Gillian Gibbons

Khartoum, Nov. 27 (Reuters): A seven-year-old Sudanese student today defended the British teacher accused of insulting Islam saying he had chosen to call a teddy bear Mohammad because it was his own name.

Gillian Gibbons, a 54-year-old teacher at the Unity High School in Khartoum, was arrested on Sunday after complaints from parents that she had insulted Islam’s Prophet by allowing the bear to be named Mohammad. She is facing a third night in jail without being formally charged.

“The teacher asked me what I wanted to call the teddy,” the boy said shyly, his voice barely rising above a whisper. “I said Mohammad. I named it after my name,” he added. Sitting in his garden wearing shorts, his family, who did not want their full names used, urged him to describe what had happened.

He said he was not thinking of Prophet Mohammad when asked to suggest a name, adding that most of the class agreed with his choice.

In a writing exercise students were asked to keep a diary of what they did with the teddy bear. “Some people took the teddy home and took it places with them... like the swimming pool,” the child said.

Mohammad said Gibbons was “very nice” and he would be upset if she never came back to teach. He added Gibbons had not discussed religion nor did she mention the Prophet. “We studied maths and English and spelling,” he said.

Justice minister Mohamed Ali al-Mardi told Reuters formal charges would be levelled once investigations had been completed. “(The charges) are under the Sudanese penal code... insulting religion and provoking the feelings of Muslims,” he said.