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Vision of the Muslim Brotherhood on self-determination in Southern Sudan Nov. 9, 2010 Introduction This article is a brief historical description of the Sudan As a political and religious organization of all Muslims, our position is obvious about this historic crime [self-determination] perpetrated against the Sudan, Islam and Muslims. When such a crime is compromised in the land of Muslims and Islam, with ease, the punishments shall be delivered to the unbelievers. They shall become a thorn on the side of the nation and delivered that nation to the enemies of Allah [Almighty God]. As always the intention of this sedition is to disrupt the growth of Muslims and Islam. There are only few fateful days left for the referendum as we get out this document. As Muslims and true believers of the Allah [Almighty God], we do not call after the departure of the convoy [secession of South Sudan], but a continuation of our appeals that we are launching throughout the Islamic World as we did always, and time and time again. The Reformed Muslim Brotherhood is issuing this booklet to alert and awaken all Muslims; perhaps God himself will facilitate the awakening and stop this disaster from happening. According to the Naivasha Agreement of 2005, self-determination for South Sudan is supposed to take place on the ninth of January. This pivotal event will determine the fate of the Sudan geographically, politically as well as security. It is very strange that the people of the Sudan, religious leaders, and scholars did not participate and present their opinion in the decisionmaking of this serious crime, but was done by a group which holds power in the Sudan and the former southern rebels. The agreement makes the secession of southern Sudan from the rest of the country a possibility, because it gives the people of southern Sudan alone excluding the rest of the country the right to vote. In such cases, the rebels are encouraging south Sudanese by claiming that the “South has been colonized by the North!!” Since this referendum is a critical milestone that will shape the Sudan and its map [God forbid!], it is also necessary to shed light on some of the logical, legitimate facts, as a testimony of God and history. These facts are: First, the land of the south Sudan is part of the Islamic World that shall not be relinquished. History is a proof! South Sudan is an Islamic land, Saracens and will always be ruled by Muslims with other various parts of the Sudan. It is part of an Islamic country and because of this; its geography must remain intact by all means. As it is well known in history, the present Sudan was cluster of chiefdoms, kingdoms and sultanates, until the Ottoman Turkish conquest of Egypt in the first decades of the nineteenth century. The Turks put these Muslim kingdoms, chiefdoms and sultanates including the South together and named it the Sudan. As you have seen, the Sudan becomes part of the Ottoman Empire. As evidenced in the history the Sudan, unlike other regions, for instance, Darfur which joined the Sudan in 1874 at the hand of al Zubayr Pasha, South Sudan was already part of the Sudan. In addition, during the Mahdia Revolution southern tribes participated in the struggle against the infidels lead by the Mahdi in big numbers. They pledged allegiance and entered into obedience, and became part of the Islamic state established by the Mahdi. [1] Based on this, the South, with all its endowment is an integral part of the Islamic World, which is an Islamic land, and no one has the legal right to transfer, sell, and change the borders of the land of the martyrs. No one has the authority to do disarmament in the land Muslims are governing and give it to non-Muslims. This is an insult to Allah [Almighty God] and Muslims. Sudan: The Islamic Conquest of the Sudan Islam came to the Sudan during the reign of Caliph Osman ibn Affan III (may Allah be pleased with him) when he sent his servant to Egypt, Abdullah ibn Sah started campaign and conquered Nubia in southern Egypt. This was due to repeated attack by infidels on the southern borders of Egypt. Though the primary purpose of Abdullah ibn Sah’s campaign was to discipline the infidels of Nubia and secure the borders of Egypt, his Islamic army invaded the Nubian capital, Old Dongola, destroyed it churches and build mosques for Muslims there. This conquest resulted into the signing of the treaty, which ensured the subordination of the Nubian and their loyalty to the Islamic state. As a result of the Islamic conquest, the treaty lasted for six centuries and it regulated relationship between Muslims in Egypt and Nubia. The incursion of Muslim traders into Nubia also helped to spread Islam in remote areas of the Nubian Kingdom. Also contributed in the spread of Islam to the rest of the Nubia and beyond was the political turmoil in the Abbasid state, which resulted in the migration of the Arabs to the Sudan in various groups, especially when Caliph al Mutassim Abbasi decided to sent Arabs away as soldiers. This settlement of the Arab tribes in the modern day Sudan, UAE resulted in the established of Islamic Emirate by sultans such as Abdul Hamid Bin Abdullah Al-Omari in the nineteenth century AD in the Eastern Desert. [2] But these migrations peaked during the nineteenth century AD during the worsening conflict between the Arabs and the Mamluks when the Arabs started to come to the Sudan in large batches, taking over the Christian state of the Nubia and made it an Islamic Sultanate. There was another Arab influx from the western slope of North Africa through West Africa until it reached Darfur and Kordofan. Funj: One of the last remaining entities that was defeated by the Arab state of Alwa that ruled central Sudan. The allied Arab tribes under the banner of Sheik Arab Qawasmi Abdullah rise in the beginning of the nineteenth century AD and conquered the Kindom of the Nuba in Kordofan and destroyed the capital of Soba established Islamic political entity, which united with the Kingdom of Funj in the Upper Blue Nile. [3] In addition, what is known today as South Sudan was early on in the hand of Muslims like the Misseriya Arabs pastoralists who arrived in the nineteenth century in the south Sudan across the Red Sea and settled, especially in the Abyei region before the arrival of the Dinka. South Sudan in the hand of the Ottoman Empire: In 1821 Mohammad Ali Pasha of Egypt invaded the Sudan, however, he ruled the Sudan on the behalf of Ottoman Sultan in Istanbul, which was the Caliph at the time. After the fall of kingdom in the north of the Sudan in the hand of the Turks, Mohammad Ali Pasha continue southward to explore the waters of the Nile under Captain Salim, who arrive in “Gondakoro” an island on the Nile southeast of the city of Juba, the capital of Southern Sudan. It was said that when Captain Salim and his soldiers arrive on the island of Gondokoro, they embraced one another for achieving their goal.[4] The control of the waters of the Nile and the invasion of the Sudan was one of the important goals achieved by Mohammad Ali Pasha. He was keen to extend his control and influence with his soldiers. This expedition was later on continue after him by Alkhadioyen until he reached what was known as the Directorate of Equatoria and stretched the limits of his conquest to Lake Victoria in what is known today as Ugandan. Zubair Basha: The Turkish under Al-Zubair Basha and Dr. Mercy established Islamic state in Bhar Al Gazel under Turkish government. He was later became the ruler of Darfur and Bhar Al Gazel. The Era of Mahdia: The Mahdia Revolution inherited Islamic region of south Sudan from the Turkish government and entered it into the administrative system established on the basis of Islam. As a result of the Mahdia Revolution, Sharia arbitration was extended in the south Sudan all the way to the Mount of Al Rajaf, which is located southeast of the city of Juba. [5] In summary, the South has been subjected to the rule of Muslims during different eras of the Sudan since the Turks and even during the state of the Mahdia Revolution, in which southerners participated. With the rest of the Sudan, south Sudan also fell into the hands of English occupiers, and then liberated with the rest of the country during independence. As shown by these narratives above, south Sudan is an Islamic land, it belongs to all Muslims. No infidels should hold on to it, or waived it through referendum or other means. All in all, secession of south Sudan under the pressure of infidels is a betrayal in the eyes of Allah [Almighty God] and his messenger and the believers. The relationship between the North and the South One of the reasons cited always by the infidels to justify the separation of the South from the North is that the relationship between the North and the South are not on good terms. It is always about the long history of wars and that is, it would be better to stop bloodshed to let the South go. The truth is that the relationship between the North and South was not always about war, but that of co-existence for more than five centuries. The emergence of the recent war is a history of no more than 50 years. It is true that was the breakout war occasionally, for instance, between the Shilluk and the Funj, or between Arab tribes and the Dinka. However, conflicts over resources or land were not confined to the Funj and the Shilluk or the Dinka and the Misseriya but happening all over the Sudan between various chiefdoms and kingdoms in various times and even among southern tribes themselves. Such conflicts didn’t constitute a phenomenon that characterizes relationship of aggression between the North and the South. More historical evidence of good relationship: During the era of the former Turkish Sultan Zubair Basha and Dr. Mercy, there was an Islamic state in the deep south of the Sudan that was governed by the laws of God and the foundation of its army was “Banzenker.” The Islamic state in the south was recognized by the Turkish government and subject together for the first time together with Darfur, the Fur Sultanate as part of the Turtish Islamic state in 1874. [6] The Mahdia Revolution after the Ottoman rule extended it borders to Mount Al Rajaf entered the South in glory and obedience without conflict. Indeed, southern tribes like the Dinka, Nuer, and Shilluk participated in the revolution under the command of Prince Mahdi (may God be generous to him) and brothers Mohammad and princes of Solomon. In the old history of Misseriya regarding Abyei, we find that Misseriya were the ones who hosted “Dinka Ngok” who were expelled by their Dinka brothers as a result of a row. The Misseriya hosted the “Dink Ngok” after they did not find someone to host them. The cordial relationship between Misseriya and Dinka Ngok continue on brotherly terms and when the English tried to annex the Dinka Ngok to Bhar Al Gazel, the Dinka Ngok refused and insisted to be part of south Kordofan. The chief of the Dinka Ngok at the time was Chief Deng Mijok and chief of the Misseriya was Babu Nimr. The two were brothers because their relationship was built on Islamic principles. As a result of this customs and tradition and culture, Arabic language prevailed in the South and became the language of communication between different tribes in south Sudan. In those days southerners wear Arabic fashions, carry Arabic names (tzmoa). However, the current problem was developed by the infidels of the British administration (1898-1956) to isolate south Sudan from north Sudan and erect sealed areas, where northerners were not allowed or work in the south and prevented southerners from having Arabic or Islamic names, or wearing Arab clothes. The churches and missionaries fired northerners and takeover education and evangelize the South, creating an elite southern religiously and culturally to the British colonialists. But despite that, Muslims continue to grow in number more than the number of Christians in the south Sudan with the survival of the majority of the pagans. Despite this policy, southerners chose during the Juba conference in 1947 to stand with the unity of the Sudan and voted later in 1955 from within the parliament together with the North in favor of independence of the Sudan. Colonialism and industry of hatred: There was no hostility between northerners and southerners, however, British policies created the kind of variation that is experienced today by the people of the Sudan. Though the some negative effects created by the British have found their roots among the elites of the south Sudan, language and religion were not a problem. In clear terms, the isolation of the south from the north by the British is the root of the starvation and nutrition problem in that part of the Sudan. After independence, the Conference of the Graduates demanded the withdrawal of the forces of occupation and demanded different standards of education between the north and south. The adoption of the Arabic language as the language of education, the steps taken by Gen. Abboud (1958-1964) to impose Arabic language as the language of instruction in the South, the expulsion of the priest and foreigners fueled the problem in the South. To worsen the situation, the church took the lead in fueling the problem further. During the renewal of the war since the 1950’s of the last century and until the turn of the century; the number of southerners displaced to the north was greater than the number of southerners displaced to the neighboring countries of Africa. This showed that the conflict between the north and the south was not based on ethnic or sectarian lines. Our position on the referendum The Muslim Brotherhood’s position on the issue of the referendum and selfdetermination was a position of principle based on the rejection of the idea as well as the rejection of the basis on which it was launch, the Naivasha Agreement! We have expressed our position and made it clear since the day this agreement [Naivasha Agreement] was signed. And we have stated repeatedly, through seminars, data, and media statements and press releases. We have experiences in the development of people’s abilities to handle their historical responsibilities and as a result, we rejected that Convention [Naivasha Agreement] on the eve when it was put up in the parliament and have the leader of the group [Muslim Brotherhood] filing a memorandum about the pitfalls of the Convention [Naivasha Agreement] and its collision with the religion, the National Council, and we have faced what others faced like arrest by the security officers, interrogation, investigation, calculated not in the way of Allah [Almighty God] in fairness and denial of the greatest evil. Based on this, the Muslim Brotherhood reject the referendum to determine the fate of South Sudan on the basis of Sharia, in terms of form and contents because of the obvious realities that may come with it. First: it is unacceptable, because the basic principle in Islam is that it does not know the referendum, but drawing on the public opinion after taking the opinion of the influential people, the Shura Council, scholars as pros and cons in conjunction with the national interest to avert evil. This conscientious deliberation was once shown by Abd al-Rahman ibn Awf (may Allah be pleased with him) during the inauguration of Uthman (may Allah be pleased with him, his successor and all his companions). Secondly: The agreement [Naivasha Agreement] is unacceptable in terms of contents because the theme of the referendum is to alienate south Sudan which is the territory of Islam and Muslims and deliver it to the unbelievers, which is not permissible as mentioned in the beginning of the paper. Thirdly: This agreement is rejected by facts because it is a project lead by forces hostile to Islam and seeking the siege of Muslims as well as the expulsion of Islam, a scheme that include the whole of the Sudan, which the unbelievers want to shred into pieces. This is not a secret to anyone including Muslims. It is well known that the forces that were behind the insurgency in the supported the miscreants with money and weapons throughout the decades of the war. These forces were the same forces which sponsored the Naivasha Agreement, which was negotiated for the first time in the history of the civil war in the Sudan – the principle of self-determination for southerners, the control and the implementation of the agreement, and the presence of ten thousand UN troop to protect it. As if these were not enough, these forces are still pushing toward the direction of the North to weaken it and hand the whole of the Sudan to southern Sudanese miscreants to rule it. Furthermore, to highlight the facts that come with this reality, we would like to refer to the number of negative consequences that may come with the secession of south Sudan. These negative consequences are: 1. Disarmament of Muslims, rule of Islamic land and placing of Muslims under the government lead by the unbelievers. 2. Weakening of Muslims in the south and stunting of the growth of Muslims’ numbers, which is, according to some statistics, was somewhere between 25-30%, [7] although some leading Muslim southerners point out that the proportion of Muslims in the south is close to 35% of the total population. 3. Return to war, in which case, there will be no peaceful atmosphere [between the north and the south] after disengagement given the presence of many outstanding issues such as the border demarcation and denying of the rights of the Misseriya to participate in the Abyei referendum. 4. Closing of the gate of Islam by the south and prevent it to spread to the rest of Africa. This is by itself a siege of south Sudan and the rest of the Sudan, an Islamic land. 5. [Separation of south Sudan will lead to] the heavy negative impact on the nomadic and pastoral Arab tribes, which move southward following their natural pastoral grounds. In this regard, independent south Sudan will be a bridge against their grazing routes that lead southward. This trend will increase the opportunities of the war in the future. 6. Separation means more fighting between the north and the south, and in a worse case scenario, there is going to be a mass movement of the displaced southerners and asylum seekers to the north because of internal fighting between southern tribes. 7. Separation means re-allocation of the Nile waters – as expected, this means the beginning of the conflict that will rage for generations. 8. Economic impact on the north due to low oil production – 70% of oil fields comes from south. This is going to be difficult for the north because the economy of the north will be based on agricultural mechanized farming production of corn and other grains, which is usually helping the south. 9. Separation will bring great danger to the north because foreign forces (America and Israel) will establish military presence in the south as it is the case now after the Naivasha Agreement. In addition, foreign forces are helping SPLA to set up bases in the close to the border areas (SPLA camps south of Renk) represent a military threat to the north. Military threat to the north can be summarizes as follows: 1. 2. 3. 4. SPLA military bases in border of the north and south NATO (Jewish American south) Armed border conflict Nile water Unity in the context of the Naivasha Agreement: We clearly reject secession of south Sudan as it is going to be the case if this referendum goes ahead as planned. However, we also reject unity in the framework of the convention, because we believe that this agreement is the worse agreement signed in the modern history of the Sudan. As narrated above, we believe that we are no longer bound to continue to be subjected to the terms of the agreement and the details as much as they are. However, they must be based on different bases taking into the account the right of Muslim majority in the governance of the country. Religious law is not blackmail. It is not a dirty one; therefore, Sharia law must be inclusive in terms of justice for citizens of Muslim state whether under Islam or otherwise. We also believe that any agreement on the details and the continuation of the Naivasha Agreement constitutes long term harm to Islam and Muslims in regard to the following: 1. Constant threat of separation as we have seen is draining the north of its vital resources. 2. Waiving of the application of Sharia in the north because the spirit of Naivasha agreement is based on secularism. Nevertheless, the conclusion was that the suspension of the law [Sharia law] was the price for unity according to Naivasha Agreement. Under Islamic state, secularism has no place. 3. The motive behind the Naivasha Agreement was to strengthen the influence of the popular movement in the north as well as strengthen its presence. 4. The agreement was to push the parties to form a confederate state as shown by the details of the agreement. Should this happen, then it is a serious matter because the Christians can be exempted from Muslim rule in the Sudan, which is a Muslim country. 5. In the light of the details according to the framework of the confederation, or self-government as it is the case today, it will not end the chains of rebellions in the south, because all elements of power is available at its disposal, and this time it will be a rebellion of the state with its own army. This, of course, will be more dangerous than any previous rebellion. 6. According to Naivasha Agreement it is stated that there shall be no party formed on religious basis. This was mean to weaken the political activities of Islam in particular and weaken the [Islamic in the Sudan] work in general. War situation in the Sudan before the Naivasha Agreement Before the Naivasha Agreement, SPLM remained throughout the duration of the war in southern Sudan (1983-2005); however, tried very hard to transfer the rebellion to the north of the Sudan. This was to make the north the scene of military operations and make strategic break through, which would have had brought stability in the south at the end. Such military operations were carried out in Kurmuk, Geissan, Hemshkourib, south Red Sea state and Kassala. SPLA then tried to move the war to Darfur earlier before the implementation of this strategy. At the political level the SPLM was absorbed by the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), which emerged after the coup to rescue the latest breakthrough. It never happened in the history of the Sudan that a number of political movements from the north and the south unite as an opposition front against the regime in the north and adopt varying methods and activities aimed at changing the regime or force it to change its behaviors. Because of its intense presence in the field, SPLM took over the leadership of the opposition as well as the military wing. It also assumes the post of secretary general of the nation assembly following the withdrawal of the Umma Party. This political maneuver led the SPLM to negotiate the Naivasha Agreement individually with the government (January 2005). The agreement handed the south to the SPLM and also gave a greater share in the government of the center as well as wealth sharing with the National Congress. As a result, this advantages given to the south lead to the improvement of the political and military situation of the People’s Movement. Throughout this process and during the implementation of the agreement, the strategic objective of the SPLM is to make the south stable and to create unrest to destabilize the north, hence making it a war-torn region. If we clearly look at the text of the Naivasha Agreement, we find clear that it leads to the following: • The Abyei Texts: This area belongs to the north; however, the Misseriya is denied its dynamic grazing rights and movement and may lead to conflict. • South Kordofan: The convention restricted its governance to a number of laws such as popular consultation. Such laws were designed to make the central government weak. • South Blue Nile: The same applies to this northern region as evidenced during the last governor’s election which was won by SPLM’s candidate at gunpoint. This is a testament for this area will exit from the central government’s control. • Prior to the Naivasha Agreement, the first agreement for the Nuba Mts. was arranged by Rev. Danforth, former U.S. envoy. The reason behind this was to rescue this isolated region politically and military from the central government’s control. • Then came the problem of Darfur (2003) before the signing of the Naivasha Agreement. This was to increase the suffering of the North and the movement of the war, with all the sufferings and implications that come with it to the north. As we have narrated above, this was a strategic decision-making by the Popular Movement to make the south stable, keep the final outcome of the Naivasha Agreement intact, keep the UN resolutions and the U.S. embargo in place, and make the north a war-ravaged theater of suffering. In the light of all these conspiracies hatched by the unbelievers to dismember an Islamic country, we are keeping the solution in our view to unite the home front and not leave the fate of the country in the monopoly of one party. We also call our respected citizens to respect the fundamentals of Islam, which respect public freedom and dignity of citizens to report for duty to safeguard the country’s sovereignty and its territorial integrity to ward off foreign interference and aggression of any kind or degree. Conclusion At will and with no opposition from the Sudanese government, the enemies of Islam have chosen to put the Sudan on the sharp edge with far fewer options (Secular Sudan with fragile government that can be dissolved overnight or two belligerent countries that could go to war anytime). Timorous as they are, our rulers have capitulated and chose the above conditions put forth by the infidels, some of them for satisfaction and subordination and others for fear and inability to trust the citizens they are leading. It shouldn’t have been like this for them had they [leaders of the Sudan] not forfeit the security and stability of the Sudan and accept the crimes meted out against our nation per the agreement, which..... (Next page) makes our future a future trapped with explosives wars. They themselves may have not signed this treacherous agreement given all the available options at the time; however, they went ahead and continue to market the Sudan to a dark future. No matter what you [the reader] imagine, the fear of what they did is not the worse one. The crime they committed in the eyes of Allah [Almighty God] is the worse of all. They had enough time to correct the adverse situation the Sudan is heading into as we mentioned earlier in this article, but chose to walk in shame and march into the abyss. And here they are serving, representing the right of the present the future generations, and without authorization, had acted not in their interest but for the benefit of those who do not deserve it. We are hereby proclaiming our witness to history. We are rejecting the Naivasha Agreement and the referendum. We are calling on the government of the Sudan to assume its responsibility firmly in maintaining the integrity of the country Muslims inherited through tough times in the periods of history. A country united by Islam and Muslims cannot accept the middle ground but must choose those two routes mentioned above in the faces of men and enemies. In the will of Allah (God) which guides the way, Muslim Brotherhood Reformed November 2010 __________________ Aviator1, As I promised you and other friends, this is the English version of the Arabic text released by Muslim Brotherhood I posted about week ago. Special thanks goes to the following for translating the text. 1. Ustaz Amir Idriss 2. Ustaz Abdalla Deng 3. Prof. Ali Mustafa __________________