By RIA Novosti
Khartoum : A British teacher who was found guilty of insulting religion in Sudan was sentenced Friday to 15 days behind bars.
Gillian Gibbons, 54, was arrested Sunday on blasphemy charges in Khartoum, the capital of Sudan, after her class of primary school pupils named a teddy bear Muhammad in September.
Islamic Sharia law is in force in some parts of Sudan, including the capital.
Although Gibbons said that the act was not intended in any way as an insult to the Prophet Muhammad, she was charged with insulting religion, inciting hatred and showing contempt for religious beliefs.
British Foreign Minister David Miliband said he was “extremely disappointed” that the charges had not been thrown out, adding that the incident had come about as a result of an “innocent misunderstanding by a dedicated teacher”.
The Sudanese ambassador was later summoned to the Foreign Office to explain the decision.
Gibbons is to be deported from Sudan after she has served her sentence.
Inayat Bunglawala, spokesman for the Muslim Council of Britain, said Gibbons “should never have been arrested in the first place, let alone convicted of any crime”.
However, hardline Muslim clerics have rejected Britain’s claims that the incident was the result of an “innocent misunderstanding.”
“What has happened was not haphazard or carried out of ignorance, but rather a calculated action and another ring in the circles of plotting against Islam,” the Sudanese Assembly of the Ulemas said in a statement.
“It is part of the campaign of the so- called war against terrorism and the intense media campaign against Islam,” the statement concluded.
Last year, caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad in some European newspapers sparked riots in several Muslim countries and protests in Europe.