Sudan security releases Islamic State sympathisers

The Sudanese National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS) released a second batch of Salafist Jihadist preachers and Islamic State (IS) sympathisers on Thursday.

Sudan Tribune reported on Friday that the release of the religious leaders came after they pledged not to disseminate views of the extremist group or recruit college students and young people to travel to Iraq, Syria, and Libya to join IS.

Those released include Masaad El Sedeira, Emir general of the Sudanese Adherents to the Koran and Sunna Group (Jama’at El Etisam bel-Koran wes- Sunna), its head, Omar Abdelkhalig, and political secretary, El Obeid Ibrahim, as well as Salaheldin Ibrahim, Imam and director of the Imam Bukhari religious institute, which is suspected to be the main incubator and recruiting place for the Sudanese students who joined IS last year.

Last month, NISS director Mohamed Atta said that his agency controls all IS recruiting cells in the country. He added that intensive efforts are being made in secret to curtail the spread of IS views and prevent youth groups from joining the organisation.

The release of this batch indicates that all Salafist Jihadist preachers have been freed following the release of the first batch, Sudan Tribune reported. The secretary-general of the One Nation Movement (Tayar El Umma El Wahida) and IS supporter, Mohamed El Jazouli was released too last year.

Support

The Adherents to the Koran and Sunna Group issued a statement in which it pledged support to the Islamic Caliphate. The group also lauded the terrorist attack against the offices of the French magazine Charlie Hebdo in Paris one year ago.

Emir-general El Sedeira is considered one of the famous Jihadist figures in Sudan. He runs a religious school in the Shambat district in Khartoum North where he teaches Hadith (the sayings of the prophet Mohamed).

He has openly pledged allegiance to IS leader and self-proclaimed Caliph, Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi, but he denies being involved in sending young people to IS.

Last October, the Interior Ministry in Khartoum announced that about 70 Sudanese medical students and graduates had joined IS in Libya and Syria.

‘IS created by the West’

The main pro-government clerical authority, the Sudan Religious Scholars Committee (RSC) has fierce criticised IS, describing it as a “faulty protest movement”.

RCS Secretary-General, Ibrahim El Karouri, said in a symposium on IS in Khartoum that the extremist organisation was created by the West to destroy Islam and Muslims from within.

According to El Karouri, the only alternative to IS is to develop strong religious institutions in the Islamic countries. He also said that the emergence of the violent groups is a result of the Muslims cultural backwardness, and that the absence of strong Islamic military forces have led to the emergence of armed organisations and dictatorship regimes.

(Sudan Tribune)