The International Quranic Center (IQC) Denounces the Arrest of 25 Quranists in Sudan

Was published in Arabic in December, 12, 2015

Translated by Ahmed Fathy

1- News broke on Thursday December 10^th 2015 that the Omar Al-Bashir's regime in Sudan has arrested 25 men and has accused them of being Quranists who have rejected Islam. The Sudanese laws includes the capital punishment for the so-called apostasy or rejecting Islam, as per Article no. 126 in the Sudanese Criminal Law, based on the Wahabi sharia law applied in Sudan since 1983. The accusation has been leveled, after holding some court sessions within the last two weeks, against 27 Quranist men, but the judge has decided in the court session held last Wednesday to cancel the accusation for two men among the group arrested by the police last November. The judge addressed the accused men, saying: "We accuse all of you of adhering to notions that contradict the Islamic creeds and trying to spread such heretic notions publicly… you have violated and infringed the Sudanese Criminal Law" (!). the lawyer who is defending the Quranist men has asserted that "they are not guilty of anything…they are exercising their right of the freedom of belief and worship protected by the Sudanese Constitution and all regional and international agreements signed by Sudan." News tells us that most of these men are youth of early age, and that all of these men remained serene and calm during the court sessions, which were held within tight security measures. Anti-riot force members stood outside the court holding bludgeons. Policemen have searched those who wanted to enter the courtroom. Another court session is to be held next Monday to allow the defendant lawyer to defend the accused men.

2- The International Quranic Center (IQC) that supports human rights and calls for reform on all levels, democracy, and absolute religious freedom for all human beings denounces this arbitrary measure and unjust act of religious persecution in Sudan. Yet, we are not surprised at all that this persecution comes from a criminal, i.e. the Sudanese president Omar Al-Bashir, who is wanted by the International Court and has caused the loss of  nearly half of the Sudanese geographical lands when South Sudan has been established as a separate state. Let us not forget that Omar Al-Bashir has committed massacres for his people in Darfur and other regions of Sudan. This tyrant is currently troubled by the rise and spread of reformist calls within the Sudanese society, and that is why he has taken such measures to terrorize peaceful reformers like Quranists.

3- The clampdown, hunting, and terrorizing of Quranists is a crime unpunished yet in Egypt, Sudan, the KSA, Algeria, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and other tyrant countries in the Middle East, where the criminal fanatical Wahabi creed is practiced and applied. This is the same terrorist creed of ISIS. Let us remind you that ISIS terrorists have killed three Quranists who used to hold contact with us. ISIS terrorists are still hunting Quranists within lands occupied by ISIS. The only difference between ISIS terrorists and the Wahabi political regimes lies in the fact that ISIS terrorists kill without holding court sessions and without laws, whereas tyrant regimes hold sham court sessions to kill peaceful reformers who practice their basic Islamic right of calling for political and religious freedoms and for justice for all.

4- It is the misfortune of the peaceful Quranist reformers that they are peacefully facing two criminal tyrant forces: the terrorist dictatorial regimes and the Wahabi terrorist organizations, like ISIS, that try to wipe out and replace the tyrant regimes. Both forces differ in everything except Wahabism and their being united against the Quranists. The Quranists are peaceful reformers who do not find support or aid from the free world. Getting rid of ISIS terror and its religious culture is linked only with the line of thought of Quranists: the only line of thought within real Islam (i.e., the Quran alone) that intellectually fights Wahabism.