Egyptian Islamist group admits sending fighters to South Sudan during civil war years
November 16, 2011 (KHARTOUM) – A leading figure in an Egyptian Islamist group revealed in an interview that they sent some of their members to fight with the Sudanese army during the civil war years.
- Nageh Ibrahim, a co-founder of al-Gama’a al-Islamiyya in Egypt (.almorakeb.com)
Nageh Ibrahim, a co-founder of al-Gama’a al-Islamiyya and a member of its Shura council, told the Kuwait-based Al-Rai newspaper that some of the group’s members went to Sudan and joined arms with the army in the battle against rebels in south of the country.
But the official said the group regretted taking part in this war.
“This participation was a huge mistake that led to what is Sudan’s fate now,” Ibrahim said.
The people of South Sudan overwhelmingly voted to leave the north in a January referendum, promised in the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) that ended more than two decades of civil war with the north which killed around 2 million civilians and displaced million others.
Last July South Sudan, where most follow Christian and traditional beliefs, officially became an independent state and gained swift recognition from most of the international community including Arab and Muslim countries that supported Khartoum during the civil war years.
Since coming to power in 1989 through a bloodless coup, analysts say that the government of President Omer Hassan al-Bashir has focused on mobilizing people domestically and externally by portraying the war as a foreign plot to strip the country of its Arab-Islamic identity.
Government media at the time reinforced an image of soldiers from Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) and allied Popular Defense Forces (PDF) being backed by God and spoke of semi-miracles the fighters encountered during some of the battles.
The leading figure from al-Gama’a al-Islamiyya suggested that they were misguided in their backing of the war and blamed Bashir’s government for splitting up the country.
“The Sudanese regime focused its efforts on Islamizing the south and the Egyptian Islamists considered their participation in the war [was for the cause of] safeguarding Islam” Ibrahim said.
The Egyptian Al-Gama’a al-Islamiyya started originally as a group in the 1970’s that recruited heavily in universities and eventually became hugely influential among students. They grew more militant in nature and were accused of stoking violence in college campuses and later outside the academic institutions, particularly during the 1990s.
One of the group’s founders, Tarek al-Zumar, and his cousin Abboud, were convicted of involvement in the assassination of Egyptian President Anwar Sadat in 1981.
In 2003 the group officially renounced violence and the Egyptian government started releasing of its members from jail afterwards.
A court ruled last month that the Islamist group can form its own political party paving the way for its participation in the upcoming elections.
(ST)
http://www.sudantribune.com/Egyptian-Islamist-group-admits,40746
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