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December 19, 2006
Sudan: Sunni Islamists Condemn Shia Influence
News from AKI reports that the Sudanese wing of the Muslim Brotherhood had a meeting yesterday with the Khartoum authorities. The Brotherhood members warned that Iran has been making attempts to convert Sudanese Sunnis to Shia Islam.
The leader of the Sudan chapter of the Brotherhood, Sadiq Abdullah Abdel Majid, told al-Hayat newspaper: "It's a large scale plan conceived by Shiite groups and local organisations with the objective of spreading Shiitism in Sudan."
Several Shi'ite mosques have been opened in Khartoum recently. The Muslim Brotherhood have asked the authorities to close the Iranian embassy's cultural center, and to prohibit any conferences or propaganda mounted by this center. Majid blamed the Sudanese authorities for not exerting enough control, allowing Shia "penetration" in the country.
The number of conversions from Sunni to Shia Islam has risen recently in the east and Horn of Africa, apparently linked to the high profile operations of Hizbollah in their conflict with Israel this summer.
Last week, 11 teachers in Algeria were suspended, blamed on spreading Shia propaganda amongst their pupils.
Shia Islam began as a result of the schism which happened in the line of succession from Mohammed. Ali Ibn Abi Talib, the cousin of Mohammed, was for Sunni Muslims the fourth Caliph, who succeeded Uthman, who was overthrown by a mob and murdered in his house at Medina. Ali was murdered by Kharijite assassins in 661 AD. He had married Fatima Zahra, daughter of Mohammed for nine years and she had borne two sons and two daughters.
According to the Hadith of Sunan Abu Dawud (Book 36, Number 4271), the future Muslim "messiah"or "Mahdi" will be descended from the line of Fatima. The death of Ali was the trigger for the schism between Shia and Sunni. The Shia claim that Mohammed had chosen Ali as his successor, and therefore refer to him as the first Caliph.
Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at December 19, 2006 5:38 PM
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