KHARTOUM, Sudan — A British teacher was arrested in Sudan for allegedly insulting Islam by naming a teddy bear Muhammad, taken as a reference to Islam’s prophet and founder, the Sudan Media Center said Monday.
The teacher, who wrote the name on the bear, was being interrogated Monday, the semiofficial center said. She was arrested Sunday after the Ministry of Education filed a complaint, acting on behalf of a parent of one of her students.
The British Foreign Office identified her as Gillian Gibbons, 54, and said her 7-year-old students named the bear when she asked them to. It was not clear whether Gibbons intended to name the bear after the prophet. Muhammad is a common name in the Muslim world.
The school could not be reached for comment, and the British Embassy in Khartoum did not return calls. The Associated Press
