Fly Away Home

First the good news: A British schoolteacher sentenced to 15 days in jail in Sudan for allowing her pupils to name a teddy bear Mohammed has been released hours after receiving a pardon from Sudan's president, Omar al-Bashir. Gillian Gibbons' release follows the intervention of two Muslim peers, Lord Ahmed and Baroness Warsi who traveled to Khartoum to negotiate with the Sudanese authorities.

And maybe the not-so-good news: "Modern Britain is multicultural, multi-religious. We have two million Muslims. We have 1,400 mosques and we have ten Muslim parliamentarians. All religions are respected."

I have always been fairly liberal, but the behavior of fundamentalist religionists of any mysterical ilk, really does not warrant respect. Still, most of the Muslims in Britain are probably fine people.

And the definitely bad news: Darfur, scene of recent human rights violations, is within the Sudan. Many of the atrocities are perpetrated by Muslims. These unfortunate people can't fly away home – they are home.