 | This article'sfactual accuracy may be compromised due to out-of-date information. The reason given is:The July 2011partition of Sudan. Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information.(February 2014) |
Islam is the most commonreligion inSudan andMuslims have dominated national government institutions sinceindependence in 1956. According to UNDP Sudan, the Muslim population is 97%,[1] including numerousArab and non-Arab groups. The remaining 3% ascribe to eitherChristianity or traditionalanimist religions. Muslims predominate in all butNuba Mountains region. The vast majority of Muslims in Sudan adhere toSunni Islam ofMaliki school ofjurisprudence, deeply influenced withSufism.[2] There are also someShia communities in Khartoum, the capital.[3] The most significant divisions occur along the lines of theSufi brotherhoods. Two popular brotherhoods, theAnsar and theKhatmia, are associated with the oppositionUmma andDemocratic Unionist Parties respectively. Only theDarfur region is traditionally lacking the presence of Sufi brotherhoods found in the rest of the country.[4]
Shari'a law has been installed by various military regimes, and its application to non-Muslims in the capital was a contentious issue during the negotiations, but it and the other major issues underlying the north–south conflict have been largely resolved in the agreements.[citation needed] Shari'a is to continue to be the basis of the national legal system as it applies in the north; national legislation applicable to the south is to be based on "popular consensus, the values, and the customs of the people." In states or regions where a majority hold different religious or customary beliefs than those on which the legal system is based, the national laws may be amended to accord better with such beliefs. Throughout the country, the application of Shari'a to non-Muslims is to be limited, and courts may not exercise their discretion to impose the harsher physical forms of Shari'a penalties on non-Muslims.Sudan has had three democratic governments since 1956, all of which abolishedShari'a law.
In September 2020, Sudan constitutionally became asecular state after Sudan's transitional government agreed to separate religion from the state, ending 30 years of Islamic rule and Islam as the official state religion in the North African nation.[5][6][7] This new legislation also ended the former apostasy law and public flogging.[8]
There had been cultural contact between Nubians and Arabs long before the rise of Islam. Islam spread to Sudan from the north, after theIslamic conquest of Egypt under the government ofAmr ibn al-As. Nubia had already beenChristianized, also from Egypt, hence the old Nubian church followedCoptic Christianity. The Nubian Christian kingdoms ofNobatia,Makuria andAlodia fell to the Islamic invasions in650, 1312 and 1504, respectively. From 1504, northern Sudan was ruled by the MuslimFunj Sultanate.
Southern Sudan, i.e.South Kordofan and what is nowSouth Sudan was neither Christianized nor Islamized until the 19th century. This region fell under Islamic ruleunder Muhammad Ali, and there has been religious and ethnic conflict ever since; theMahdiyah uprisings (1881–1899) can even be seen as the origin of politicalIslamism and resulted inBritish control during 1899–1955. Racial and religious conflicts between the Arab Muslim north and the Black African Christian South re-erupted in theFirst Sudanese Civil War (1955–1972), theSecond Sudanese Civil War (1983–2005), theWar in Darfur (2003–2010) and theongoing conflict since 2011.
This article incorporates text from this source, which is in thepublic domain. Country Studies.Federal Research Division.
