Author:
Publication: Zenit.org
Date: October 20, 2001
While the world's attention is riveted
on events in Central Asia and the Middle East, conflicts between Christians
and Muslims have been boiling over in Nigeria and Sudan.
Last weekend more than 200 people
died in northern Nigeria as a result of clashes sparked off by protests
against U.S. military action in Afghanistan. Reuters reported Oct. 14 that
the riots took place in the city of Kano when rival Muslim and Christian
gangs went on the rampage. One of the worst hit areas was the Zangon district
outside the city center, a Muslim stronghold with a significant Christian
minority. Those fleeing were Christians.
Nigeria, Africa's most populous
nation with more than 120 million people, has suffered continuous conflicts
between Christians and Muslims since the introduction of Shariah, or Islamic
law, by some northern states.
In Kano, leaders from the Christian
Association of Nigeria said that seven churches were demolished last month,
six were set ablaze, and several others were forced to close, according
to the October bulletin of the Compass Direct agency.
According to Gabriel Ojo, pastor
of First Baptist Church in Kano, "Many private homes and shops belonging
to Christians, as well as cars, were burnt down or destroyed." In all,
54 churches have been served with demolition notices by the state government.
Twenty church buildings were demolished July 6-13 in Kano by the state
Environmental Planning and Protection Agency after it claimed the churches
failed to comply with environmental laws.
Compass Direct also reported that
Nigeria's presidential constitutional review committee has advised the
federal government to halt the adoption of Islamic law in the northern
states. Section 10 of the 1999 constitution -- which prohibits the adoption
of any religion as an official religion by government at any level -- should
be retained, the committee's report urges.
The committee noted that the adoption
of Shariah has led Nigerians to question whether sections of the constitution
have been infringed. It said Nigerians believe that freedom of religion
is a fundamental right and clearly provided for in the constitution.
The report stressed that every effort
must be made by the Nigerian government to create a common understanding
between the adherents of the two religions -- Christianity and Islam. The
committee encouraged the federal government to demonstrate "that freedom
of religion is a constitutionally guaranteed right and there must be separation
of state and religion."
Suffering continues in Sudan
Meanwhile, in Sudan, the civil war
between the government forces of the north and the Christians and animists
in the south continues to cause suffering. The Oct. 22 edition of the New
Republic magazine quoted a Christian county commissioner, Malual Kon, who
accused the Sudanese government of teaching "their children that killing
a non-Muslim is a key to paradise."
The article noted that Sudan has
provided a safe haven for numerous Islamic terrorist groups: the Abu Nidal
organization, Lebanese Hezbollah, Palestine Islamic Jihad, Hamas and Algeria's
Islamic Salvation Front. It also sheltered the assailants who tried to
kill Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in 1995.
In April 1996 the U.S. State Department
expelled a diplomat from Sudan's U.N. mission who had links to conspirators
planning to blow up the United Nations and the tunnels under the New York
harbor. Osama bin Laden resided in Sudan between 1991 and 1996.
The United Nations, in three different
1996 resolutions, slapped sanctions on Khartoum. And in a 1997 Executive
Order, President Bill Clinton imposed even tougher commercial and financial
penalties.
Yet, the Sudanese government condemned
the World Trade Center attacks, and as a reward the U.N. Security Council
voted Sept. 28 to lift restrictions on foreign travel by Sudanese diplomats
after the United States dropped its opposition to ending the 5-year-old
sanctions. These sanctions are separate from broader ones imposed unilaterally
by the United States, which are still intact, Reuters reported Sept. 28.
The Financial Times reported Sept.
27 that the United States has backed away from plans to step up aid to
rebels in war-torn Sudan as a result of the Khartoum regime's cooperation
in the U.S.-led campaign against terrorism.
Under pressure from the Bush administration,
House Republican leaders canceled plans to vote on the Sudan Peace Act,
a bill that would have bolstered assistance to the southern rebels in Sudan
and potentially punished foreign companies doing business in the country.
But the New Republic accused the
Sudanese government of continuing its old behavior. Since Sept. 11, Khartoum
has neither emancipated its slaves nor chosen to abide by the May 1994
declaration of principles on which the regional states set an agenda for
the peace process. Moreover, almost two weeks after the World Trade Center
fell, the Sudanese government bombed the southern village of Kargoc, a
civilian target miles away from the nearest military site.
New Republic correspondent Michael
Rubin, who visited Kargoc, testified that one of the bombs had shredded
trees near a church packed with children listening to a Sunday sermon.
And on Oct. 4, Sudanese Vice President Ali Osman Taha told a brigade of
mujahedin fighters being dispatched to southern Sudan, "The jihad is our
way and we will not abandon it and will keep its banner high."
That active persecution of Christians
continues is confirmed by reports from Compass Direct in its October bulletin.
Particularly notable is the case of a Sudanese student who converted from
Islam to Christianity and was severely beaten and tortured by security
police in Khartoum in September.
Mohammed Saeed Mohammed Omer, 26,
told Compass Direct that his uncle had threatened to kill him, just three
days before he was arrested. Security officials picked Omer up on Sept.
22 as he was returning from an appointment with a local pastor. "He was
tortured and beaten," the source said, "and he lost three fingernails pulled
out with pliers." The convert reportedly was forced by security police
to sign papers promising not to attend any church or Christian gatherings
again.
An Aug. 30 report by the U.N. Research
Institute for Social Development observed that contemporary slavery in
Sudan -- and elsewhere in northern Africa -- was "deeply rooted in Arab
and Muslim supremacy."
In his recent intervention at the
Synod of Bishops in Rome, Archbishop John Onaiyekan of Abuja, Nigeria,
pointed out that the Catholic Church has made notable efforts in recent
times to dialogue with Islam. He also affirmed, however, that there are
a number of Islamic states that "have continued to make religious intolerance
and fanaticism the basis of state policy."
"When a nation denies some of its
citizens the basic human right of freedom of religion and equality before
the law, is it not guilty of state terrorism?" asked Archbishop Onaiyekan.
He mentioned particularly the cases of Nigeria and Sudan.
Islam is not the only factor behind
these conflicts. Racial divisions and political and economic rivalries
have also played a part in these conflicts in Nigeria and Sudan. However
persecution of Christians in a number of Islamic countries -- Pakistan,
Indonesia, Saudi Arabia -- shows a nasty pattern of intolerance.
