Sudanese Muslims at Friday prayers on last day of referendum

Описание: (14 Jan 2011) SHOTLIST
1. Wide of people walking to central mosque for Friday prayers, UPSOUND (Arabic) Call to prayers
2. Close up shot of crescent on top of minaret, UPSOUND (Arabic) Call to prayers
3. Various of Muslim worshipers performing ablutions, UPSOUND (Arabic) Call to prayers
4. Various interiors of mosque as imam gives Friday sermon
5. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Suleiman Tayab Deng, Imam of Juba's Central Mosque
"We support the idea of separation because we have lived many years alienated. We were alienated in the thought process, alienated in the education process, alienated in our own bodies. There has bee too much alienation."
6. Mid of Suleiman Tayab Deng sitting on the floor
7. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Suleiman Tayab Deng, Imam of the Central Mosque in Juba
"We will live just as Muslims do in many other nations, for example in Kenya, Uganda, Nigeria, just like in Britain, isn't this so, even in France they have Muslims. Islam is not exclusive to the Sudan, here in the south we live, this one is a Muslim, this one is a Christian, this one is a pagan, and this one has no religion at all and we all live in one home, not just in a nation, but in the same home, therefore there is no fear if we separate, and if there is separation it will be better for us."
8. Wide shot of Muslim worshippers praying
STORYLINE
Hundreds of Muslims gathered at the central mosque in downtown Juba, in Southern Sudan for Friday prayers, as the historic referendum on the future of the region entered its final day.
The atmosphere was peaceful, and afterwards the Imam of the Mosque said that many Muslims supported separation from their northern neighbours.
"We support the idea of separation because we have lived many years alienated. We were alienated in the thought process, alienated in the education process, alienated in our own bodies," Suleiman Tayab Deng.
Southerners, who mainly define themselves as African, have long resented their underdevelopment, accusing the northern Arab-dominated government in Khartoum of taking their oil revenues without investing in the south.
Southerners - mainly animists or Christians - were also angered by attempts by the northern dominated government to impose Islamic law.
Many of Southern Sudan's Muslims belong to the southern Dinka and Nuer tribes.
Meanwhile, voters continued to trickle into polling stations on Friday to cast ballots in southern Sudan's historic referendum that is likely to result in independence for a region the size of France.
An official with Southern Sudan's ruling Sudan People's Liberation Movement told journalists on Wednesday that nearly 2.3 million (m) voters had cast ballots so far, surpassing the 60 percent of registered voters needed to ensure the outcome's validity.
Some two million (m) people died in a two-decade war between north and south Sudan that ended in 2005 with a peace agreement that allowed for the referendum on independence.
The week-long vote has been jubilant, though the future of the desperately poor region remains uncertain.

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