One of the most important reasons for the absence of big support and sympathy from the Islamic world to the Sudan crisis is the ignorance of what is happening in this huge Muslim country, especially in Darfur which has become an important topic of interest in the recent years in the international arena.

We all know the important role of the media in focusing people’s attention towards a certain issue. The western and Zionist media has put more emphasis on the Darfur issue to accomplish certain purposes, such as separating Darfur from Sudan. On the other hand, the Islamic media has done nothing in the past years, which has caused what we see of disorder and imbalance nowadays.

Information is very powerful and we can not understand or resolve the situation in Sudan unless we understand the roots and dimensions of the problem. We can not begin to put solutions before having a huge authenticated database that explains the entire situation with its full extent. This cannot be accomplished by a person or a group; there should be designated sincere institutions and a big number of experts specialized in Sudanese and African affairs. These experts should perform on-site visits, inside analysis, surveys and studies. This requires planning, time and money by free unbiased minds which have no self interest; these minds should be doing this sincerely and solely for the sake of Allah.

We are faced with a very serious problem when analyzing the situation in Darfur. This is due to the uncertainty of the information we have. One confirms something and the other one denies. One is accusing while the other is defending. The involved parties are too many and they keep increasing day after another. All of that makes the situation even more complex, especially these days, when we read tens and hundreds of analyses and names whose history or credibility we know nothing about. Some are wise and mature, some are Zionist’s agents and some are knowledgeable hypocrites.

Darfur is one of the largest Sudanese territories located in west Sudan, about half a million square kilometers, its population is about six million and the majority are Sunni Muslims. Some statistics show that up to 50% have memorized the entire Quran which reflects the adherence of the population to Islam. I think 50% is an exaggeration, however, but it shows the Islamic nature of the people. That may be why the West and Zionists have so much interest in this territory.

Some movements arose in the nineties of the twentieth century calling for independency from Sudan. Then it developed into a military movement in 2003 and the problems worsened until it became an international issue: should Darfur be included or independent from Sudan?

To answers this question, we need an unbiased analysis of the history, politics, religious background and the reality of the situation in Darfur in order to find a practical solution for the problem. Whoever studies the crisis of Darfur finds it very likely that Darfur will become independent of Sudan, unless the Sudanese government takes serious and well planned measures. Muslims all over the world should get proactive before the separation occurs and reconciliation chance is gone. We are all inactive and think that Allah will preserve the Islamic nation even if we do not do anything. Some of us think that this issue will resolve itself over time, and that is wrong. Let’s not forget what happened to Andalusia and India. We need to admit that this is very serious and the chance that Darfur becomes independent is big. I say this for the following reasons:

First: Darfur is larger than many countries; western analytics say that it is as big as France to give the impression that it can be a country by itself. Darfur has great natural resources such as oil and uranium.

Second: The complex geographic location of Darfur, Darfur shares open borders and economical, political and familial relationship with Libya and Chad. This gives these countries an important role since it makes it vital for them to play an active role in the conflict of Darfur.

Third: The ethnic background of the tribes of Darfur is very concerning. Even though the whole population is Muslim, 80% belong to non-Arab African tribes and most of them are farmers. The rest are Arab tribes who migrated to Darfur in the nineteenth century and most of them are shepherds. Both groups are Muslims but they have different backgrounds and ethnicities. This has caused disagreement between them, which is natural and rather expected. This should not be surprising as the Muhajireen and Ansar had such disagreements as well, so did the Aws and Khazraj tribes. If these conflicts are not properly dealt with, the disagreements will get more complicated and security in the region will be compromised. This may push the people towards an alternative solution of seeking independent powerful government that controls both groups. In addition, the desert nature of the land and lack of pastures puts the tribes in a struggle for water resources and grassland.

Fourth: The history of Darfur makes its division a very concerning matter. For the most part of history, the region has been actually independent from Sudan. In fact, it used to be a Muslim Sultanate encompassing a large number of African tribes. The last Sultan was Al-Wareh Ali bin Dinar, who ruled from 1898 to 1917. He used to send the cover of the Ka’ba to Makkah for twenty years. He used to feed the pilgrims to the point where they named a place close to Madinah after him. This Muslim Sultan supported the Ottoman Caliphate in World War I, causing the rage of the British authorities that occupied Sudan at that time. Therefore, the British joined Darfur to Sudan in 1917. This historical background shows that if the residents don’t feel comfortable with the Sudanese government, they will want to go back to what they had been before.

 Fifth: The heavy Western Zionist interference in the region is pushing towards the idea of division in order to achieve huge strategic advantages. In fact, it has been openly cooperating with the rebel leaders in Darfur to push them to divide the land in order to have a new government that supports the helping Western and Zionist powers. The country that cares the most about Darfur is France. This is because Darfur is on the farthest eastern border of the land that used to be occupied by France. In fact, France has been able to associate with an important figure from the tribe of Fur, one of the biggest tribes in Darfur and after which the region was named (Dar-Fur). This figure is Abdul Wahid Muhammad Nur, who holds clear secular French views. He is the founder of the biggest rebel movement in Darfur known as the Sudan Liberation Army. This is a different movement than Sudan People’s Liberation Army which is based in Southern Sudan, though their ideology is very similar and there has been lots of cooperation between the two.

 The British also interfere in the region through Khalil Ibrahim, who has founded a rebel movement that belongs to Zaghawa, another African tribe. With the support of the British, he formed the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), which also is a secular movement that calls for separating Darfur from Sudan.

Besides France and England, there is the US, which not only has interest in Darfur, Sudan, or even the African region, but in the whole world! The US has been pushing for international forces under UN authority and the US government to keep peace in the region. And then comes Israel to take part in the Darfur issue, not just through the Save Darfur alliance, but also through direct interference by the Israeli government itself. The Israeli government has collected $5,000,000 to support the Darfurian refugees, gave permission to Israeli charity organizations to help and offered to buy $800,000-worth of water purification materials donated by Israeli companies. Also, Tzipi Livni, the Israeli Minister of Foreign Affairs declared at a meeting with some African ambassadors in Tel Aviv that the Israeli government would try to find a solution to the crisis in Darfur!

In addition, one cannot forget about the many humanitarian organizations that practice humanitarian acts as well as missionary acts and criminal acts! For example, charity l’Arche de Zoé kidnapped children from Darfur to sell them to English and French families in Oct 2007.

Sixth:For years the Sudanese government considered Darfur as a desert territory populated by Bedouin tribes with no natural resources, therefore unimportant. This was a severe administrative and ideological mistake that led to poverty, isolation, and absence of security, infrastructure and parliament representation. Due to this, the people of Darfur lost loyalty to Sudan. Even when Omar Al-Bashir took over in 1989, the devastating war in southern Sudan did not allow him to look after the Darfur issues. This further deteriorated the relationship between the people of Darfur and Sudan and gave rise to disobedient movements. Whenever reconciliation efforts are attempted, the problem is postponed rather than solved. So things calm down for a while and then get even worse than they were. 

Seventh:The Sudanese military consists of only about 90 thousand soldiers. The fact that it has been weakened through the 20-year war in southern Sudan made it unable to control and provide security to the large Sudan, especially Darfur where the Janjaweed gang appeared. The Janjaweed comprise armed Arabic tribes who ride horses and wear white garments. They wander throughout Darfur killing and robbing people. The West claims that the Janjaweed are cooperating with the Sudanese government, who in turn denies such allegations. If it is true that the government cooperates with the Janjaweed, then that reflects the weakness of the Sudanese military forces since they can’t control things themselves and therefore need assistance of robbers and criminals! If the government is not cooperating then that is a sign of weakness as well because the government declared that it had no control over the Janjaweed and that they were killing Sudanese soldiers as well as the rebels. This all shows the instability and insecurity of the area. 

Eighth: The ignorance and illiteracy of the people of

Darfur make it easy for others to control their mind. Although a lot of them have memorized the Quran, the school system is very weak and there is a complete lack of media. With the absence of sincere Muslim scholars and teachers, these uneducated people become easy targets by the Zionists and Western missionaries who are pushing ideas like separation of religion from the state, imposing secular curriculums and independence from Sudan. 

Ninth: There is an absence of authentic and scientific studies that explain the history, geography, topographical complexity of the area. There is a lack of research on how to deal with the different tribes, their ideology and their beliefs. Therefore, whoever tries to solve the problem and bring the groups together fails even if he were very sincere.  

Tenth: The disgraceful complete disregard of the Darfur issue by the Islamic world. The situation in Darfur has been worsening over the past 10 years and Sudan is left alone with absolutely no support by the Islamic world. This makes it almost given that the independence of Darfur is going to take place. When that happens, feeling sorry and crying over spilled milk will not do anything.

The above are ten factors and there are much more but the important point is that the likelihood of the separation of Darfur from Sudan is very high.

We did not mention all the above to say that there is no hope or solution to the problem and we completely do not agree with the International Criminal Court, yet we strive to resolve this issue and request the Sudanese government with all possible sincerity and transparency to reconsider the Darfur case and find a logical and acceptable solution in light of the above circumstances and other circumstances that we do not know.

This issue is very serious, yet resolving it is not impossible if the right means and measures are taking. Keeping Darfur under the Sudan ruling is a national duty and an Islamic obligation.

We ask our dear readers to share their thoughts about possible solutions and reconciliation strategies which will be the topic next week with Allah’s will.

We ask Allah to help and guide us, and to protect Sudan and the people of Sudan.

We ask Allah to honor Islam and the Muslims.

Dr. Ragheb Elsergany