The Rise of the Saudi Superstate
AINA: The 32nd summit of the Gulf Cooperation Council may be remembered as the dawn of the Caliphate with the Saudi proposal to accelerate the union of the six GCC States likely to dramatically change the region. The union is being described as "EU Style," but in practice it would be a larger version of the United Arab Emirates, a federation of tribal monarchies.

The combined entity would have a 1 trillion dollar GDP and some 35 percent of the world's oil reserves, giving it immeasurable influence on the global stage. And that nucleus of power and wealth would be used to consolidate its influence over rest of the region and the world. If the GCC integrates Yemen, it will be able to turn the Persian Gulf into the Arabian Gulf, and if it integrates Libya, Sudan and Iraq, then it will have a combined population of 100 million and be able to approach the 50 percent world oil reserves marker.

Whether or not the GCC can transition to a Muslim EU, in the words of its charter, "founded on the creed of Islam," is still an open question. In the last five years the GCC has struggled toward adopting a common market and a common currency, its unity undercut by suspicion of the House of Saud and internal rivalries. While Article Four of the GCC Charter had always made unity into a goal of the GCC and previous Riyadh Declarations had called for consolidating their Arab and Islamic identities into a regional union, there was never enough external pressure and internal promise to make that feasible.

Iran's nuclear program and the Arab Spring have changed all that. Saudi Arabia's suppression of Shiite protesters in Bahrain was the first significant use of the GCC's previously inept Peninsula Shield Force. The victory in Bahrain has kept its Sunni monarchy in power and made it dependent on Saudi backing which has also made its officials into the most enthusiastic proponents of the union.

Holding back the Arab Spring in Bahrain was not only a proxy victory against Iran, it also demonstrated that Saudi influence could hold off Western action against GCC members under its umbrella and gave added weight to Saud Al-Faisal's call for a combined military and foreign policy. Saudi Arabia can offer GCC members the protection of its enormous influence in the West, as well as one of the largest armies in the region, armed and trained by the United States, and an eventual nuclear umbrella.

The Obama Administration has left the nations of the region with very few options. They can either wait for America and Europe to hand them over to the Muslim Brotherhood on a democratic platter. They can become puppets of Iran. They can long for the return of a Turkish Ottoman Empire under the AKP. Or they can look to the Saudis for leadership and aid. » | Daniel Greenfield | Tuesday, May 16, 2012

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Muslim Mob Burns Catholic Church in Sudan Capital
THE HOUSTON CHRONICLE: KHARTOUM, Sudan — A Muslim mob has set ablaze a Catholic church frequented by Southern Sudanese in the capital Khartoum, witnesses and media reports said on Sunday.

The church in Khartoum's Al-Jiraif district was built on a disputed plot of land but the Saturday night incident appeared to be part of the fallout from ongoing hostilities between Sudan and South Sudan over control of an oil town on their ill-defined border.

Sudan and South Sudan have been drawing closer to a full scale war in recent months over the unresolved issues of sharing oil revenues and a disputed border. » | Mohamed Saeed | Associated Press | Sunday, April 22, 2012

Bashir Calls South Sudan Leaders 'Insects'
Speaking at a party rally in Khartoum, Omar al-Bashir, the Sudanese president, has called the government of South Sudan a movement of "insects". Bashir's statement came as Sudan insisted it would reclaim the oil rich Heglig region after South Sudanese soldiers took over the oil field in the disputed territory along the two nations' border. The leaders of South Sudan have vowed to fight to keep control of Heglig and the oil facility within it, which they say has always been part of their land. Al Jazeera's Imran Khan reports.

George Clooney Arrested

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: George Clooney has been arrested and handcuffed during a protest at the Sudanese Embassy in Washington.

Clooney and other protesters, including his father Nick, Virginia congressman Jim Moran, and civil rights leader Ben Jealous, were placed in the back of a US Secret Service van and taken away.

The group of activists had been given three verbal warnings not to cross a police line as they gathered outside the embassy. Others at the prostest included Martin Luther King III. They blame the government of Sudan for attacks that have killed civilians there.

"I’m just trying to raise attention. Let your Congress know, let your president know," said Clooney.

“It’s actually a humiliating thing to be arrested no matter what you do, but i’m [sic] glad to be standing here with my father.” » | Nick Allen, and Jon Swaine in Washington | Friday, March 16, 2012

Related video »

George Clooney Arrested Protesting Outside Sudanese Embassy in Washington DC

Sudan's Abyei 'Ablaze' after Capture by North
Sudan's disputed border town of Abyei is ablaze, with gunmen looting properties days after troops from the government in Khartoum entered the area, UN peacekeepers say.

The peacekeepers belonging to UNMIS, the UN mission in Sudan, said on Monday that the burning and looting was perpetrated "by armed elements" but it was not clear whether they were from the north or the south.

The developments in Abyei drew strong reaction from the US, with its special envoy to the country saying Washington would rule out dropping Sudan from a terrorism list if it continued occupying the oil-rich district.

Al Jazeera's Stefanie Dekker reports.

Inside Story: Sudan Divided
Inside Story, discusses with Rabie Abdul Atti, member of the NCP and advisor to Sudan's information minister; Eddie Thomas, an author on Sudan; and Barnaba Benjamin, Southern Sudan's minister of information

Sudan Takes Control of Oil-rich Abyei
The UN Security Council has urged Khartoum to withdraw soldiers from the disputed oil region of Abyei, after northern Sudanese tanks entered the oil rich area.

The UN condemned the attack as the north accused South Sudan of targeting one of its military convoys on Thursday.

The South meanwhile says the North has been carrying out a bombing campaign in Abyei.

And as Nazanin Sadri reports, there are fears this latest escalation of could derail Sudan's peace agreement.

Sudanese Islamic Scholar Sheik 'Atiyya Muhammad Sa'id Calls Obama an Apostate…

HT: Tundra Tabloids »

Southern Sudan To Split From North
Southern Sudan is set to become the world's newest nation as official results show a landslide vote for independence

Anti Government Protests in Sudan
Sudan is another country that is now feeling the effect of the protests in Egypt. Students have been rallying for regime change since Sunday. They say that they will not be cowed by arrests and beatings. But as Al Jazeera's Mohamed Vall reports, there is a striking difference between Sudan and its neighbour

Sudanese Decide on What to Call Their Country
At least 98 per cent of Southern Sudanese had voted for the region's separation from the north according to primary results of the south Sudan referendum. Meanwhile, a new challenge has risen in deciding what to name the world's newest nation - a question that has been generating a lot of discussion. Al Jazeera's Haru Mutasa reports

South Sudanese Vote for Independence – Poll
ALERT NET: JUBA, Sudan – South Sudanese have voted overwhelmingly to declare independence from the north in a referendum held last week, according to early figures and a Reuters survey of officials in nine of the region's 10 states.

Referendum officials reported on Wednesday that votes to secede approached 99 percent in some southern states and disapora communities in Egypt, Ethiopia and Kenya.

Southern leaders have urged people from the oil-producing territory to wait until official figures due in early February before celebrating, for fear of antagonising the north.

The figures are in line with expectations for the plebiscite, the climax of a 2005 peace deal that ended decades of north-south civil war.

Referendum officials told Reuters of large votes in favour of independence in the southern states of Central Equatoria, Unity, Lakes, Jonglei, Warrap, Western Bahr al-Ghazal, Northern Bahr al-Ghazal, Eastern Equatoria and Upper Nile. >>> Reuters | Wednesday, January 19, 2011

A Plot to Do Down Islam
THE ECONOMIST: Most of the Arab media are glum about the prospect of South Sudan’s secession

THROUGH the lens of the Muslim Brotherhood’s slick Arabic-language website, the referendum on the future of South Sudan looks rather different from its portrayal elsewhere. The looming partition of Sudan is not, it says, the logical outcome of five decades of civil war. It is the fruition of a century-old Western ecclesiastical plot to close Islam’s gateway into Africa, and the start of a plan to break other Arab countries into feeble statelets so as to grab their riches. >>> Cairo | Thursday, January 13, 2011

In Southern Sudan, a Jubilant Vote on Secession
Long lines formed Sunday at polling places in Juba, in southern Sudan, for a referendum on independence. The voting, which will continue through the week, was reported to be going smoothly. Photograph: The New York Times
JUBA, Sudan — It’s not every day that a beleaguered, marginalized and persecuted people get a chance to vote for their own freedom. On Sunday, southern Sudanese did.

Starting in the cool hours of the night, long before the polls even opened, people across this region began lining up at polling stations to cast their votes in a historic referendum on whether to declare independence. Jubilant crowds made clear which was the overwhelmingly popular choice.

“I feel like I’m going to a new land,” beamed Susan Duku, a southern Sudanese woman who works for the United Nations.

As the sun cleared the horizon and the voting began, the streets of Juba, the capital of southern Sudan, broke into a street party. Women were literally skipping around the polls. Young men thumped on drums. Others were wrapped in flags.

On Monday, voting in the weeklong ballot continued as reports began to emerge from the Abyei region near the border with northern Sudan of fighting between northern and southern forces in an area considered a likely flashpoint before, during and after the vote. At least 23 people died in three days of clashes, Reuters reported, quoting leaders aligned with the southern authorities.

In Juba, though, things stayed peaceful — rowdy, but peaceful on Sunday. One man, who clearly had been celebrating with fortified beverages the night before, staggered around a polling station blowing an instrument fashioned from a cow’s horn and rubber tubing.

People were hollering, singing, hugging, kissing, smacking high-fives and dancing as if they never wanted the day to end, despite the sun beating down and voting lines that snaked for blocks.

Southern Sudan has suffered a lot, and after years of civil war, oppression and displacement, many people here saw the vote as an unprecedented chance at self-determination. The referendum ballot offered two choices, unity with northern Sudan or secession. Unity was represented on the ballot by a drawing of two clasped hands. Secession was a single open hand. Many people rely on these symbols: more than three-quarters of southern Sudanese adults cannot read. >>> Jeffrey Gettleman (Josh Kron contributed reporting) | Monday, January 10, 2011

Sharia Law to Be Tightened if Sudan Splits - President
Mr Bashir also defended a recent public flogging of a woman by police. Photo: BBC
BBC: The north of Sudan will reinforce its Islamic laws if the south secedes as a result of next month's referendum, President Omar al-Bashir has said.

Mr Bashir said the constitution would then be changed, making Islam the only religion, Sharia the only law and Arabic the only official language.

Correspondents say his comments are likely to alarm thousands of non-Muslim southerners living in the north.

They are currently protected from some of the stronger aspects of Sharia.

"If south Sudan secedes, we will change the constitution," Mr Bashir told a gathering of his supporters in the eastern town of Gederef on Sunday.

"Sharia and Islam will be the main source for the constitution, Islam the official religion and Arabic the official language," the president added. >>> | Sunday, December 19, 2010

WikiLeaks Cables: Sudanese President 'Stashed $9bn in UK Banks'
THE GUARDIAN: Speculation that Omar al-Bashir siphoned $9bn in oil money and deposited it in foreign accounts could fuel calls for his arrest

Omar al-Bashir, the Sudanese president, has siphoned as much as $9bn out of his impoverished country, and much of it may be stashed in London banks, according to secret US diplomatic cables that recount conversations with the chief prosecutor of the international criminal court.

Some of the funds may be held by the part-nationalised Lloyds Banking Group, according to prosecutor, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, who told US officials it was time to go public with the scale of Bashir's theft in order to turn Sudanese public opinion against him. >>> Afua Hirsch, legal affairs correspondent | Friday, December 17, 2010

The True Horrific Face of Islam: Woman Flogged in Public in Sudan

THE TIMES: Sudan protesters arrested after video shows woman flogged by police >>> Tristan McConnell, Nairobi | Tuesday, December 14, 2010 (£)

Cross-dressing Men Flogged in Sudan for Being 'Womanly'
BBC: A group of young Muslim men have been publicly flogged in Sudan after they were convicted of wearing women's clothes and make-up.

The court said the 19 men had broken Sudan's strict public morality codes.

Police arrested them at a party where they were found dancing "in a womanly fashion", the judge said.

The men were not represented in court and said nothing in their defence, some hid their faces from the hundreds of people who watched as they were lashed.

'Scared'

The sentence of 30 lashes was carried out as soon as the court in Omdurman, near Khartoum, gave its ruling.

They must also pay fines of as much as 1,000 Sudanese pounds ($400, £252).

One lawyer, who did not want to be named, told Reuters news agency the men had not received a fair trial.

"These people did not get a chance for justice, public opinion and the media prejudged them and lawyers were too scared to come and defend them," he said.

Newspapers had called the party a "same sex wedding". >>> | Wednesday, August 04, 2010

Sudan: Bashir nun auch wegen Völkermord gesucht
DIE PRESSE: Der Internationale Strafgerichtshof in den Haag stellte am Montag einen weiteren Haftbefehl gegen Sudans Präsidenten Omar al-Bashir aus. In diesem ist auch das gravierendste Verbrechen aufgeführt: Genozid.

Den Haag. Nun also auch Völkermord: Der Internationale Strafgerichtshof in den Haag stellte am Montag einen weiteren Haftbefehl gegen Sudans Präsidenten Omar al-Bashir aus. In diesem ist auch das gravierendste Verbrechen aufgeführt, über das der Gerichtshof Jurisdiktion hat: Genozid. Verübt von Milizen in Verbindung mit regulären Einheiten der Armee in der Bürgerkriegsprovinz Darfur im Westen des Landes.

Man habe ausreichende Gründe zu glauben, dass al-Bashir persönlich für das Verbrechen des Genozids an den Ethnien der Fur, Masalit und Zaghawa verantwortlich sei, hieß es seitens des Gerichtshof am Montag. >>> ag. | Montag, 12. Juli 2010