Here are three quotations supporting my statment about Sudan:
Three points:
1. Women are prominent in the sudan Islamicist movement.
2. This movement is utterly undemocratic and has repressed the two major
indigenous Arab Sudanese social movements both Sufi (irony of ironies).
3. Even a woman liberal fighting conscription refused to admit slavery
which is usually accompanied by enforced circumcision.
1. New Zealand Herald "In Sudan, women are among the most active and
visible organizers of the Islamic movement, particularly as teachers."
NEW YORKER Jan 25th 1999
2. Undemocratic government and Sufi repression
Most northern Sudanese Muslims belong to Sufi sects founded
and led by local holy men. The country's two largest Sufi orders are
also its two largest political parties. (These parties, both basically
family dynasties, are currently underground, with their 'led
leaders in armed alliance with exi the S.P.L.A.) Sufism is a
heterodox Islam, incorporating song and dance (and whirling-Sudan
has some dazzling dervishes), prone to mysticism, and tolerant
of diversity. Attempts to impose a more orthodox Islam-by
Egyptian overlords, for example-have traditionally been resisted.
The rise of a radical Islamist movement in Sudan was strictly an
6]ite phenomenon, building slowly among university students and
the professional and political class in Khartoum before and after
independence, and in direct opposition to an eq ' uauy small,
well-educated Communist movement. The Islamists in Sudan gather
much of their political and financial strength from an
internafional group known as the Muslim Brotherhood, which
promotes political Islam throughout North Africa and the Middle
East. In 1986, during the last elecfion before their 1989 putsch,
Sudan's Islamists, known then as the National Islamic Front,
received eighteen per cent of the vote. (It was their highest vote
total ever but still well be@nd the votes of both the big Sufi
parties.) They have functioned in power as a vanguard party, and
it seems safe to say that if a free election were held today they
would get even fewer votes.
3. Refusal to admit the existence of slavery
And so, while international human-rights groups estimate that there
are now tens of thousands of chattel slaves in Sudan-and a growing
trade in Sudanese slaves that may reach as far as Saudi Arabia and
the Gulf States as well-the Sudanese government's reaction is not to
investigate such charges aggressively but instead to demand proof To
many observers, this reeks of tacit approval. But Sudanese Arab
attitudes toward slavery really are unusual. Even most political
liberals, Mahmud had warned me, are in total denial." I had tea one
evening in Omdurman, in a magnificent old house belonging to one of
the leading Sudanese political dynasties. The lady of the house, a
professor of mathematics, served me dates from her garden and
spoke movingly of her dangerous work with other mothers in organizing
protests against conscription. She had a brother, a former government
minister, in jail on political charges, she said. But when I mentioned
the slavery issue her manner changed. "There is no such thing here,"
she said sharply. "The Sudanese people are not that kind of
people."
_____________________________________________________________________________
Chaos is the Mother of Invention - Necessity the Offspring
_____________________________________________________________________________
Chris KING, Phone: 0064-9-3737599 # 8818
Senior Lecturer Mathematics Fax: 0064-9-3737457
University of Auckland E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Private Bag 92019
AUCKLAND, New Zealand.
http://matu1.math.auckland.ac.nz/~king/Preprints/book/genesis.htm
"Genesis of Eden" - Alta Vista Search
