Sudanese government to sue hate preacher over women sport

October 9, 2019 (KHARTOUM) – The Sudanese government has decided to file a lawsuit against a hate preacher saying his attack on the sports minister is an attack on its policy to restore the role and status of women in Sudanese society.

Recently a radical preacher Abdel Hai Youssef attacked the Minister of Youth and Sports Walaa Essam al-Boushi, and accused her of apostasy, after the launch of a league of women’s football in Sudan.

The female minister has already lodged a complaint against the preacher who still continues to profess his support for the former regime.

Following the government weekly meeting on Wednesday, Faisal Mohamed Saleh, Minister of Information and the cabinet’s spokesperson said the meeting discussed the attack which was directed against the whole government.

“The issue is not a personal issue, but a public issue,” Minister Saleh told reporters. “The cabinet directed the Ministry of Justice to take the necessary legal measures to demonstrate its solidarity (with the minister) because it is a public issue and not a personal matter,” he stressed.

Al-Hai in his Friday sermon the preacher who was close to the ousted president Omer al-Bashir said that the transitional authority “took over the country in a moment of inattention and that all its actions confirm that it came to destroy religion.”

Al-Bashir’s National Congress Party sought to launch a campaign of solidarity with the hate preacher but it did not find a positive echo in the country.

(ST)