Sudan security warns Muslim clerics not to incite hatred against Turabi

December 11, 2014 (KHARTOUM) – The government sponsored Sudanese Media Centre (SMC) website said that the National Intelligence and Security Services (NISS) summoned on Thursday several imams of mosques who questioned the Islamic faith of the head of the Popular Congress Party (PCP) Hassan al-Turabi.

Those clerics blasted remarks by Turabi in which he said that a woman’s testimony in court is equal to that of a man unlike the mainstream Islamic belief that it is half of a man’s testimony.

Turabi has long expressed controversial views on a number of Issues such as endorsing marriage between a Muslim woman and a non-Muslim man as well as allowing women to lead men in prayers.

This included the Secretary General of Ansar al-Sunnah Salafist group and the Imam of the Grand Mosque in Khartoum Kamal Hassan Rizk who says anyone making such statements has committed blasphemy and should be killed.

A source speaking to SMC said that authorities assured the imams that it respects the difference of opinions around doctrinal issues within the limits of the exchange of views without prejudice to persons or inciting ill feelings among different groups.

They further said that these issues need to be debated and discussed to reinforce Islamic links without being subjected to insults and causing dissension.

The incident comes in the wake of a remarkable convergence between the PCP and the ruling National Congress Party (NCP) after Turabi joined the national dialogue initiative launched by President Omer Hassan al-Bashir last January.

The PCP has warned against any attempts to undermine its leader and declared its readiness to mobilise its members to respond to the campaign against him and pointed out that the party’s legal department has been tasked with dealing with threats against him.

(ST)