Articles and Analysies
Extremist NCP Ideology shouldn’t Reign Post-Referendum Northern Sudan By Mahmoud A. Suleiman
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Dec 25, 2010 - 10:25:25 PM

Extremist NCP Ideology shouldn’t Reign Post-Referendum Northern Sudan

By Mahmoud A. Suleiman

The National Congress Party (NCP) will transform itself into a Hard-Line National Party (HNP) type regime after the Southern Sudan independence according to the latest statements of its angrily dancing stick wagging President Marshal Omer Hassan Ahmed al-Bashir. He, at the time, was addressing a rally in the Eastern Sudan City of Gadarif during a harvest festival on Sunday 19^th December 2010. Al-Bashir announced, threatening imaginary enemies with doom, gloom and destruction that his regime will move the Northern Sudan fully into an Islamic law state after the likely secession of the South in next month’s referendum. Al- Bashir went on saying that there would be no question of this diversity when a new constitution was drafted, if the south became independent. “If God forbids, the South separates [then] the constitution will be amended [and] a lot of things relating to the South will go away,” he said, according to Sudan Tribune.

As if al-Bashir is planning to discriminate against non-Muslims under Islam which is at variance with the Islamic religion that does not discriminate against people from other faiths in their treatment as citizens. The ICC indicted fugitive genocidal Omar al-Bashir forgets or tries to forget the facts that lie before him as the existence of non-Muslim minorities in various regions of Sudan even after the secession of southern Sudan. Al-Bashir disregards as well the reality that the Sudanese public is a product of  a variety of races and ethnicities and different religions and different and, for example, areas of Southern Blue Nile, Nuba  Mountains and we should also not forget the citizens who are from southern Sudan, but decide to live in northern Sudan after the expected secession. There are also in the Sudanese Coptic community Christians, Ethiopian and Eritreans Christians and the rest of the nationalities of non-Muslim expatriate in the labour force in Sudan. Moreover, there are the Indians and those from the United States, Canada, and Europe who are non-Muslims. The regime shouldn’t forget those who had not converted to the divine religions and referred to as animists or traditional beliefs. Every Sudanese knows for fact the true intentions of the National Congress Party in applying the law on the extremist model. To preempt introduction of their unfair repressive laws, the NCP assassins decided to return us to the square one; the square of beatings with whips, chopping of hands and body parts, dissemination of terrorism and pursuit of security elements. This has been demonstrated in practice on Friday 24th December 2010 when National Intelligence Services (NIS) moved into the headquarters of the Umma Party in Khartoum and brutally attacked the party leaders and seriously injuring Dr. Mariam al-Sadiq al-Mahdi, the daughter of the former Prime Minister of Sudan, Imam of the Ansar Sufi Sect.

The Sudanese opposition warned that if the Sudan's NCP transforms to the monolithic totalitarian religious state, as it were before the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA), the fate of the country will be at a stake: they will reject the religious state, and call for a civil state which grants equal rights based on citizenship as the sole identity. The spokesman for the opposition alliance, Farouk Abu Issa said «that the National Congress Party (NCP) government wants to shift again into a totalitarian police state which confiscates freedoms in the name of religion. However, political analysts believe that given the current vulnerability of al-Bashir in the face of his local, regional and international isolation along with the power struggle within the NCP ranks, he will not be capable to introduce more oppressive laws unless he declares new state of emergency in the country. The NCP version of  laws have threatened the unity of the country, divided the people in the north and south, incited hatred and raised religious sensitivities; the key factors that have aggravated the problem in the south, in Darfur and flooded entire Sudan.

In Islam we are commanded to be just and fair not only towards our own people or co-religionists but also towards others even if they are enemies of ourlife, property or faith. It is candidly stated in the Holy Quran that: “And let not the hatred of others to you make you swerve to wrong and depart from justice.” Moreover, Islam calls for good manners and noble qualities such as curse of bad manners, truthfulness, trustworthiness, justice, tenderness, self-restraint, gentleness of speech, humility, courage and fortitude and sincerity.

Pious scholars tell us rightly that Islam is a comprehensive religion that offers full mercy for His slaves, provides them security and peace of mind and makes them live in dignity, justice and respect for the rights of non-Muslims. Islam is not confined only in the penal code, it commands fighting of corruption and embezzlement of public funds and calls for equality of l citizens in rights and duties and does justice for the great and the poor alike, but we now find this has been deliberately disregarded in that if notable person  commits the felony of theft, he or she can getaway unpunished while an ordinary individual in a similar situation will be penalized, That is why we find that most of the Hudud are  affecting the poor especially women  in Sudan’s capital Khartoum.

It should be noted that the masses of Sudan, who attended the founding meeting of the Broad National Front (BNF) had affirmatively said that the form of religion employed by the Government of National Congress was divisive and has led to a sharp disagreement in the country and significantly contributed into secession becoming a de facto option for the people of southern part of the country and genocide in Darfur. The gathering unanimously agreed that the future State of the Sudan will be a civic state and not a religious state as it is now under the chairmanship of Omar al-Bashir and his cohorts who have no credibility and are not morally qualified to apply the law of Almighty God. Bearing in mind that the heinous crimes against humanity, war crimes and genocide in Darfur have been committed by the Islamist regime the National Congress Party (NCP) chaired by Omer al-Bashir who is the Chief of the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) and head of the National Congress Party (NCP).

Omar al-Bashir has also said that he will make Arabic the only official language of Sudan after the independence of South Sudan; forgetting that in the country there are more than seven hundred tribes speaking more than four hundred a language other than Arabic.  Yes rudimentary Arabic serves as lingua franca, with considerable dialectic variations. What about other European languages such as English, French and German through which people can communicate with other nations in the world for reasons of business, education, diplomatic relations and in other wider walks of life?! Omar al-Bashir, as usual, speaks without thinking about the consequences of what he is going to say and then it takes him not too long when he would implement an action contrary to what he had said!  Unfortunately this is what plagued the people of Sudan through the past two decades and more of the ruling regime of the National Islamic Front (NIF) and its accessories, the National Congress Party (NCP) and the Popular Congress Party (PCP).

Sudan is a melting point and  a mixture of various nationalities to become a nation that occupies the area of land known as the Sudan in the extended area of one million square miles, literally known in Arabic the land of the blacks which existed 'since time immemorial' or since time before recorded history! In the circumstances, it becomes the responsibility for all the Sudanese to join the ranks of those wanting to change the regime.

News Media also quoted al-Bashir as saying that Islamic Shari ‘a law “has always stipulated that one must whip, cut, or kill”!  In saying so, he seems referring to the Hudood Ordinance. The Hudood Law was intended to implement Islamic Shari'a law, by enforcing punishments mentioned in the Quran and sunnahfor felonies such as Zina (extramarital sex) Qazf (false accusation of zina), Offence Against Property (theft), and Prohibition (the drinking of alcohol). The ordinance has been criticized as leading to "hundreds of incidents where a woman subjected to rape, or even gang rape, was eventually accused of Zina" and incarcerated, and defended as punishment ordained by God and victim of "extremely unjust propaganda". As Muslims know that the majority of scholars say that the proof of the crimes punishable by the Hudood Ordinance is a very difficult task. The best example is the crime of adultery which is almost impossible to verify in the absence of pregnancy or confession. Otherwise, an accusation of adultery has to be verified by four reliable witnesses testifying that they have seen the sexual organs of the two offenders locked in the act; an  impossibility by all means.However, the NCP regime has been subjecting innocent people to punishments without credible evidence to prove that the persons suspected of the crime have committed the crimes.Accusing opponent fellow Muslims of committing crimes punishable by the Islamic Sharia Laws in Sudan is not unusual.  The regime of Sudanese President Gaafar Mohmed Nimeiri executed the leader of the Republican Brotherhood political party, Ustaz Mahmoud Mohammed Taha on 18 January 1985 for his views, for which he had been accused of apostasy. He was publicly hanged at the notorious Kober Prison in Khartoum North, Sudan. He was 76 years old at the time.

In Sura (106) Quraysh in the Holy Quran, Tafsir Ibn Kathir, Arabic-English Translation of Meanings with Recitation states: “fed them against hunger and appeased them from fear” as follows

 For the Ilaf of the Quraysh,  

Their Ilaf caravans, in winter and in summer.

So, let them worship the Lord of this House,

Who has fed them against hunger, and has made them safe from fear. (106:1-4)

The National Congress Party (NCP) regime, instead, has subjected the Sudanese people to hunger and disseminated fear and uncertainty among them. The NCP government in Sudan brought all types of evils in the form of squalor, poverty, disease, ignorance and hunger in Sudan

According to Abu Daoud there are four Sayings of The Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) which contain the summary of Islamic law. They are the following:

·         Actions will be judged according to intentions.

·         The proof of a Muslim's sincerity is that he payeth no heed to that which is not his business.

·         No man is a true believer unless he desires for his brother that which he desires for himself.

·         That which is lawful is clear, and that which is unlawful likewise, but there are certain doubtful things between the two from which it is well to abstain.

The Sudanese government under the NCP regime satisfies all the common characteristics of a failing state which include a central government so weak or ineffective that it has little practical control over much of its territory; non-provision of public services; widespread corruption and criminality; refugees and involuntary movement of populations; and sharp economic decline. Moreover, Sudan tops 'failed states index' along with ranking high among the countries in Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index. This makes the compassionless nucleus of individuals in the inept National Congress Party (NCP) regime incapable of proper application of the Islamic Sharia law which calls for tolerance and the establishment of the state where justice and equality prevail. The NCP leader Omer al-Bashir has clearly lost direction and purpose to the extent that he resorted to reintroducing all the sleeping cells of the terrorist groups such as the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, Qods Corps and Africa Corps in preparation for Post-Referendum wars. In addition al-Bashir seeks help of clique of clerics who make Haram Halal and vice versa according to their wishes and they readily label the Muslim community as (Kuffar) infidels because they have a different opinion. These Clerics readily issue baseless fatwa according to their whim against opponents who do not share their view points. One example is their recent fatwa in which they indicated that the upcoming Southern Sudan Referendum on the Sunday 9th of January 2011 is void and Haram! Haraam (Arabic: ÍÑÇãý) (often Haram) is an Arabic term meaning "forbidden". In Islam the term Haram is used to refer to anything that is prohibited by the faith.  This group which is affiliated to the National Congress Party (NCP) regime in Khartoum and calling itself ‘Association of Scholars and Preachers of Sudan’ is akin to Takfir wal-Hijra (Arabic ÊßÝíÑ æÇáåÌÑÉ – Excommunication and Exodus) the fundamentalist Islamist group which emerged in Egypt in the 1960s as an offshoot of Muslim Brotherhood.

Taking into account the foregoing the National Congress Party (NCP) is likely to transform itself into Fundamentalist National Party (FNP) after the expected Southern Sudan independence; and then destruction, and woe to those who do not comply with the orders of the National Congress Party (NCP) clique!It seems that the statement attributed to the late Sudanese novelist El-Tayeb Salih “From where did these people come?” remains an enigma!

Dr. Mahmoud A. Suleiman is the Deputy Chairman of the General Congress for Justice and Equality Movement (JEM). He can be reached at [email protected]