Nepali Teacher Dorje Gurung has returned back to Nepal after being released from Al Rayyan police station on Sunday afternoon. Dorje was jailed for ten days in Qatar and had to appear before lower Doha court on charges of insulting Islam. A chemistry teacher at Qatar Academy, Dorje Gurung was arrested on charges of an argument with 12-year-old who accused him of speaking against Islam.
Gurung’s release however is not confirmed whether the court cleared him of the charges or released him on bail. Although the Nepali Embassy confirmed Dorje’s release to Dohan News, Nepali Ambassador to Qatar Maya Kumari Sharma said that she was yet to trying to seek more information on the matter.
(Update: According to petition page on Change.org, “Dorje has been released, all charges have been dropped and he is now safely back in Nepal.”)
Meanwhile, Dorje Gurung on a tumblr blog has thanked all his supporters,
I still can find no words to thank you enough, words that sufficiently express my own and family’s gratitude, for the gift the thousands of you have given me. The gift of freedom! (Ask any of my friends and colleagues Qatar Academy who received me upon my release yesterday afternoon—I was just a wreck. All I could do was cry and bawl.)
Many who know me well know firstly that I don’t make promises easily, certainly not publicly, and secondly that any promise I make i don’t make lightly. As today is an exceptional day and in appreciation of your incredible thoughts and actions, I’m going make a promise to you all, to my amazing friends, teachers, colleagues, students and well wishers around the world and to myself.
A promise to make every effort to make this gift of freedom worth the time and effort you invested in winning it for me.
Dorje Gurung was fired from Qatar Academy after the argument incident and had been set to leave for Nepal two weeks ago. The incident was then taken for investigation as the Qatar Police arrested him on Wednesday afternoon. He was then accused of alleging that “All Muslims are terrorists,” among other remarks.
According to Doha News, what happened was,
“According to several colleagues of Gurung’s, he had a history of problems with certain students who did not respect his authority, in part because of his nationality.
The conflict came to a head last month during an argument with three 12-year-old boys in the school cafeteria, in which they taunted him and poked him, Gurung told friends. In response to the teasing, he said something to the effect of, how would you like to be stereotyped, ie called a terrorist?
Within days, the teacher was fired and jailed.”
The arrest of Dorje Gurung sparked several protests in and outside Qatar demanding his release and condemning the act. An online petition on Change.org collected more than 14,000 signatures petitioned to Qatari Ambassador to USA “Mohamed Bin Abdulla Al-Rumaihi” for his release.
I wish our Nepali Embassy in Qatar was strong enough to have resolved the case much earlier! What’s your view on the incident?
Image via Free Dorje on Tumblr
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