From what CNN reported, Muslims in Sudan are now calling for Ms. Gibbons to be put to death. These are the same group of people who imprison women for the audacity of having been raped. These are the same people who rioted in the streets and killed a Danish cartoonist due to one of his drawings.

I understand the need for tolerance. However, when a group consistently acts intolerant toward the rest of civilized society, we should not tolerate intolerance.

I am really losing patience with the whole Islamic thing. The more I see of Muslims, the less I am convinced that “Islam is a religion of peace.” If it’s so peaceful, why do so many of them turn out to call for death over nonsensical issues? We’re not talking about demonstrations with a few dozen or a couple of hundred people. We’re talking about gatherings of thousands. And they happen every time someone decides that someone they don’t like insulted Mohammed or Islam or whatever.

I’m beginning to think that the “extremists” are not so few in number as the “moderates” want us to believe. I’m sure there are moderate and even liberal Muslims, but it appears as if they, rather than the so-called extremists on the fringes, are the minority. I ‘m beginning to wonder if the “extreme” is actually the “norm.” I hope I’m wrong.

It should be okay for her children to name the bear whatever they please. At this point in human history you’d think we were beyond something this silly.

Maybe the entire non-Muslim community should take a stance of naming all our teddy bears Muhammad… make it ubiquitous. Don’t be afraid of negative reactions–they’re all scare tactics.

I was disappointed with the media when they acquiesced to not displaying the Danish cartoon of Muhammad for the same reasons: fear. Its exactly the reaction these radical fundamentalists wanted.

I’m going to name all my childhood toys Muhammad! It’s a start.

I think I read that the representative of 90,000 British Muslin students spoke out against the punishment of Ms Gibbons, of course now I can’t find the link. If anyone has seen it please share.

The problem seems to come from the atttempt for clergy to encourage their flocks to be the best or better group by being more outraged. It reminds me of the Terri Schiavo case, and after 9/11 or Katrina when some of the farthest right jumped to the edges to go the farthest in condemning liberals, gays or whoever to show their zeal.

This is where Humanists need to reach out to moderate and liberal religious people and help them find a voice to start talking counter to the noise the more fundamentlalist speakers are making. Perhaps in this way we can help bring the conversation into a saner place.

This is exactly the sort of thing that ought to be confronted, directly and pointedly, in the rhetoric of humanists or anyone else who isn’t a flaming extremist. It’s the perfect example of what happens when religious “sensibility” (read: hyper-offendability) becomes codified into law. Immoderate, draconian, cruelly and unusually punitive.

Imagine, Gillian Gibbons getting lashed and jailed for naming a teddy bear. No amount of cultural liberality or well-intentioned attempts to “understand their point of view” makes this any less horrifying.

If the two Muslim peers of the UK had not dropped everything to go down and rescue her, I shudder to think of what would (not might!) have happened.

What can you do with people who see everything except 100% conformity to their rigid insistences as a grave insult requiring a violent response?

As for moderate Muslims, it may be that they’re afraid of the extremists in their community. I lived in Pakistan for 5 years, met a lot of intelligent, well-read, highly admirable Muslims there. When I asked why more moderates don’t speak up louder and ‘take back’ Islam from the extremists, the most frequent answer was, “They’ll kill us,” or variations on that theme.

When the cartoons come out lampooning this event, there will be more screaming protests and acts of violence, I’m sad to predict. But we should not bend over backwards in rhetoric or action to try to mollify them. It just encourages them.

My first reaction to Lisa’s comments was to disagree with her tolerant approach to the issue- it offends me that I should somehow respect the beliefs of people who would jail a person for nothing any rational human being would consider an offence. But on further thought, confronting intolerance with more of the same is hardly a way to foster the building of a common humanity, and there is nothing to be gained by perpetual strife.

Up here in the snowy north of Canada the Muslim Canadian Congress (MCC) organized a teddy bear mail-in to the Sudanese Ambassador in Ottawa to protest Gibbon’s imprisonment. The spokesperson for the group was quoted in the National Post as saying, “If people don’t protest this, against this lunacy, where will our political correctness lead us to? This is contrary to any tradition of Islam.”

My congratulations go to the MCC for their unequivocal condemnation of the Sudanese government, and for choosing a peaceful and creatively appropriate method of expression. Mailing teddy bears is hardly saber-rattling that will inflame the issue, and it says as much about caring as it does disapproval.

When protest is driven by kindness it makes a powerful statement. There’s a lesson here that Ms. Gibbon’s students would no doubt understand, and one that politicians and activists could learn from as well.