Bid to free teddy insult teacher
British officials are trying to secure the release of a British schoolteacher arrested in Sudan for letting her pupils name a teddy bear Muhammad.
Gillian Gibbons, of Liverpool, may face blasphemy charges for insulting Islam's Prophet. A conviction could mean six months in jail, 40 lashes or a fine.
Her colleagues said she had made an "innocent mistake" by letting the six and seven-year-olds choose the name.
British embassy officials have visited Ms Gibbons, 54, in Khartoum prison.
The toy was named in September as part of the class's study of animals and their habitats.
But several parents made complaints to the authorities which led to Ms Gibbons' arrest on Sunday.
The school has now been closed until January for fear of reprisals.
Fellow teachers at Khartoum's Unity High School told Reuters news agency that they feared for Ms Gibbons' safety after receiving reports that men had started gathering outside the police station where she was being held.
Name vote
The school's director, Robert Boulos, said: "This is a very sensitive issue. We are very worried about her safety.
"This was a completely innocent mistake. Miss Gibbons would have never wanted to insult Islam."
Mr Boulos said Ms Gibbons was following a British national curriculum course designed to teach young pupils about animals and this year's topic was the bear.
Ms Gibbons, who joined the school in August, asked a seven-year-old girl to bring in her teddy bear and asked the class to pick names for it, he said.
"They came up with eight names including Abdullah, Hassan and Muhammad," Mr Boulos said, adding that she then asked the children to vote on a name.
Twenty out of the 23 children chose Muhammad as their favourite name.
Mr Boulos said each child was then allowed to take the bear home at weekends and told to write a diary about what they did with it.
He said the children's entries were collected in a book with a picture of the bear on the cover and a message which read, "My name is Muhammad."
The bear itself was not marked or labelled with the name in any way, he added.
One Muslim teacher at the independent school for Christian and Muslim children, who has a child in Ms Gibbons' class, said she had not found the project offensive.
"I know Gillian and she would never have meant it as an insult. I was just impressed that she got them to vote," the teacher said.
The country's state-controlled Sudanese Media Centre reported that charges were being prepared "under article 125 of the criminal law" which covers insults against faith and religion.
No-one at the ministries of education or justice was available for comment.
In Liverpool, a family spokeswoman said Ms Gibbons' children, John and Jessica - both believed to be in their 20s - were not commenting on her arrest.
It is seen as an insult to Islam to attempt to make an image of the Prophet Muhammad.
Cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad printed in several European newspapers sparked violent protests around the world in 2006.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/7114439.stm