Hypocrisy of NCP supporters on Darfur

By Dr. Mahmoud A. Suleiman

For supporters of the National Congress Party (NCP) regime in Khartoum the tragedy in Darfur just doesn’t exist and it is for them a Zionist conspiracy and propaganda. As early as Dec. 21, 2004, the Republic of Sudan Radio reported that Sudanese Interior Minister Ahmad Haroun, flanked by two other government ministers, “accused the Zionist entity of supplying the rebels with weapons in the framework of Israel’s plan that targets Arab nations.” Analysts say that some of the Sudan government’s accusations are rooted in the history of the 21-year civil war, in which Israel is believed to have aided the southern Sudan rebels led by late Dr. John Garang. Large crowds were in the streets of Khartoum Hailing Death to America, calling for jihad against the UN-AU peacekeeping forces in Darfur.

The Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir long resisted western demands, vowing that he would lead a “jihad” against any UN peacekeeper that sets foot in Darfur. But in June 2007 he accepted a compromise deal for deployment of a “hybrid mission” of mainly African troops. A joint African Union-United Nations force took over peacekeeping duties in Darfur on Monday 31st December 2007, a long-awaited change that is intended to be the strongest effort yet to solve the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.

So far no crowds dared to come out on the streets of Khartoum against Omer al-Bashir’s acceptance of deployment of the “Infidel” Hybrid Force! On the other hand, not a single protest march by Muslims in Khartoum took place on the massacre and carnage of up to 400,000 Muslims at the hand of fellow Muslims in Darfur and over two million refugees are on the move or have fled the country completely. In this tragedy, men, women and children are virtually mowed down without mercy. When the mayhem is complete, the victims’ bodies are often dismembered, sprayed with oil and burnt alongside their huts.

The livestock and young women are spared to be taken away as the war booty. Thousands of wielding knives reacted violently to the much less critical issue of the cartoon controversy in the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten on 30 September 2005 and more recently protesters in Khartoum demanded the execution of a British teacher Gillian Gibbons convicted of insulting Islam after her pulil at the Unity High School in Khartoum, named a teddy bear “Muhammad”.

She was found guilty of insulting religion “blasphemy” and got 15-day prison term in Sudan. Sudan’s influential Council of Muslim Scholars urged the government not to pardon Gibbons, saying it would damage Khartoum’s reputation among Muslims around the world! Ironically, two British Peers, Baroness Sayeeda Warsi and Lord Ahmed, went to Sudan at the weekend in a private initiative to try to secure Gibbons’ early release. They met and appealed to the Sudanese president Marshal Omer Hassan Ahmed al-Bashir for her early release. The President of government of Sudan (GOS) eventually pardoned her.

This illustrates a hypocritical double standard at the extreme. Following this row, and as reported by the Ahdath Daily, the Association of Scholars and Preachers issued a Fatwa banning opening of foreign, or rather non-Muslim schools in Khartoum.

Unfortunately, in this way, NCP regime jurists in Khartoum are always fully prepared to issue a Fatwa after a Fatwa on every matter in question as a servitude to the National Islamic Front (NIF) Government in Sudan. Most of the Fatwas issued by these scholars are farce and are often deliberate exploitation of religion in politics by the ruling elite in Khartoum. The glorious Qur’an says: “O mankind: We have created you from a single male and a female and made you into nations and tribes that you may know one another. Verily the most honourable in you in the sight of Allah is that who has At-Taqwa (pious and righteous person) who fear Allah much and love Allah much.”(49.13).

Thus, according to the Qur’an, colour, creed or caste, does not distinguish a person from the other in Islam and that all people are born equal. In their curtain of silence on the Darfur crisis, Khartoum religious clerics are more than prepared to pass fatwa on the legitimacy for the Islamic State of Sudan to deal with the outlaws, the Darfur rebel movements. While the Khartoum Muslims were protesting over the presence of the UN peacekeeping forces in Darfur for the protection of civilians, they turned a blind eye toward the troops being deployed in central and southern areas of the country based on the Naivasha, Kenya, Peace Agreement signed between the Government of Sudan and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) on January 9, 2005, best known as Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA).

Moreover, the Islamic and the Arab world’s response to the Darfur crisis has been non-existent. Their failure is certainly tragic. Nonetheless, it is moral much more than political.

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