Behind the scenes of Khartoum’s embassy protests
Part of a chain of demonstrations in Islamic countries, protesters stormed a number of diplomatic missions across the Sudanese capital of Khartoum on September 14. Demonstrators clashed with police outside the US embassy, stormed the German embassy and set fire to part of the building. The British embassy was also targeted.
More than a week later, questions are being asked about why the protests erupted and which political forces fanned the popular anger.
Protestors in front of the German Embassy in Khartoum, September 14.
Friday sermons in Khartoum’s mosques denounced the American film titled Innocence of Muslims” which ridiculed the prophet. Germany meanwhile has been criticised by Sudan for permitting a right-wing protest last month where activists carried caricatures of the Prophet Mohammad.
Khartoum has also complained about Chancellor Angela Merkel’s presentation of an award in 2010 to a Danish cartoonist who depicted the Prophet in 2005, triggering demonstrations across the Islamic world and sparking death threats.
A number of observers said elements of the government were implicated in the protests. Commentators highlighted the limited police presence around the embassies two Fridays ago and reported that people attending Friday’s sermon were transported to protests outside the US mission in state-owned green buses.
Political activist Assaad Ali said that the protests may have been orchestrated by the government to send a message to the West about the more extreme and militant alternatives which may assume power if Bashir’s regime fell.
Demonstrations were coordinated and mobilised by the government, although there were some demonstrators who had nothing to do with the government,” Ali said.
In its statement, however, the police accused some unnamed elements: They tried to exploit the peaceful demonstration to vandalise properties. A number of suspects have been arrested and legal actions have been taken against them.”
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Sudan bolsters security after German and American embassy attacksMany have pointed out the role of Khartoum’s wide-circulation daily Al-Intibaha which, in the two weeks ahead of the protests, published a series of inflammatory remarks about Germany.
The Friday sermons ahead of the embassy attacks spoke of repeated abuses of the prophet. In a sermon titled I sacrifice my father and my mother for you, Messenger of Allah!”, the Chairman of the Popular Society for Islam Advocacy Mohamed Ali Jazouli, led prayers in Khartoum Great Mosque. He said the demeaning portrayals of the prophet represent a series of old hostilities between the doctrine of the sky and the doctrine of the earth”.
These violations are the result of the West’s concerns about Islam’s expansion, especially after the success of the Islamic spring revolution taking place in Muslim countries,” he added.
Relations between Sudan and the affected countries have cooled sharply following the protests. Although Sudan’s foreign ministry was quick to apologise to its German counterpart, Berlin called off a conference next month to drum up investment for Sudan.
The move is bad news for Sudan which needs fresh investment to counteract its economic malaise. Its economy has been hard hit by secession in 2011, which cut off its access to oil production which is in South Sudan, once a key revenue source for the country. US sanctions also weigh on the economy and make it hard to attract foreign capital.
