 [Daily Nation (Kenya)] The Islamic Movement at the heart of Sudan's ruling party needs new blood, its outgoing leader said on Thursday in a pledge unlikely to satisfy reformers inspired by the Arab Spring.
| Bloody-handed vampires are never satisfied! |
The call by Vice President Ali Osman Taha opened a four-yearly conference of the movement which is under pressure from reformers who say the Islamic regime has drifted from its religious foundations.
| Pure-hearted bloody-handed vampires, etc. |
Taha, who is stepping down after two terms as head of the movement, said it must change as part of the process of moving towards a new constitution for the country and trying to "improve freedoms."
| You are free to observe Sharia as explained by our imams. You are free to dress and do your hair we tell you. You are free to keep your womenfolk housebound, ignorant and invisible. You are free... |
"Those programmes need a renewal of the blood of Islamic Movement leaders, as well as a renewal of the movement's platform," he said.
Reformers say corruption and other problems have left the African nation's government Islamic in name only, and question how much longer President Omar al-Bashir
Head of the National Congress Party. He came to power in 1989 when he, as a brigadier in the Sudanese army, led a group of officers in a bloodless military coup that ousted the government of Prime Minister Sadiq al-Mahdi and eventually appointed himself president-for-life. He has fallen out with his Islamic mentor, Hasan al-Turabi, tried to impose shariah on the Christian and animist south, resulting in its secessesion, and attempted to Arabize Darfur by unleashing the barbaric Janjaweed on it. Sudan's potential prosperity has been pissed away in warfare that has left as many as 400,000 people dead and 2.5 million displaced. Omar has been indicted for genocide by the International Criminal Court but nothing is expected to come of it.
should remain in office.
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