Dr. Amal Jabr-Allah, a Sudanese psychologist has warned against emerging influence of extremist movements in Sudan including the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (also known as IS or ISIS).
Speaking on a weekly programme broadcast by Radio Tamazuj on Friday, Amal said Sudan is becoming a fertile ground for the extremists’ message, saying terrorism is risky for Sudan and the region.
Amal, who is a lecturer at Al Ahfad University for Women and a member of the Sudanese Communist Party, blamed what she termed as “narrow-mindedness and bigotry” among university students for growing extremism in Sudan, referring to the University of Medical Sciences and Technology.
Two groups of jihadist volunteers recently departed the medical campus for Syria.
Amal accused the ruling National Congress Party (NCP) of providing extremist ideologues with political, social and cultural protection. The Sudanese scholar also argued that the lack of open political, cultural and social platforms pushed many students to join Salafist movements including the Islamic State (IS), called ‘Al Daesh’ in Arabic.
She called for an awareness campaign involving educational institutions, civil society organizations, and political parties against the fundamentalist movements in Sudan. The psychologist urged the people of Sudan to put pressure on the government to keep itself far away from Salafist extremism.
Meanwhile, the Foreign Affair Minister Ibrahim Ghandour said the government is coordinating with Turkish and Syrian governments to deport back all Sudanese students who left Khartoum to join ISIS. He pointed out that an investigation will be carried out on how those students left the country using diplomatic passports.
In a press statement, Ghandour said: “Although some of the students who left and joined ISIS were carrying foreign passports they are Sudanese and they are our children. They are sons of this country.”