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Published: Thursday 13 January 2011

Referendum signals mixed future for Sudanese Christians

Country: Sudan, Middle East and North Africa

The referendum on independence for South Sudan look sets to herald a new dawn of peace and freedom for the region’s long-suffering Christian majority population. But if, as is widely anticipated, the South opts for secession, Christians in the strongly Muslim North face an uncertain and dangerous future.

Sudan_kids_pray_4X3.jpg
Children at a Barnabas-supported school for Christian refugees from the South in North Sudan

Sudan’s President Omar al-Bashir has made clear his intention to reinforce the North’s Islamic character if the country splits. He said the constitution would be changed to make Islam the country’s only religion, sharia its only law and Arabic the only official language.

Last week he said that Southerners staying in the North would be treated as foreigners. There have also been calls for all church property to be seized.

Christians in Khartoum, in the North, have expressed fears about their future. One Christian doctor said:

Before the referendum, there was a sort of balance in the country between the Christians and Muslims. After secession, we will only form a small minority.

I fear that at some point we will be seen as strangers. Who says they won’t ask us to leave?

The people of South Sudan started voting in the week-long referendum on Sunday. The poll was agreed as part of the 2005 peace deal that ended the two decade-long civil war. Results are not expected until the beginning of February, but if South Sudan votes for independence, it will become Africa’s 54th nation in July.

The civil war saw the North fighting to impose sharia on the South, which was left devastated by the conflict. Around two million Southerners, mostly Christians, were killed, and some five million were displaced, with many seeking refuge in the North.

Sharia is already in place in the North, making conditions difficult for the Christians – especially converts from Islam – living there. Conversion from Islam is punishable by death, and although the penalty is seldom imposed, converts may face imprisonment or torture, and they come under intense pressure from their families and the authorities. Christians face discrimination in education and employment as well as restrictions on their activities.

Christians in the South have enjoyed considerable autonomy from the North under the interim constitution – drafted as part of the 2005 peace deal – that removed sharia law. They have remained, however, vulnerable to insecurity, poverty and violence.

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christian, persecution, charity, church, persecuted, sookhdeo, Islam

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