Name and shame

Steel, though, believes it is vital the trip goes ahead. Speaking on Radio 4 yesterday, he said only engagement with the authorities in Sudan was likely to help 54-year-old Gibbons, who is from Liverpool. "Just stamping our feet and saying this is awful and not going is not going to improve the situation at all and is not going to help her," he said. "It's better that we go."

The trip, under the auspices of the AAO, which also aims to promote greater integration of British Arabs, will last from Monday until Friday. It will include a meeting with President Omar al Bashir, at which Lord Steel said he would ask him to help Gibbons. "The only hope is that the higher reaches of the government takes action to let her go free," he said.

For Steel, one of the most important aims of the mission now is to avoid escalating hostilities between Britain and the authorities in Sudan. That danger was increasingly obvious yesterday as demonstrators gathered in Martyrs' Square in Khartoum. They angrily chanted "Shame, shame on the UK" and called for Gibbons's execution.

"No tolerance: execution", they shouted, and: "Kill her, kill her by firing squad."

There was anger in Britain, too, though of a different kind. Dr Khalid al Mubarak, of the Sudanese embassy in London, revealed that they had been bombarded with furious e-mails and phone calls. British Muslim groups have condemned the Sudanese court's decision and the fact that the case even ended up in the court in the first place.

Dr Muhammad Abdul Bari, the secretary-general of the Muslim Council of Britain, described the court decision as a "gross overreaction by the Sudanese authorities".

He added: "This case should have required only simple common sense to resolve. It is unfortunate the Sudanese authorities were found wanting in this most basic of qualities.

"They grossly overreacted in this sad affair. Gillian should never have been arrested, let alone charged and convicted of committing a crime. We hope that Gillian will be able to return home without much further delay."

On Gibbons's MySpace page, there was disbelief and support for a teacher who just wanted to travel the world. A message from her 27-year-old daughter Jessica Gibbons, a primary school teacher in Liverpool, put up a few days ago before the verdict was announced, said simply: "I love you mum xxxxxx."

In the event, Gibbons was found guilty of insulting Islam, but she escaped conviction on a more serious charge of inciting hatred, which could have earned her 40 lashes, a fine and a six-month jail term. Gibbons defended herself by explaining that her seven-year-old pupils had picked the name for the teddy bear.

Now that she has been sent to prison, the question that Lord Steel and others are wrestling with is how the British authorities should respond to the verdict. After it was announced, the Foreign Secretary David Miliband summoned Sudan's ambassador. "During the meeting, which lasted 45 minutes, the Foreign Secretary expressed in the strongest terms our concern at the continued detention of Gillian Gibbons," the Foreign Office said in a statement. "The Foreign Secretary also spoke to the Sudanese Acting Foreign Minister for 15 minutes on the telephone during the meeting."

Among those considering the implications of the decision today are aid agencies that work in the country. They include major charities such as Save the Children - which distributes food, operates maternity clinics, builds and refurbishes schools and build wells and water pumps - and SCIAF, the aid agency of the Catholic Church in Scotland.

SCIAF works with various agencies on the ground in Sudan including the Darfur Emergency Response Operation (Dero). The charity aims to provide life-saving humanitarian assistance to people driven from their homes. In July, the Scottish Executive gave £250,000 to help the people of Darfur, which was to be distributed through SCIAF. The money was to provide seeds, tools, training and storage to help displaced people feed themselves and their families.

In June this year, an employee of ACT/Caritas, the network through which SCIAF works in Darfur, was shot and killed on his way home from work. But, despite the dangers, SCIAF chief executive Paul Chitnis yesterday said the organisation was committed to its work in the area.

"While we will not be changing our policy on how we operate overseas, the Gillian Gibbons incident acts as a powerful reminder to people working abroad of the need to be respectful towards local culture and customs," he said. "This is a very sad situation which we hope will be resolved quickly and peacefully so that Gillian Gibbons can be reunited with her family in the UK.

"SCIAF is committed to working in the very challenging regions of Darfur and southern Sudan, helping the victims of long-running conflicts to overcome their lethal poverty and assisting people build a just and peaceful future."

He added: "Our programme staff are experienced at operating in culturally sensitive environments and this incident shows why great care must always be taken. It is one reason why SCIAF's approach to development prioritises working closely with local people and their organisations." He added that SCIAF did not channel its resources through the Sudanese government.

Not all those involved in the aid sector take the same approach. Some believe it is right to question involvement in countries that treat volunteers badly. Iain McConnell was founder director of the British Executive Services Overseas, which was based in Edinburgh from 2000 until it merged with Voluntary Service Overseas (VSO) in 2005. Over the five years he was involved, he sent many Scottish volunteers to work in all parts of Africa, on a programme aimed at transferring skills. But he now believes we should restrict the countries to which we send volunteers.

"Any country that behaves the way Sudan has does not deserve our help," he told The Herald yesterday. "In my view, Gillian Gibbons was a volunteer even if she was being paid, because her aim was to help those less fortunate than her. I admire volunteers like her immensely.

"The people we sent were teachers, doctors, nurses, entrepreneurs. All gave their time freely and all were there on a short-term basis, but not once did we see anything like this. This situation is unique."

Even if such sanctions did not have a direct effect on Sudan, McConnell believes they would send a message out to other countries the UK sends volunteers to.

"I fear this is just the start of it," he added. "There seem to be more Islamic fundamentalists out there than before, and if this is an example of what might happen, then we should stop sending people. If we can't protect volunteers then we should call it a day."

This debate, although important, will not mean much to Gibbons as she continues to serve her 15-day sentence in Khartoum. Yesterday a spokesman for the Foreign Office said that officials had been allowed to visit her and that she was fine. He added that there were no plans to issue advice to British nationals living and working in Sudan in the light of the trouble.

During sermons yesterday, however, hard-line clerics who hold considerable influence within Sudan's Islamic government appeared to be trying to whip up public anger over the Gibbons case, calling her actions part of a Western plot to damage Islam.

The Muslim cleric at Khartoum's main Martyrs Mosque denounced Gibbons, saying she intentionally insulted Islam, but he did not call for protests. "Imprisoning this lady does not satisfy the thirst of Muslims in Sudan. But we welcome imprisonment and expulsion,"

the cleric, Abdul-Jalil Nazeer al Karouri, a well-known hardliner, told worshippers.

"This is an arrogant woman who came to our country, cashing her salary in dollars, teaching our children hatred of our Prophet Mohammed," he said.

The conviction of Gibbons was seen as an attempt by the government to appease such hardliners, while trying to avert British anger by giving a relatively light sentence.

In a few days, of course, Gibbons will be released and deported from Sudan and will have time to consider her next move. On her MySpace page, she talks about her love of travel and adventure. "I love to travel (this is my passion) and have seen some incredible sights (hard to choose the best but maybe Angkor Wat or Victoria Falls).

"I hope to indulge my wanderlust from here, visiting Ethiopia and Uganda in the summer maybe and Jordan at Easter." But she may now have to think hard about where she goes from here.