British teacher Gillian Gibbons was released midway through her fifteen-day sentence for “insulting Islam” by allowing her class of seven-year-olds to name the class teddy bear Muhammad. She is now back in the U.K. Her release was obtained through personal diplomacy by two British peers who are Muslims:
At times British diplomats were left in the dark about progress as the peers impressed on their Sudanese hosts that they were acting as Muslims rather than as Britons. Yesterday diplomats had to telephone journalists to find out what arrangements the peers had made for a press conference.
A fitting end to a bizarre story.
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