Widespread condemnation as Sudan army detains Sufi sheikh

The detention by military intelligence officers of Sheikh El Amin Omar, leader of the Sudanese El Gadiriya El Mukashfi Sufi order, in Omdurman on Monday has received widespread condemnation.

The resistance committees of Karari in north Omdurman reported late on Monday that a military intelligence (MI) force detained the sheikh, his family, and three members of the Sufi order from his home and the adjacent El Gadiriya El Mukashfi mosque in Beit El Mal neighbourhood in old Omdurman in the early morning.

Sheikh El Amin, as he is known in Sudan, was taken to an unknown location, resistance committees stated on social media.

His family and the three volunteers were first held in the mosque, and later taken to a MI detention centre in Karari. From there, they were transferred to the house of a relative in one of the El Sawrat neighbourhoods.

The Emergency Lawyers group said yesterday that soldiers of the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) stormed the Sufi mosque compound in Beit El Mal on Monday morning and opened fire at those present. Two people were injured. The sheikh, his family and followers were detained.

‘Safer place’

Pro-army accounts on social media said that army soldiers evacuated Sheikh El Amin to a safer place. A soldier posted a selfie showing the sheikh and his family inside a vehicle. Others posted a video recorded inside the mosque and said they had “freed him”.

Other social media posts denounced the detention. A post in the early hours of Monday morning said that “elements of the [SAF] Special Task Forces,” calling them “Islamists battalions” held “the sheikh, his family, and his sister from the Sufi mosque in Omdurman and took them to an unknown destination”.

Another post said later that morning that “This steadfast man opened his home, mosque, and compound to the people in Omdurman, feeding the hungry, treating the sick and burying the dead. Therefore, he became a target for the campaigns of the kezan* in Sudan”.

The head of the El Gadiriya El Mukashfi order in Sudan remained in his Sufi compound in old Omdurman, controlled by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) since the outbreak of the war more than 300 days ago, providing food to the hungry in the neighbourhood.

The sheikh remained neutral in the war. “I have nothing to do with either warring side,” he stated more than once on social media.

Radio Dabanga reported on Sunday that the SAF had regained the Abrof neighbourhood adjacent to Beit El Mal, where army soldiers were besieging the Sudan Radio and Television Corporation. Later that day, the army announced its control of Beit El Mal, though the fate of the buildings of the national radio and television remains unclear.

Two worshipers were injured that morning when an army force opened fire on them. They were leaving the El Gadiriyya El Mukashfi Mosque after dawn prayers, Sheikh El Amin reported in a video clip on social media later on Sunday. He stated that the force commander apologised to the worshipers, saying that he had not been notified of the presence of civilians in the area.

‘Madness’

The Emergency Lawyers condemned the detention of the sheikh in a press statement yesterday and said that he was held because of the video report on the shooting the day before.

The lawyers group holds the SAF “responsible for the safety of Sheikh El Amin and those with him. We call on them to reveal the circumstances of his detention and to release him immediately.”

Khaled Omer, leading member of the Sudanese Congress Party, which is part of the Civil Democratic Forces (Tagaddum), said in a post on X that the “complete madness that struck our country after the outbreak of this war, turns all the facts upside down. This madness criminalises the likes of #Sheikh_Al-Amin who stood with his followers a legendary stand that made his mosque compound a haven for those seeking refuge from the fighting.

“He provided food, treatment, and shelter, and remained completely neutral. Criminals, however, do not give weight to the values of humanity and solidarity: either you participate in their crimes, or you are an enemy and a traitor who deserves to be targeted in every way.”

Forces for Freedom and Change (FFC) leader Kamal Boulad called the sheikh “a model of heroism and magnanimity that is rare in our time”. He explained to Al Jazeera Sudan that “protecting his life is a humanitarian responsibility”.

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* The word kezan, or kizan, is a pejorative nickname used by many Sudanese for Islamist loyalists to the regime of Omar Al Bashir (1989-2019) and who enjoyed far-reaching privileges during his rule. Kezan is the plural of koz which means ‘wooden or iron mug’. The nickname is based on a description the Islamic Brotherhood called themselves when the founder of the group, the Egyptian Hasan El Banna, said: “Religion is a sea, and we are the mugs that draw from it”.