Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Neal on June 29, 2012 at 2:36pm

Not really hearing anything about it here.

Unlike other countries in the region, Sudan is grossly underreported, and this was ever so evident during Friday and Saturday’s street demonstrations. The Sudanese government keeps a tight grip on local media and bans journalists from reporting on issues of human rights and corruption.

This however does not justify the blatant lack of interest from international media outlets. Al Jazeera, for instance, played a prominent role in reporting the uprisings in several Arab countries, but netizens say it seems to ignore the events currently unfolding in Sudan.

Sudanese women at the forefront of #SudanRevolts.
The media coverage of recent protests in Sudan was confined to articles in Al Arabiya and Al Jazeera, including some snippets on Al Jazeera’s English Channel. Other news outlets to cover the protests include CNN, the Malaysian news outlet The Star, the New York Times, Yahoo News, ABC News, and the Chicago Tribune. Nonetheless, this has not brought enough attention to the issues on the ground, as most of these news outlets don’t have much impact in the region, say netizens.

The protests kicked off after Friday prayers in a mosque in Wad Nubawi neighborhood in Omdurman. A call for protests tagged as #SandstormFriday was made a day earlier. The demonstrations were organized to protest against rising prices and the government’s new austerity plans that were announced by Sudanese president Omar Al-Bashir and implemented last week.

Those who heard about the protest made their way there. Hamid was one of them; he tweeted [ar]:

في الطريق إلى مسجد السيد عبدالرحمن بودنوباوي ‎‫#جمع_الكتاحة”.
On my way to Al-Sayed Abdelrahman mosque in Wad Nubawi.
After prayer, people gathered in front of the mosque and marched on one of the main roads in Wad Nubawi chanting anti-regime slogans. This protest lasted a few hours before police dispersed the crowd with tear gas and plain clothed police men infiltrated the ranks of the protesters.

After the protests were disbanded, Yousif Al Mahdi was on the scene and tweeted:

Global Voices

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Hope on June 30, 2012 at 10:25am

Sudan Police intensifies crackdown as anti-regime protests enter 3rd week

 

More ordinary people have joined students in a rebellion against deteriorating economic conditions in Sudan as some start to call for the fall of al-Bashir's regime.

Police used tear gas, live ammunition and batons on Friday to disperse thousands of people demonstrating on the streets of the twin cities of Khartoum and Omdurman demanding the regime fall, witnesses said.

Police forces showed a heavy presence around Khartoum since the early morning in anticipation of today’s planned mass protests, Youssif el-Mahdi said via Skype today.

About 600 Riot police used force against hundreds of protesters who led a march after noon prayers from the two main mosques in Khartoum and Omdurman, Hussein Mohamed said Friday.

Protesters responded by throwing rocks back at officers, according to Mohamed who said he’s using skype for security reasons.

"They attacked us inside mosques, firing tear gas canisters at us," Mohamed said.

The clashes took place as part of Friday demonstrations that have been dubbed by some activists "The Fiday of Elbow-licking" to mock the NCP’s vice chairman, Nafie Ali Nafie, who famously used the sudanese idiom "only if you can lick your elbows" (an Arabic equivalent to the popular American saying when pigs fly) to dismiss the possibility of an Arab Spring style uprising against the regime.

Police also used violence in an attempt to disperse around 700 protestors who were chanting “People Want the regime down” and “Rise up Rise up,Khartoum against dictatorship"  in Haj Yousef district in the capital,  Ahmed Taher who participated in the protest said via skype.

Hundreds of protestors, men and women of different age groups,have also erupted in demonstrations in Bahari district, Seteen street, and many other neighborhoods in Khartoum, according to witnesses.

 "Read more"

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Michel on June 30, 2012 at 11:13am

Going through the history of Sudan: these guys practically invented the modern totalitarian Islamic dictature in the late 19th century.

Mahdiyah

The Mahdiyah (Mahdist regime) imposed traditional Islamic laws. Sudan's new ruler also authorized the burning of lists of pedigrees and books of law and theology because of their association with the old order and because he believed that the former accentuated tribalism at the expense of religious unity.

The Mahdiyah has become known as the first genuine Sudanese nationalist government. The Mahdi maintained that his movement was not a religious order that could be accepted or rejected at will, but that it was a universal regime, which challenged man to join or to be destroyed. The Mahdi modified Islam's five pillars to support the dogma that loyalty to him was essential to true belief. The Mahdi also added the declaration "and Muhammad Ahmad is the Mahdi of God and the representative of His Prophet" to the recitation of the creed, the shahada. Moreover, service in the jihad replaced the hajj, or pilgrimage to Mecca, as a duty incumbent on the faithful. Zakat (almsgiving) became the tax paid to the state. The Mahdi justified these and other innovations and reforms as responses to instructions conveyed to him by God in visions.

The Mahdist regime was also known for its severe persecution of Christians in Sudan, including Copts.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Neal on June 30, 2012 at 12:26pm

I'm starting to think that theocracies will always rule in those areas.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Ali on June 30, 2012 at 5:12pm

well dear Neal you are not trying to say here that these people do not "deserve or have" democracy or human rights because of their nature itself? i don't think you mean it in that way :) .

religion here is a complex phenomenon....short story, we have a Jewish state raise the religion and the race card ... and it caused  (&causing) the rise of religion (at political level) in the Abrahamic regions ( including usa, i think ) 

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Ali on June 30, 2012 at 4:14pm

a group of military did that , not all the people ... and they did it in 1989 ( The Iranian-Islamic revolution in 1979) .
anyway i think this revolution have a secular side .

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Hope on June 30, 2012 at 4:57pm

I know!! those muslims are crazy + poor people :( *Lucky that I'm not Sudanese*

I mean I live in a stupid Muslim country too, but we are rich!...

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Ali on June 30, 2012 at 4:02pm

hope,
it's interesting, right?
did you heard  what they say it was like :
"ونحن مرقنا .. ضد الناس اللى سرقوا عرقنا.. ما للسكر والبنزين.. مرقنا عشان تجار الدين"

it's wonderful :D

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Hope on June 30, 2012 at 4:54pm

I didn't hear of that statement before!... but it's wonderful...

"We are not revolting for food. We are revolting against corruption and  against the clergy"

I hope I'm translating it correctly!

 Wow! "... and against the clergy"

 ~But those people are suffering from poverty to be honest.~

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Ali on June 30, 2012 at 5:39pm

yes you did :)

a poverty could be a good motivation for a revolution 

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Ali on June 30, 2012 at 6:21pm

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by zrdm on June 30, 2012 at 7:12pm

I watched this movie back in my school years, about the Imperial pa...

-The back story, Queen Victoria wished to see the Sudanese pacified and subjected to Imperial rule, as they were damaging Imperial trade routes, and so Her Majesty's Government set about a campaign of armed force to secure the Empire in Africa, the funding was provided by Cecil Rhodes, a man whose wealth by modern standards eclipsed $1 trillion dollars US.

A saying the arabs started making "Only Mad Dogs And Englishmen Go Out In The Noonday Sun"

Thought since we are on Sudan right?

• ▶ Reply