Different worlds - Confronting intolerance

IT IS difficult to understand, let alone tolerate, the mind set that would condemn a person to death because they named a teddy bear “Mohammed”.

Yet, that was the demand yesterday of thousands of Sudanese who took to Khartoum’s Martyrs’ Square calling for the execution of school teacher Gillian Gibbons.

“No tolerance: Execution,” and “Kill her, kill her by firing squad,” were the catch cries of the day, the fanatics all the while burning pictures of Ms Gibbons, 54. Clerics at Khartoum’s main Martyrs Mosque denounced her, saying she intentionally insulted Islam.

Even allowing for all of our cultural and religious differences, our different histories and understanding of free speech and human dignity, it is utterly unacceptable to a western mind that calls for the execution of a person should be provoked by the naming of a child’s toy.

These frightening examples of intolerance and aggression underline how important it is for us to work to ensure that integration works in Ireland; that no one remains marginalised and vulnerable to seductions of fanaticism. We’ve had enough of that.