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Political Islam and the Darfur Conflict: Religious Violence and the Interreligious Potential for Peace in Sudan

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Violence, Religion, Peacemaking

Part of the book series: Interreligious Studies in Theory and Practice ((INSTTP))

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Abstract

The Darfur conflict is often viewed as an ethnic conflict between Arabs against Africans or farmers and nomads; a conflict spurred by environmental scarcity; or a conflict between the marginalized against those in power. This chapter contributes to a deeper understanding of the political dynamics in the Darfur conflict, and to ongoing conflict resolution efforts in the region, arguing that the Darfur conflict is borne out of the “Politicization of Islam” in the region. Political Islamic movements in Sudan are driven by an ideology that upholds the principles of “God governance” and presents Islam as the solution to a fractured and corrupt state. The chapter therefore asks how Political Islam has come to cause conflict, and the movement has changed the political dynamics in the country. This question raises other questions about the weakening of traditional, educational, economic, and social systems and how this weakening is intertwined with the state.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Flint (2008). Darfur is also home to eighty-five tribes both of African and Arab descent, who were living together for many centuries practicing different cultures and consecrating intermarriages. Additionally, these tribes also have more or less the same skin color—with a far greater variety of skin colors among individuals within each tribe than between the tribes as wholes. It is therefore extraordinarily difficult to know the ethnic affiliations of most of the people of Darfur, including the Arab tribes, based on their physical characteristics. See O’Fahey (2008).

  2. 2.

    Mamdani (2010).

  3. 3.

    Ali (2014).

  4. 4.

    O’Fahey (1980).

  5. 5.

    CBS, “The Central Bureau of Statistics,” 2010, http://www.cbs.gov.sd/files.php?id=7#&panel1-5.

  6. 6.

    O’Fahey (1980).

  7. 7.

    Hassan and Ray (2009).

  8. 8.

    Rubin (2010).

  9. 9.

    Editors (2014).

  10. 10.

    Comolli (2015).

  11. 11.

    Keshavjee (2013).

  12. 12.

    Deng (1995).

  13. 13.

    Hroub (2011).

  14. 14.

    Voll and Press (2010).

  15. 15.

    Hirschkind (1997).

  16. 16.

    Berman (2003), pp. 257–72.

  17. 17.

    Burgat (2003).

  18. 18.

    Kepel (2003).

  19. 19.

    Ibid.

  20. 20.

    Ayoob (2004), pp. 1–14.

  21. 21.

    Baswedan (2004), pp. 669–90.

  22. 22.

    Denoeux, Hirschkind (2002).

  23. 23.

    Roy and Volk (1998).

  24. 24.

    Khalid (2002).

  25. 25.

    Knudsen (2003).

  26. 26.

    Michon (2008).

  27. 27.

    Chopra (2011).

  28. 28.

    Ibid.

  29. 29.

    Hroub, (2011).

  30. 30.

    Anderson (2006).

  31. 31.

    Wickham (2013).

  32. 32.

    El-Affendi (2014).

  33. 33.

    Khalid, (2002).

  34. 34.

    Ahmad (2008).

  35. 35.

    Sardar (2007).

  36. 36.

    Natsios (2012).

  37. 37.

    Collins (2008).

  38. 38.

    Ansar,the religious wing of the Umma party, is one the largest religious order that follows Muhammad Ahmad, a self-proclaimed Mahdi in the 1885 in Sudan. See Natsios (2012).

  39. 39.

    Khatmiyya is the religious wing of the DUP, a Sufi order founded in 1817 by Mohammed Uthman al-Mirghani al-Khatim, and the second largest Sufi order in Sudan . See Natsios (2012).

  40. 40.

    Ibid.

  41. 41.

    Ibid.

  42. 42.

    Ibbotson (2013).

  43. 43.

    El-Affendi (2014).

  44. 44.

    Natsios (2012).

  45. 45.

    Burr (2003).

  46. 46.

    Khalid (2002).

  47. 47.

    Collins (2008).

  48. 48.

    Khalid (2002).

  49. 49.

    “Koka Dam Declaration,” 1989, http://www.incore.ulst.ac.uk/services/cds/agreements/pdf/sudan4.pdf.

  50. 50.

    Johnson (2003).

  51. 51.

    Khalid (2002).

  52. 52.

    Ali (2014).

  53. 53.

    Elnur (2011).

  54. 54.

    al Mubarak (2001).

  55. 55.

    Khalid (2002).

  56. 56.

    Gasim (2010), pp. 50–53.

  57. 57.

    Ibid.

  58. 58.

    Ssenyonjo (2009).

  59. 59.

    Ibbotson (2013).

  60. 60.

    Khalid (2002).

  61. 61.

    Ali (2014).

  62. 62.

    Ahmad (2008).

  63. 63.

    Ibid.

  64. 64.

    Benaiah Yongo-Bure, “Sudan’s Deepening Crisis,” no. Middle East Research and Information Project (1993), http://www.merip.org/mer/mer172/sudans-deepening-crisis.

  65. 65.

    Hafiz Hemaida, “Sudan: The Civil Service and Firing Policies,” 2007, 10295 edition, http://www.awsat-a.com/leader.asp?section=3&article=404741&issueno=10295#.U-AU1UjPY2I.

  66. 66.

    Petterson (2003).

  67. 67.

    Jago Salmon, “Paramilitary Revolution: The Popular Defence Forces,” 2007, http://www.smallarmssurveysudan.org/fileadmin/docs/working-papers/HSBA-WP-10-Paramilitary-Revolution-arabic.pdf.

  68. 68.

    Al Mubarak (2001)

  69. 69.

    See the introduction to Totten (2012).

  70. 70.

    Johnson (2003).

  71. 71.

    Sudan’s Islamic Fiqh Academy is a scientific research institute, affiliated with the presidency, that is considered as a Foundation—“Ifta”—of the state, society, and individuals.

  72. 72.

    Ramsbotham (2011).

  73. 73.

    Malantowicz (2010).

  74. 74.

    Ascher (2004).

  75. 75.

    Peter (2010).

  76. 76.

    Bethke (2011), p. 02.

  77. 77.

    Egel (2014), p. 91.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. George Mason University, Fairfax, VA, USA

    Adeeb Yousif

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  1. Adeeb Yousif
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. George Mason University, Fairfax, Virginia, USA

    Douglas Irvin-Erickson

  2. Georgetown University, Washington, USA

    Peter C. Phan

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Yousif, A. (2016). Political Islam and the Darfur Conflict: Religious Violence and the Interreligious Potential for Peace in Sudan. In: Irvin-Erickson, D., Phan, P. (eds) Violence, Religion, Peacemaking. Interreligious Studies in Theory and Practice. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-56851-9_8

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