Mrs. Gibbons, a native of Liverpool, England, who had been teaching at the Unity High School in Khartoum since July, decided that it would be fun for her six- and seven-year-old students to name a teddy bear. Then each student would be able to take the teddy bear home for a visit and write an essay on that and share it with the class.

The students suggested Hassan, Abdullah and Muhammed as possible names for the bear – no one suggested Winnie or Pooh, I’m afraid, and therein lies the problem. Where did these tiny Sudanese tikes get those naming ideas? Simple … from themselves.

Within Mrs. Gibbons’ class of 20 or so students, there were a number of students named Hassan, Abdullah and Muhammed. Kids in her class were not familiar with the Hundred Acre Wood and they did not want to be bogged down in the problem of naming rights, so these seven-year-olds went with the obvious choices – their own names.

Perhaps not fully understanding that Sudan is a brutal, violent and barbaric dictatorship where the very ideas of democracy and free votes are anathema, Mrs. Gibbons did the unthinkable when she allowed her students to vote on the name of the aforementioned toy bear. By an overwhelming majority Muhammed was the winner. In fact, one seven-year-old boy named Muhammed took the lead and campaigned among his classmates for the name. And the naming of the bear constitutes the crime of insulting Islam.

That’s it. Nothing more. There was no submerging furry Muhammed Bear in a beaker of urine, ala Andres Serrano’s Piss Christ. No one took a hammer and knocked the stuffing out of the little guy like the Taliban did to countless ancient statues of Buddha. Nope, all that happened was a group of kids, named Muhammed, voted to name a toy bear Muhammed.

The court, operating under the Islamic justice system known as sharia law, convicted Mrs. Gibbons in a matter of minutes. They could have sentenced her to be beaten with a whip 40 times. They could have imprisoned her for an extended period of time. Instead, bowing to international pressure, they ordered her to be deported after serving 15 days in prison. Fortunately Mrs. Gibbons was released earlier this week, after diplomats secured a pardon for her “crimes” from Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir.

But it didn’t always look like common sense would prevail. Indeed, after learning the Mrs. Gibbons would receive a 15-day jail sentence, leading Islamic preachers in Khartoum whipped up a frenzy among their mostly illiterate followers during afternoon prayers. Thousands of men streamed out of mosques armed with swords, knives, axes and sticks, all demanding that Mrs. Gibbons be executed. Seventh-century barbarians living in the 21st century screaming for her head on a platter and all willing to do the job.

And leaving her fate in the hands of Omar al-Bashir, who is pretty busy as the president, prime minister, chief of state, minister of defense and chief of the armed forces of Sudan, was no sure bet. In addition to his myriad political, governmental and military posts, al-Bashir is closely involved in supporting the junjaweed terrorist forces that operate in the southern Sudan, especially Darfur. With the support of Islamic leaders throughout Sudan, he has given the green light to the junjaweed terrorists to rape, pillage and plunder. In fact al-Bashir, his Khartoum-based imams and the junjaweed have been engaged in a most disgusting reign of terror and have been practicing genocide against the population in Darfur.

Six years after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, here is yet another wake up call. So many examples of practitioners of the religion of peace being anything but peaceful over the last six years should have awakened the West, but the case of the teddy bear may be the clearest lesson yet.

If this whole thing were not so ludicrous, so absolutely insane, you could almost laugh about it. Who could threaten to beat a middle-aged school marm over the naming of a child’s toy? Can you even imagine a collection of Jews threatening to harm a teacher who named a bear Moses? Would Christians be taking to the streets with machetes if Saul of Tarsus were the moniker for a first-grader’s plush friend?

Isaiah tells us that a little child will lead. Perhaps in this case, it is the little child’s toy that leads us by providing light to see the chasm between the 21st century and the seventh century.