The new constitution will be a deliberate U-turn from the interim one that respected “the cultural and social diversity of the Sudanese people,” at least on paper. Wherever Sharia law experiences a revival, tolerance decreases, and persecution, harassment, and abuses of human rights increase.
Bashir is already wanted by the International Criminal Court for genocide in Darfur, but protected by the African Union and Arab League with the support of the Organization of the Islamic Cooperation (formerly the Organization of the Islamic Conference). His plans for the remainder of Sudan after the south’s independence amount to cultural genocide (with some of the old fashioned kind likely to follow), with a stated plan of linguistic and cultural Arabization to accompany the imposition of Sharia law.
“Bashir says Sudan will adopt Islamic constitution,” from Reuters, October 13:
KHARTOUM – Sudan will go ahead with plans to adopt an entirely Islamic constitution and strengthen Islamic law, President Omar Hassan al-Bashir said on Wednesday, three months after its former civil war enemy South Sudan became independent.
Juba seceded on 9 July after a referendum agreed under a 2005 peace deal that ended decades of civil war between the mainly Muslim north and the South where most follow Christian and traditional beliefs.
Bashir had said in December that Sudan would adopt an Islamic constitution if Juba seceded but many southerners had hoped he would not deliver on this.
His comments will add to uncertainty for more than a million southerners who still live in the north and are now treated legally as foreigners. Khartoum has given them until spring to leave or obtain the legal right to stay, a complicated process.
“Ninety-eight percent of the people are Muslims and the new constitution will reflect this. The official religion will be Islam and Islamic law the main source (of the constitution),” Bashir told students in Khartoum in a speech.
“We call it a Muslim state,” said Bashir, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court on charges of war crimes in Darfur.
The 2005 peace deal set up an interim constitution which limited Islamic law to the north and recognized “the cultural and social diversity of the Sudanese people”….