Just a few months into a new job at a posh school in Sudan, British schoolteacher Gillian Gibbons thought she'd teach her seven-year-old students about animals and their habitats.  She had a student bring in a favourite teddy bear, which the class voted  to name Muhammad - the name of the founder of Islam, and a popular name among Muslim males. According to some reports, Muhammad was also the name of the most popular boy in class. A colleague turned Gibbons in. On Thursday in a Khartom court, she was found guilty of insulting religion and sentenced to 15 days in prison(she faced a possible 40 lashes, a fine, or up to one year in jail). Gibbons will be deported from Sudan once her sentence is complete.

The case has sparked controversy and outrage in both Muslim and non-Muslim communities around the world, including in Canada. On Thursday, Canada's Muslim Canadian Congress issued a press release expressing "shock and dismay" over Gibbons' imprisonment and calling on the Sudanese government to release her immediately. That same day, MCC founder and Macleans 50 member Tarek Fatah placed a miniature teddy bear on his own desk - with the word "Muhammad" written across it in black pen.

Macleans.ca: First of all, can you explain why it might be a problem to name a teddy bear "Muhammad" - are there any religious laws in Islam forbidding it?

Tarek Fatah: No, none whatsoever. Yesterday, a young 25-year-old Islamist, an engineer, emailed me and said, “Mr. Fatah, how would you like to find out that a dog is named Tarek?” I said, “I’d be quite honoured.” But in his state of mind, a dog was a dirty, filthy object. You see, the debate [around whether or not it's appropriate to name a bear "Muhammad"] is going on among segments of Muslim society that adhere to a jihadi-Islamist agenda. They're trying to provoke conflict and to portray the West as essentially anti-Islam; to create fissures within the Western Muslim community, and to portray the West as at war with Islam. [They're saying,] "Here are these teachers sent over, who are trying to attack our faith." It's absolute nonsense – there are murderers, and suicide bombers, and rapists who are called "Muhammad." Nobody - least of all the Sudanese government - has ever objected to that.

M: Here in Canada, what's been the reaction among the larger Muslim community?

TF: They’re exasperated. On one side, you have pressures to be [loyal] to your community, so many people would not say anything. But I can assure you that 99 per cent of the [Muslim] community rolls their eyes, and calls each other, and says, "What next?" We are at a loss for words. It’s embarrassing for us, and it is causing a backlash against the Muslim community. Can you imagine if you were in my shoes? I can imagine my neighbours sitting around the breakfast tables throwing up their hands and saying, “Are we dealing with crazy people?”

It’s affecting everyone, everywhere. And the more Muslims are discriminated [against], the more Islamists have to celebrate. The more they can say, "The West is at war with Islam." And the more they can say, "We need sharia [law] to be imposed." I have not come 6,000 miles to introduce sharia in this country. I know others come here specifically for that reason. Our promise to the Islamists is this: we will not let that happen.

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