Zeal For ISIS In Sudan: How Far?
20 July, 2015KHARTOUM (SUDAN)W) The sensational flee of scorers of Sudanese students to Turkey en-route to the camps of the notorious Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS or Daash) continues to raise questions among the public and the media.
The private Khartoum-based University of Medical Sciences and Technology had announced that 12 of its students of medicine had disappeared and are believed to have found their way to ISIS camps in Syria and Iraq.
The group is made up of 9 male and 3 female students. The students carry British passports (7), Canadian passports (2), Sudanese passports (2) and an American passport holder. But all students carrying foreign passports are of Sudanese origin who had obtained those passports by birth.
All boys and girls belong to well-to-do parents working in high profile jobs in those Western countries. The students were spirited secretly out of the country in batches. Some of them were seen in Ankara for a while before they melted down. Upon arrival in Turkey the escapees contacted their families , saying they were fine and were on a mission to look after wounded and sick Moslems near Syria.’’ They said they had been distributed to hospitals that treat ISIS casualties.
The Sudan Ministry of Foreign Affairs had said it was opening an investigation into the matter. “Regardless of the fact that these students carry foreign passports, we consider them Sudanese. They are our sons... The sons of this country,’’ the Foreign Minister said in a statement.
A source at the University, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the students were persuaded by ‘’ certain individuals ‘’ at the University to join the ISIS. He said those ‘’individuals’’ had engaged the students in debates and convinced them to take the step. He declined to give names of those individuals nor those of the students, but confirmed that three of the recruits were females.
The Foreign Ministry disclosed that it was engaging the Turkish and Syrian embassies in Khartoum to facilitate the return of the students.
Observers question the families ability to monitor the conduct of their sons and daughters and whether the students had had the opportunity to get correct understanding of Islam.
Observers are also at wonder about the circles that recruit the students for the so-called salafi-jihadist movement that preaches an ideology similar to that of the ISIS. That the majority of the students carry foreign passports is also a question to be answered.
Moslem scholars and preachers cite a difference between the objectives of these students and those jihadists who joined the Afghan war after the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. They argue that the Afghan war was between Moslems and non-Moslems, while the ISIS is waging war within Moslem communities, killing Moslems who do not share its views.
Hassan al-Sa’oori, a professor of political science at the Alneilain University, said the restoration of the Islamic Caliphate is something that appealed to Moslems (rank and file) since the collapse of the Ottoman rule in the early twentieth Century. On the other hand, the West had tried its best to make that impossible. The West had argued that the restoration of Moslem rule was acceptable only through democratic processes. However, Islamic movements were removed from power after they won free and fair elections. This had happened in Algeria and Egypt. This had frustrated young Moslems who started to form jihad cells in many Moslem countries, Sudan no exception. These jihadists had also been frustrated by the defeat of the Taliban in Afghanistan, according to Sa’oori.
Prof. Sa’oori has also cited a mismatch between what the ISIS does and the true teachings of Islam.” This group kills and demonizes its Moslem adversaries,’’ he said.
He disclosed that a certain Palestinian graduate of the said University had returned to Sudan and launched a recruiting campaign among the students for the ISIS.
Sa’oori said recruitment for the ISIS is made in stages, warning that other Sudanese government and private universities may have such ISIS cells within their campuses. He said youngsters who have already joined the fighting say they were ready to sacrifice their lives for religion and hope to be rewarded for this in the hereafter.
Retired security Brigadier General Hassan Musa Ahmad al-Haj stated that wars usually break out due to political, military or ideological reasons. “ The ISIS war in Syria and Iraq is motivated by ideology ,’’ he said , ruling out a decisive ISIS victory in this war. “ The ISIS lacks professional military training and has no viable lines of supply to continue with the war,’’ he argued. “All what they can do is to destabilize the communities in those respective countries, ’’ he said.
Al-Haj said access to weaponry has become so easy in the world of today. Weapons manufacturers and traders can do the job for whoever is ready to pay.
A-l-Haj has also cited an ISIS cooperation with certain Western intelligence circles that seek to weaken Islam and distort it image. “ How can’t the West that brought down many of its enemies to their knees , fail to uproot the ISIS if it were not for its connivance with this brutal movement,’’ he wondered.
“ The ISIS is not committed to the rules of jihad in Islam that prevent the killing of elders and women and children , and that is exactly what the ISIS does,’’ he said.
Moslem scholar Dr. Aisha al-Ghabshawi did not rule out the role of Western intelligence circles in the rise of the ISIS in order to mislead the young generations and Moslems at large. She urged Moslem countries to stand on the alert and challenge such designs..
Ghabshawi, however, belittled chances of a large-scale spread of this jihadist thought among the Sudanese students ‘’ due to the absence of a supporting environment for such ideas in the tolerant society of Sudan ‘’.
Psychologist Sara Abbo , who works for the said University , declined to talk on the matter other than urging families to watch their young ones for any unusual behavior.
She said her university had received some students parents who noted a change in the conduct of their children like wearing female niqab (face cover) , abstention from handshakes with the opposite sex and continuous talk about punishment in the hereafter among the students. She said the dean faculty had called all the parents and urged them to come out with ideas that can stem this phenomenon.
It is to be recalled that this was not the first such incident. A group of Sudanese students (who hold British passports) from the same private university have left the country to join Daash in March last year.
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