This thesis will examine the role of Islamist political parties and what effect their interpretation of national identity has played in dividing the people of Sudan, resulting in two civil wars. It will examine the manifestations and interpretations of Islam and pan-Arabism among the various Islamist parties of Northern Sudan, exploring the ethnic and religious factors which influence Islamist political groups, as well as their social bases which are tied to economics, language, and the conception of a distinctly "Arab" or "African" culture. This thesis will argue that the predominance of these Islamist political parties in the Sudanese government combined with the lack of a Sudanese identity and historical factors have combined to prevent the consolidation of state power, leading to situations of protracted conflict. The imposition, or attempted imposition, of an Islamic identity on the state as a whole prevents unity as it necessarily excludes certain parts of the population as well as disenfranchising those who, whilst they might be Muslim, do not subscribe to the same interpretation of Islamic identity.

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Thesis (MPhil (Political Science))--Stellenbosch University, 2006. / Sudan, Africa’s largest country has been plagued by civil war for more than fifty years. The war broke out before independence in 1956 and the last round of talks ended in a peace agreement early in 2005. The war started as a war between two different religions embedded in different cultures. The Islamic government constitutionalised their religious beliefs and imposed them on the whole country. This triggered heavy reaction from the Christian and animist people in the South. They were not willing to adhere to strict marginalising Islamic laws that created cleavages in society. The Anya-Anya was the first rebel group to violently oppose the government and they fought until the Addis Ababa peace accord that was reached in 1972. After the peace agreement there was relative peace before the government went against the peace agreement and again started enforcing their religious laws on the people in the South. This new wave of Islamisation sparked renewed tension between the North and the south that culminated in Dr John Garang and his SPLM/A restarting the conflict with the government in 1982. This war between the SPLA and the government lasted 22 years and only ended at the beginning of 2005. The significance of this second wave in the conflict is that it coincided with the discovery of oil in the South. Since the discovery of oil the whole focus of the war changed and oil became the centre around which the war revolved. Through this research I intend to look at the significance of oil in the conflict. The research question: how religious is Sudan’ Religious war? asks the question whether resources have become more important than religion.