out of the Inquisition in the middle-ages but it’s happening all around the world in Muslim controlled countries right here in the 21st century.
Grown men with the education and experience to run whole countries want to whip a 54 year old, elementary school teacher because a teddy bear in her classroom was given the same name as the primary prophet of the local religion. I just can’t even begin to express how seriously wrong this is.
One thing I can say is that this would never happen in a non-sectarian government. You want to name your doll Richard (as in Dawkins) or name your dog Bertrand (as in Russell) or draw cartoons about any atheist or humanist popular figure? Go ahead. No jail time, no whips. We can take it. Speaking of which, these Muslims and their violent actions remind me of a saying from when I was a kid: “They can dish it out but they can’t take it”. Some tiny little (supposed) insult and they’re rioting in the streets, burning buildings, harming people… I generally avoid vulgarity but the word “assholes” comes to mind.