Sudanese Public Order: A law designed to control people, not protect morality

(9 May 2019) Since 1989, Sudan has witnessed a new era (under Inghaz Government) which based its rule on the philosophy of Political Islam, which introduced the so called “civilization project” as a political manifesto. The civilization Project aimed to enforce the ‘Islamic religious State’. Religious state contradicts the cultural, social, historical and ethnic components of Sudanese society, which is characterized by pluralism and diversity, what questioned its legitimacy.

The Civilization Project imposed through the rules of the Public Order as one of the supporting levers to enforce the project through the mechanisms of oppression, prevention and the separation between what has been firmly established as part of the conscience of Sudanese, Sudanese community is structurally contrary to the concept of political Islam.The norm it intends to introduce is enforced by expansion of the scope of corporal punishment (Hudod).

In particular, the Public Order Law aimed to replace the historically existed cultural, social, religious and justice system that the society has been observing through established mechanisms based on social norms rather than criminalization and imposition of legal punishment. The imposed system contradicts the conscience of society which act as the “community judge”. The inherited common norms gain legitimacy and power to determine the punishment on basis of common acceptance and approval.

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