Gillian Gibbons pardoned and will be released soon

[harpsichordcarrier]

here

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I agree with Issy.

Anyway, well done Baroness Warsi and Lord Ahmed, because I bet the negotiations were v delicate, even so. And they did pin thier personal colours to the mast of common sense and use thier status as Muslims to do so.

Since the Gvt had backed themselves into a corner, allowing the Islamic radicals in the country to get their own way as a way to keep rpessure off their gvt, they are now in the situation where they tacitly allowed the sword-weilding mob to riot for her execution...and now have to handle the presumably even more enraged sword-weilders. An own goal, in the end.

Pardon?

The way a job gets done almost always effects whether it gets done well or not - especially when persuading other notions / countries / cultures to do stuff.

Iraq.

No I;m not MMJ, studied it at Uni though.

From an academic angle I think its rather silly, OK she should have known better but all the suggestions are it wasn't even her anyway- one of the kids named it after himself (its OK to name a child in honoour of the Prophet but nothing else).

Had the evidence been she did it herself and knowingly I'd have been a bit hmm at intervention simply because we expect poeple who come here to live by our laws (unless violence- there was a suggestion of lashes at one stage- was involved in the punishment which I detest at every level).

But in this case, I think its all a cock up mixed with a bit of malevolence and political profit, and the poor woman got into the mix completely by accident.

Oh FFS! Nit -pickers!

I was delighted for the poor woman involved, which is the whole point of this thread.

(mmm - Peachy - if a teacher is in charge of a class of 7 year-olds, i don't think 'the kids did it' makes much sense...she was in charge of the naming of the bear - for better for worse...and, in a sense, what if she was, iyswim)

What Blu said - thanks to Baroness Warsi and Lord Ahmed, good result for Mrs Gibbons. Excellent strategy to show the Muslim community of Sudan that we have senior members of Government from all faiths in the UK.

Know what you mean Blu but there's a difference between say agreeing to a suggestion from a child, and for what the law was presumably drawn up for- had she named a dog Muhammad or taken in a bear and introduced him as such.

From a Western perspective its all a bit stupid definitely, in somewhere like Sudan I think she got off lightly with 15 days TBH, but its made a damned effective smokescreen from all teh problems in darfur atm- peacekeepers going in under equipped as nobody would donate any helicopters, seriosu under subscription of forces, etc.

I am hugely relieved, anyway.

On Friday DP, (Asian) was shouted at by two Yr 6 kids from DS's school, accusing him of being somehow implicated. He had a bit of chat with them - refused to tell them whether or not he was a uslim (said it wasn't relevant - most Muslims didn't agree with her being locked up, he didn't, and to think carefully about what you are saying before deciding what someone thinks because of eh way they look etc.....but it crossed our minds that they could have chosen to say it to DS rather than DP.

Oh for crying out loud Blu, that's dreadful
Have you reported this to the school, could it be time for a Respect for All Belief Systems assembly?

So glad that she is being released. This whole affair has been puerile and vindictive, especially in light of the government backed slaughter in Darfur.

Also, whoever said that the foreign office had not been doing anything is at best extremely naive and at worst, extremely dumb. Employing the services of two high profile Muslims with political gravitas that was palatable to the Sudanese government was a well executed strategy.

yes, I think we will mention it, so that she can keep an eye.
The kids are actually refugee kids and living in care...I think it is a case of stereotyping, and making presumptions about people based on looks - they are boys who are either very confrontational or very 'needy'. They did listen to DP and had a sensible conversation with him

Well done your DP Blu- just the sort of convo that will help them change their views hopefully. But it would be good to keep your head in the picture too.

blimey. well done blu dp