Mohammed the Teddy Bear

Sometimes in Skypeland people discuss current events. In a room discussing the dustup over the naming of a Teddy Bear Mohammed in Sudan:
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/africa/article3204071.ece,

I tried to say that some things are offensive in some cultures, but not in others, and that what is offensive depends strongly on time and place and culture. This angered the host. Someone in the room tried to draw an analogy to the different sensitivies to the c-word and the n-word, in different times and places. This enraged the host and the host turned off the microphones of two of us. Ah....yes....how rational...

Addendum: Another person in the room also responded in a comment:
I was in this cast and events were even more bizarre than you describe them here. The host was initially saying that under no circumstances would he tolerate the use of the n-word. He stated that ALL other words were acceptable, except this one. S said he didn't know what the n-word was and the host expressly forbade anyone from enlightening him. S was then sent a private message from someone explaining what the n-word stood for. Meanwhile, the host openly waxed lyrical about the word, "c**t" - explaining that he used the term pervasively with his friends, but that he felt it was generally misused by "c**kney types.". He must have used the word, "c**t" at least a dozen times while musing in this way. Shortly after someone entered the room, noting that the room had been called, "Moh**med is a teddy bear" (a clearly deliberately inflammatory, antagonistic name for a cast!). The host then clumsily exposed the fact that he had a very scant knowledge of the story of the arrested schoolteacher in Sudan. S described in more detail what he understood to have happened, and it was at this point that the host's voice started to reveal emotion! He exclaimed, "Why the f**k shouldn't we be allowed to call anything whatever we f**king like?" and shortly after claimed that he was interested in other cultures and developing cultural understanding. S then asked the host, "If you believe it should be permissable to name anything ANYTHING, would you object if a teddy bear in an E**lish classroom was called the n-word?" The host then became very upset and said that no one was allowed to use the n-word and that he had made that very clear. No one HAD used the n-word - they had said, "n-word" but clearly this sensitive masking was as controversial to the host as an actual use of the term. S pointed out to the host that, "You clearly have an appreciation of how a word (even a masked word!) can cause upset, depending on the context. On the one hand, you are very sensitive to the use of the n-word, on the other, you condemn any sensitivity to the use of the name, Moh**med." Somewhat bizarrely, there was a man in the room whose name was Moh**med. The host turned on him, saying, "Should your parents be killed for naming you after the prophet?" The M**lim gentleman (commendably) calmly stated that carrying the prophet's name was a show of respect, but there were no guarantees how that person would turn out in life. They may even turn out to be, "complete c**ts" but the M**lim saw no contradiction in parents naming their children after the prophet. The host said that naming a teddy bear Moh**med was no different to naming a child Moh**med and this made several people, including the M**lim gentleman, laugh. Again, the hosts anger increased. B then asserted that words carried sensitivity depending on where, when and how they were spoken. It was all about context. It was generally agreed that the english schoolteacher had been naive and that before writing to parents about the teddy bear she should've consulted M**lim colleagues. The host then started ranting and ravng about how wrong it was to lash the schoolteacher 40 times. No one was able to point out that she'd only been charged - no actual punishment had been finalised. Again S re-iterated his point about cultural sensitivity, pointing out that the host was being reactionary, much like some of the Sudanese clerics. B again reinforced his point about the context of words. By this point the host was raging and he sent S and B down into listening obscurity, disallowing any further debate. The host turned to a gentleman D who had been up in listening for some time but making no contribution. "You've been very quiet! What do you have to say?" the host asked. "I'm sitting here studying and listening to you c**ts." D said, "And that's how I wish to continue!"

The host also claimed that no one called their children Jesus. I said that in the Hispanic world, this is very common. The host said they do not count, since they are not really part of Christianity. I did not know what to make of this. There are literally hundreds of millions of Spanish speakers on earth, and most are Catholic, or some other form of Christian. Wow...