Another Convert To Islam

(with a hat tip to A New Dark Age Is Dawning for the first link below)

The United States envoy in Sudan — of all people — has converted to Islam.

He has been forced to resign:

WORLD BULLETIN: The US charge d’affaires in Khartoum, Joseph D Stafford, resigned from his post after he converted to Islam, Sudanese local media sources said.

Stafford told the foreign ministry that his resignation was made for "personal reasons" but Sudanese sources claimed that the envoy was forced to resign after he turned to Islam.

Sources said that Stafford has recorded visits to the headquarters of Ansar al-Sunnah in Sudan and established a close relationship with a number of Sudanese clerics through these visits.
 
The U.S. State Department has not made any statement to confirm or deny the news on Joseph Stafford....

After what he saw going on in Sudan, Stafford still converted to Islam? How is that even possible?

From the Al Jazeera Center for Studies:

Traditional Salafism: The Ansar al-Sunnah al-Muhammadiyyah Group

Sunni Islam was introduced to Sudan very early in Islam’s history and was largely dominated by the spirit of Sufism. The religious affiliation of more than sixty per cent of the people of Sudan (of a total population of 16 million people) is tied to Sufism, while Salafi groups accounted for only ten percent of the religious landscape of Sudan. Alongside the Sufis and Salafis were people unaffiliated to any of these sects as well as those belonging to groups affiliated to the Muslim Brotherhood.

Salafi ideas were brought to Sudan from the Hijaz (Saudi Arabia) through the hajj pilgrimages and not from Egypt or West Africa from which Sunni Islam and Sufism entered the country. According to Ahmed Mohammed Taher, who wrote about the Ansar al-Sunnah al-Muhammadiyah group in Sudan, the Salafi current arrived in the country through a group of Islamic scholars, most notably Abdul-Rahman ibn Hajar of Algeria (1870-1939) who lived in Sudan for a while. The effects of ibn Hajar’s Salafi proselytising activities began to crystallize in Sudan in 1897. In 1936, Sheikh Yusuf Abu announced the formation of the Ansar al-Sunnah group in order to call towards Tawhid (monotheism) and true faith. In 1947, the group was authorised to establish a public centre. In 1967, the group built its first mosque which was inaugurated by Saudi King Faisal bin Abdul Aziz ibn Saud.

The group did not limit its activities to proselytising but also played an active role in the political field. In the wake of Sudanese independence in 1956, the group was active in mobilising political parties behind the call for the application of an Islamic constitution based on shari’ah (Islamic law). It also participated in the Islamic Charter Front, which competed in the Sudanese general elections in 1964. In subsequent years, Ansar al-Sunnah took a clear position against the rebel movement in southern Sudan and organised a campaign to support the Sudanese armed forces. The group then created a special branch within its hierarchy called the Shari’ah-Based Policy and Research Secretariat....