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الأستاذ أحمد كمال الدين يوجه خطاب مفتوح للمجلس الإسلامي البريطاني علي خلفية قضية المعلمة
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To: Muslim Council of Britain c/o Secretary General, MCB Dear Sir Some few factual points would enable me understand and appreciate this affair and its implications, including your reaction to it. I am a Muslim Sudanese, and I have spent the 1980s in the UK working as a journalist. I am also a lawyer trained, among other things, in Sharia (Islamic Law) and English common law. I have several British friends of all faiths and walks of life. The issue is very much complex. It involves the inner circle, simple set of circumstances of a schoolteacher and pupils, but it also involves the name of a decent Prophet, the intricacies of relations between Sudan and the West, including the UK, the backdrop of Danish cartoons, 9/11 aftermath and so on, and so forth. In my personal view the lady may have well been innocent as regards any intention to fuel religious hatred, something that she can hardly have courage (let alone intention) to embark upon. At this stage sympathy is necessary for her wellbeing and safe return home. The huge international diplomatic row is too muc h on her. However, it would be very naive to think that a 54 year-old teacher in post-Danish cartoon days can be ignorant of religious sensitivites in a country like the Sudan. To give her the benefit of the doubt, she may have simply underestimated the reaction. That may be due to unexpected leakage of her class activity beyond the school boundaries, let alone to the ministry of education, the courts of law and the public at large. I think a respected organisation like yours could do more than simply denouncing or expressing disappointment. You are a good interface mechanism between core western culture and Islamic culture. You can establish means and ways (including the formation of a committee or another body dedicated to the matter) conducive to avoid the occurrance of similar frictions between the two cultures as a result of sheer ignorance, insensitivity or recklessness as to consequences. I wish you all the best, hoping that Ms Gibbons returns back home well and safe, but hoping also that with your help, knowledge and understanding, she can be made to understand the real message of Islam away from the connotations that accompanied her ordeal. Sincerely, Ahmed Kamal El-Din Legal Consultant Kingdom of Bahrain
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