Al-Bashir urged to drop Qatar trip

Influential Islamic scholars have advised Omar al-Bashir, Sudan's president, not to travel to an Arab League summit in Qatar after the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued a warrant for his arrest.The scholars from the Sudan Ulema Authority issued a  fatwa, or Islamic legal ruling, on Saturday saying it was "impermissible for you [al-Bashir] to travel for this mission, which others can do in your place". Al-Bashir, who has been accused of seven counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity in Darfur, was scheduled to travel to the Gulf nation on March 30 for a summit set to focus on the situation in the western region. The government is not bound by rulings from the Ulema Authority, but the body of scholars is widely respected in Sudan. "The enemies would like to see us split and thrown to the four winds, and if you are harmed, then the whole nation would be affected," the scholars said in the fatwa. "From a sharia [Islamic law] standpoint, you must not travel abroad."