Khartoum , Sudan ( CNN ) -- Many southerners are voting for an independent Sudan this week , thirsting for freedom from the north . They equate sharia or Islamic law that President Omar al-Bashir has vowed to strengthen with slavery . Al-Bashir has declared that if Southern Sudan votes in favor of separation , sharia will become the main source of Sudan 's Constitution , Islam the state religion and Arabic the official language . Many in the north are embracing al-Bashir 's pledge . Newspaper publisher Al-Tayib Mustafa said he will be happy to see his nation break in two . Islam , he said , comes above all else . `` When the south goes , then the north will be Muslim , '' he said . `` For a Muslim , unity is not as important as religion . Sharia is religion . Sharia is Islam . '' But there are other faces of Islam in Sudan , including a Sufi community , and Mustafa 's position is hardly shared by all Sudanese . Some in the north consider themselves Arabs , others Africans . They speak a dozen different languages , and while a majority of people are Muslims , a significant number are Christians or practice traditional religions . Sharia already is the law of the land in northern Sudan , but Sudanese authorities have relaxed its enforcement since 2005 when a peace treaty ended more than 20 years of civil war . The war pitted a northern government of Arab Muslims against blacks in Southern Sudan who practice Christianity and animist religions . It killed 2 million people and displaced several million others , mainly from Southern Sudan . The president 's comments have stirred fear that the government will implement sharia for the hundreds of thousands of southerners and other non-Muslims in northern Sudan , including many who fled fighting , disease and famine in the south . Even many Muslims find the imposition of Islamic law troubling , and it 's even more disturbing for the small and ancient Christian community in the north . `` We as Christians , we feel that Christianity is a Sudanese religion and should be respected , '' said Bishop Ezekiel Kondo , who oversees Khartoum 's Episcopal Church and chairs the Sudan Council of Churches . Al-Bashir 's vow to strengthen Islamic law came as a shock to Kondo . `` As a church we are not happy with what he said , and we feel as the president -- he is the president for everyone in the country -- he knows very well that there are other religious communities . '' But Mohammed Othman Salih , secretary-general of the Sudanese Muslim Clerics Council , brushed aside such concerns . `` The Islamic sharia guarantees the rights of non-Muslims better than secular laws , '' he said . `` Why ? Because it 's an issue of a religious duty , and they are human rights sanctified by God almighty . ''
Sudan 's president has pledged to strengthen sharia , or Islamic law . Score: 7 Northern Sudan is diverse , though sharia enjoys support .