Sudanese cleric slams secessionists, urges unity
KHARTOUM, Aug 12, 2005 (Sudan Tribune) — Shaikh Abdeljalil al-Nazir al-Karuri, the Imam of the Al-Shahid (The Martyr) Mosque in Khartoum, dedicated his second sermon of the Friday prayer to the theme of unity.
In his serment broadcasted live by Sudan TV, the preacher said: “From this pulpit we have praised God many times and we are still doing the same, Sudanese people are identical and have co-existed through centuries… and when thousands of people received John Garang in the People’s Arena we said they have not come from Rumbek, but from Khartoum, from its outskirts or from its heart.
“We settled them in camps which later were transformed into towns, 20 years and people are co-existing. Does political courtesy enable people to co-exist without conflict in a town like this, it can not happen except for a real social acceptance.
“Therefore Oh the Sudanese people let us not respond to the slogans of politicians who want to divide the country and its people. Let us not respond to rumour and slogans. When the unfortunate incidents happened, it was said that there is no exit for us other than seceding.
“Who said that secession is the necessary exit. Neighbouring us are Ethiopia and Eritrea, which were one country, they split into two countries. Did you not witness the fierce war between them?
“You have witnessed the Yemeni war, in which the south wanted to secede from the north. It was not like the clashes in Khartoum, which people used sticks and hands but it was fought by missiles. Missiles manufactured by Russia to fight the USA in the Red Sea but with Western insinuation they moved and fell in Sanaa. Missiles, rockets and planes , the people of Yemen did not despair from unity despite the ruinous war and remained the way they were, one nation.
“It is not necessarily that secession is the way to peace, but, I say that those thinking that secession can be an example of life both religiously and Islamically, this notion is not correct.”
“Didn’t the colonisers close the south from the north with the policies of the closed territories? They established administration barriers over geographical ones such as mountains and bushes and put a barrier between us [north and the south] so that we should not know each other. Praise to God in 1981 drought came and the people gathered in towns and knew each other, when the war began in 1983 people assembled in towns and knew each other. These political and environmental fates in appearance were negative but, its results were positive.
“Sudan has annulled the slogan of the Sudan People’s Liberation Army, when the rebels came from the negotiations, they said they did not mean liberation from who, but liberation from what? This bomb was stopped from exploding by this interpretation.”
“If you note, international agencies are now talking of movement to the south and they have mentioned a figure, which if we mention we will be relaying their rumours. Let us preserve the figure because it is an imaginary one. Thus they are benefiting from war and they are separating the south from the north and also those trading in Juba are preparing to come to the north.
“They are exercising secession before the time comes for voting on it. It is upon us, the Sudanese people to review our history that we have co-experienced both in difficult and happy times”
The preacher concluded the sermon with a supplication.
Material provided by the BBC Monitoring Service.