In Sudan, when they say they’ll give you a “swift and fair” trial, they’re at least halfway right. Gillian Gibbons, who allegedly committed the heinous crime of allowing her students to name a teddy bear “Muhammad,” faced a sharia court in Khartoum today: Sudan tries UK teacher on Islam insult.

KHARTOUM, Sudan - A British teacher went on trial Thursday on charges of inciting religious hatred by letting her students name a teddy bear Muhammad, a crime punishable by up to 40 lashes and six months in jail.

Gillian Gibbons walked in without handcuffs, wearing a dark jacket and blue skirt, according to reporters in the courtroom before media were ordered out of the chamber. Riot police surrounded the courthouse.

Muhammad is a common name among Muslim men, but giving the name of Islam’s founder to an animal would be seen as insulting by many Muslims.

In a statement read to the court, Gibbons explained the incident and emphasized that her 7-year-old students picked the teddy bear’s name, British Embassy spokesman Omar Daair told The Associated Press. …

Prosecutor-General Salah Eddin Abu Zaid told the AP the British teacher could expect a “swift and fair trial.” If convicted, she faces up to 40 lashes, six months in jail and a fine, with the verdict and any sentence up to the judge’s discretion, official have said.

The judge ordered the prosecution to bring forward the person who originally raised the complaint against Gibbons — an office assistant at the Unity High School, said Isam Abu Hasabu, the head of the school’s parent-teacher association, who was in the courtroom.

Gibbons’ chief lawyer, Kamal Djizouri, scuffled with a tight police cordon before he was allowed in. British diplomats who were initially barred were also eventually allowed to enter. Djizouri said he would argue her case based on Islamic Sharia law and show there was “absolutely no intention to insult religion, and for blasphemy to take place there must be an insult.”

Gibbons was teaching her pupils, who are around age 7, about animals, and asked one of them to bring in her teddy bear, according to Robert Boulos, the director for Unity High School. Gibbons asked the students to pick names for it and they proposed Abdullah, Hassan and Muhammad, and in September, the pupils voted to name it Muhammad, he said.

Each child was allowed to take the bear home on weekends and write a diary about what they did with it. The diary entries were collected in a book with the bear’s picture on the cover, labeled, “My Name is Muhammad,” he said. The bear itself was never labeled with the name, he added.

UPDATE at 11/29/07 9:40:03 am:

Quite a few commenters at the BBC web site think the teddy bear teacher deserves her fate.