An African country that rejected the Shari’at Law

For the last thirty years, the people of Sudan, a country in North East Africa, have struggled on the streets. They have been shouting the same slogan that we want democracy, not Sharia law. After independence on January 1, 1956, the people of Sudan may have also dreamed of liberation. They, too, must have thought of breathing in the open air of freedom or making decisions under their own law and constitution. Also, there would be schools for imparting modern and scientific education. They will be allowed to preach their own God as per their rituals and traditions. But little did they know that their wish for independence is going to turn into a bad dream, and they will be known as the world’s poorest country. Even the photography done on Sudan’s poverty has led people to win Pulitzer Awards. Such plight is not the implementation of strict Islamic Sharia law, due to which no investors ever came there nor did people have gained employment. The shortage of means of livelihood further triggered an economic crisis and paved for the persistent downfall of the country’s growth.

Sudan and its people have gone through a historic transition for the sake of democracy. Once the largest country in Africa, Sudan split in 2011 and became a new country called South Sudan. But the streak of the division was drawn some decades before the 19th century. The Ottoman Empire once ruled the northern part of Sudan, and Egypt ruled entire Sudan in the 18th century. This led to a majority Muslim population in the northern part of Sudan, and these are called half Arabic, whereas, in the southern part, Christians later became in the majority.