The Dilemma of Muslims in South Sudan
By Mustafa Ashour
Islamonline.net _ Doha
The month of June was very significant for Muslims in Southern Sudan. One of the prominent Muslim leaders Sheikh Fuad was taken from home by SPLA gun men on 19 May and reported dead just before South Sudan declared its independence on the 9th of July. The same month the son of the first president of the new sate converted to Islam.
Although Africa in general and the Sudan, specially the Southern part of it is well known and there is ample information available for most readers, but still many do have enough knowledge about the nature of the ethnic, tribal and religious formations. Little is known about the Muslims population in Southern Sudan and this attributed by analyst in addition to their religious affiliation also to Muslim in Southern Sudan mostly in the ranks of the opposition for political regimes.
Christianity is most prevalent among the inhabitants of the states of Equatorial: the Madi, Moru, Azande, and Bari. The major churches in the Sudan are the Roman Catholic, the Anglican (represented by the Episcopal Church of the Sudan) and the Presbyterian. The Dinka person, the largest of the Nilotic tribes is largely Anglican, and the Nuer, the second largest, Presbyterian. The Coptic Orthodox Church’s influence is also still present in Sudan. Southern Sudanese communities might include a few Christians, but the rituals and world view of this part of Sudan are dissimilar to those of Western Christianity. The few communities that had formed around Western missions had disappeared with the dissolution of the missions in 1964.
Recent census shows pagans are the majority of the population in the new state, about (65%), followed by Muslims (18%) and Christians (17%). However, Christians managed with the help of internal and external forces to form what can be called a “new state identity in the South.”
Sufism in South Sudan
Southern Sudan historically views Islam as a threat – in Mahdist times as a military conqueror, and in more modern times (i.e. from the regime of President Aboud, Nimery and Bashir) as a source of intolerance, extremism and Jihad. Hitherto, the Purpose of spreading Islam was not made clear and the mission is always confused with politics. Consequently, social Islam disappeared and political Islam promoted particularly with the implementation of Nimery’s Sharia law, and the Jihad against South Sudan by the National salvation government.
The Islamic movement managed in seventies to open Juba University in Southern Sudan and this facilitated its work with the youth and students during that time despite of all the hurdles and ambiguities in presenting Islamic beliefs and ideologies to the southerners.
It is noted that the Islamic movement in southern Sudan found from the beginning faced with a group of contradictions imposed on it, and the political and social contexts impose them choose the path of caution in their movements and visions. The movement is no doubt influenced by the North Sudanese with respect to ideas and organizations, but some of, not to mention the symbols and related issues of identity and religion.
On the other hand, the Islamic Movement finds itself unable to extract itself from its environment and, exacerbated by the attitude of large sections of the South of the policies of the North and their sense of injustice. However the presence of the movement contributed to the existence of the Islamic movement in southern Sudan is due to the peculiar social formation in Southern Sudan i.e. because of the composition of the social, cultural, and diversity of religious believers within the tribe , but in one house, where there are Muslim and pagan and Christian, all this created a state of tolerance and coexistence between the social components despite of differences in the religions.
Sufism in South Sudan
Islam made its deepest and longest lasting impact in Sudan through the activity of the Islamic religious brotherhoods or orders.The orders first came to Sudan in the sixteenth century and became significant in the eighteenth. Sufism seeks for its adherents a closer personal relationship with God through special spiritual disciplines.
The oldest and most widespread of the turuq is the Qadiriyah founded by Abd al Qadir al Jilani in Baghdad in the twelfth century and introduced into Sudan in the sixteenth. The Qadiriyah’s principal rival and the largest tariqa in the western part of the country was the Tijaniyah, a sect begun by Ahmad at Tijani in Morocco, which eventually penetrated Sudan in about 1810 via the western Sahel. Many Tijani became influential in Darfur, and other adherents settled in northern Kurdufan and also in Southern Sudan.
Sufism leaders in the new state were aware of the importance of politics in shaping people’s lives joined the SPLA and played a leading role in the political activities going on in South Sudan.
‘Salfeya’ in South Sudan
The researcher, “Mohammed Al-Khalifa Siddiq” in his paper for the Salafism in the South, wrote about the emergence of this trend, which began in the seventies of the twentieth century and is associated with the current group Ansar al-Sunna, which is led by Dr “Ismail al-Mahi,”
In an interview Islam online .net conducted with him confirmed the existence of the role of the Ansar al-Sunna in the south, and stated that southerners are linked intellectually to Ansar al-Sunni in the north and the relations between the two is dated back to the year 1960, when Sheikh, “Ali el- Jack” introduced ideas and visions of Salafism in the south in the region of Bahr el Ghazal in the area inhabited by Dinaka tribes.
Later in 1971, Sheikh Ali el Tom arrived in Malakal town and built a mosque with the support of his in law Mohammed el Jabir who protected him from Sufists groups in the area. Many people from Shuluk tribes joined Sheikh Ali which led to the spread of the salfism ideas in the South.
The paper remarked some differences between salafism in the South and the North and this can be seen in their relation to the non Muslim. The Southern version shows a great deal of tolerance due to the nature of social structure in the south. The South did not turn away from the tradition and those who enter Islam were not obliged change their names to the Arabic names, which created a state of social harmony observed in South Sudan especially as it coincided with the retention of” network, social relations and tribal, without causing any rupture in the society.
Al Qaeda in South Sudan
Waleed el Tayeb, a journalist, presented a paper titled “The new comers in South Sudan”. The paper sought to answer the question whether Al Qaeda will penetrate into the new Sothern state and establish a base and cells to carry out its strategies in the neighboring countries. The paper saw this possibility because of the alleged relations between the new state and Israel. Al Qaeda basically views the secession of South Sudan as a conspiracy from Israel and western countries in their efforts to target Islam.
Again Al Qaeda thinks that Muslims in the South are under pressure from the Christians missionaries and hence see it is their duty to defend them and protect Muslim minority interest.
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