Sudan’s clergy at odds with government over Syria
October 27, 2011 (KHARTOUM) – Sudan’s official clerical authority has condemned in the strangest terms the brutality shown by the Syrian regime towards protesters, in a rare contrast with the position of the Sudanese government.
More than 3,000 people have died and 10,000 have fled Syria since its government responded with overwhelming military force to the protests which erupted in March against the four-decade rule of the Assad Family.
The League of Sudanese Scholars (LSS), a state-controlled body of clerics, on Thursday issued a statement denouncing the operations of ‘genocide, torture and repression’ meted out by the Syrian regime of Bashar Al-Asad against ‘armless protestors.’
According to LSS, lending any moral or material support to the Syrian regime or showing any laxity in supporting the revolutionaries was considered to be ‘a great treason.’
‘The regime of Bashar will join the rest of extinct regimes,’ the group said, calling for solidarity with Syrian people.
The position of the LSS, which normally toe the line of the government, marks a rare departure from the position of Khartoum which repeatedly expressed support to Damascus.
Sudan’s foreign ministry describes the events in Syria as ‘an international conspiracy’ to undermine Al-Assad’s government. It said that Damascus would stand firmly against ‘Zionist and Western’ plots.
Ali Karti, the Sudanese foreign minister, said that his country strongly stands behind Syria in the face of the “aggressive campaign” that aims to tarnish the image of Damascus’s patriotic and nationalistic positions.
In 2009, the LSS issued a Fatwa (religious edict) enjoining that Muslims are not allowed to participate in protests. Ironically, this Fatwa happened to be issued ahead of planned protests by opposition parties against the government.
(ST)