I just saw a news report on the plight of the Christain Sudanese, who are being driven from their villages by Muslim guerillas. DSupposedly, these people arebeing killed and starved to death fro religious reasons…what to the religious leaders of the moslem world have to say about this?
Is the moslem relief group (the Red Crescent) active in assisting the refugees? Has the Aga Khan donated any money?
Just wondering if this thing is being blown out of proportion…or is this actually a case of genocide? :rolleyes:
First of all the current fighting in Sudan is in the west and is Muslim on Muslim. The fighting in the south, which involved some mixed Christian and animist groups ( more of the latter than the former ), is currently in abeyance again after a couple of decades.
However even when the southern war was “hot” it really wasn’t primarily a religious conflict, but rather a cultural and teritorial squabble. The Sudan was conquered ( atypically ) by a non-European colonial power, Egypt, in the 19th century, incorporating both Muslim and unrealted non-Muslim areas. Then after it broke away as an independent state under the Mahdi, it was reconquered by the British. Traditionally it has been dominated by the Arabic-speaking north, to whom southern tribes have few ties too. When the British left, they left the government mostly in the hands of northerners, which led to southern Sudanese feeling disenfranchised and ultimately a southern army command broke out into mutiny in an attempt at secession, leading to the first long civil war.
In the 1980’s the southern war ( after a decade on the back-burner ) turned hot again, partially this time over religious justification ( i.e. attempts to impose shari’a on non-Muslim populations - a no-no generally in Islam ). But really it was just a continuation of the first and quite tribalized ( the main southern rebel groups, as is so often the case in Africa, are rather fractionated and have fought each other as well on occasion ).
The Arab League ( a non-religous group, obviously ) has been pretty wishy-washy - backing Sudan’s timetable rather than the U.N.'s, while encouraging Sudan to disarm the militias ( that Sudan has hitherto covertly aided, but now under pressure says they will reign in ).
I have no idea if the Agha Khan has said anything, but then I don’t think there is a huge population of Isma’ilis in Sudan, so he would have little enough influence or reason to intervene.
The Red Crescent and Red Cross acting in concert both appear to be pretty active in Darfur, as with this example:
- Tamerlane
In case anyone is whooshed, this is a JOKE in those parentheses…