British National Gillian Gib­bons, who teaches chil­dren in Sudan, has been arrested and charged with offend­ing reli­gion. She had been held with­out charges for sev­eral days. Today, Sudanese offi­cials filed for­mal charges. She faces a poten­tial sen­tence, if con­victed, of 40 lashes, a year in prison, or a hefty fine. She came under sus­pi­cion after the chil­dren in her class voted to name the classroom’s new stuffed bear mas­cot “Mohammed.” Nam­ing a stuffed bear “Mohammed” is appar­ently offen­sive to Islam, and Sudan has laws against offend­ing a reli­gion. Allegedly, Sudan’s anti-​​​​blasphemy law is religion-​​​​neutral. The class­room con­tained both Mus­lim and non-​​​​Muslim stu­dents. Sudan is 70% [ . . . ]

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