Darfur rebel leader signs anti-extremism document in Paris

July 19, 2015 (KHARTOUM) – The leader of the rebel Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM-MM), Minni Arku Minnawi on Sunday has signed the “Democracy Call” document in Paris in his capacity as a friend of the French Republic.

The “Democracy Call” initiative was launched by several intellectuals and media practitioners from various religions and sects in France urging the French president, and government officials to stand firm against ideas promoted by extremism and political Islam which contradicts the universal values and the principles of secularism.

The signatories calls on the French people not to yield to appeals of the extremists and preachers of political Islam.

“Islamism imposes war on us and its principal weapon is terrorism, but Islamism also imposes on us a great ideological battle that we must collectively assume. We must never give them an iota of what constitutes our democratic gains,” says the call.

According to a press release extended to Sudan Tribune on Sunday, by the Sudan Liberation Movement led by Minni Minnawi, it leader signed the document as an advocate for democracy and anti-extremism and hate figure.

“Minnawi signed the [Democracy Call] document alongside the enlightened forces within France and abroad as Friend for the French Republic”, the press release reads.

The document called upon the French civil society, thinkers and ordinary citizens not to succumb to the Islamists pressures and not to fall prey to blackmail posed by Islamophobia accusations as well as standing firmly against racism, anti-semitism and all kinds of discrimination.

The group which launched the call is formed after the 11 January attack on the French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo.

There are over 1800 French or foreigners residing in France combating in the ranks of the Jihadist groups in Iraq and Syria, said a parliamentary report disclosed this week by the prime minister Manuel Valls.

(ST)