Persecution of Christians in the Sudan

Discussion in 'Africa' started by kazenatsu, Oct 26, 2018.

  1. kazenatsu

    kazenatsu Well-Known Member Donor

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    Sudan has a long history going back in the Bible.

    In the Bible, Sudan is referred to as Cush, Nubia and Ethiopia. Often when the Bible mentions a place at the end of the world it would refer to Sudan (example Psalm 87:4).
    Unfortunately, a lot of confusion has been created by some Bible translators rendering the Hebrew word Kush with the Greek word Aithiopia.

    2 Kings 19:1-9 and Isaiah 37:1-10 relate how one of the Cushite pharaohs, Tirhakah, intervened to assist King Hezekiah when Israel was attacked by Sennacherib, the emperor of Assyria.
    Jeremiah 38:7-13 describes how a Sudanese official, Eben-Malech, helped save Jeremiah from certain death when he had been thrown into a cistern. It was Eben-Malech, the Cushite, that pulled Jeremiah the Prophet from the pit.
    Nahum 3:9 describes how the Assyrians treated the Egyptian city of Thebes (which was then under the Control of the Cushite kingdom) when the Cushites were defeated.
    Psalm 68:31: "Envoys will come from Egypt; Cush will submit herself to God."
    Isaiah 18:1-2: "Woe to the land of wirring wings along the rivers of Cush, which sends envoys by sea in papyrus boats over the water."
    The Ethiopian eunuch, the treasurer of Queen Candice who ruled Meroe (present day Northern Sudan), had gone to Jerusalem to worship and on his way home was sitting in his chariot reading the Book of Isaiah. The Spirit of the Lord led the deacon Phillip away from the Revival in Samaria to this remote desert road to Gaza. Phillip ran up to the chariot and heard the Cushite reading Isaiah the Prophet. (Acts 8:32-33)

    Sudan is the largest country in Africa and it has just emerged from the grip of the longest war of the 20th century. Sudan contains the oldest community of Christians in Africa - who have suffered some of the worst persecutions in the world. Yet the Christian church in Sudan has been growing faster than anywhere else in Africa, with more Muslims coming to Christ in Sudan than almost anywhere else.

    "Remember the prisoners as if chained with them – those who are mistreated – since you yourselves are in the Body also." Hebrews 13:3

    For a long time Christians in Sudan felt alone and abandoned. "We are a hidden people fighting a forgotten war", has been heard by missionaries time and again.

    The relentless scorched earth campaign of the National Islamic Front government, which declared Jihad against the Christian South and the Nuba Mountains, brought tremendous suffering. Bibles were banned, villages were burned, churches destroyed, pastors crucified, livestock looted, crops burned, wells poisoned, children enslaved. At times the death toll was so great that there were not enough people left to bury the dead. Vultures actually feasted on the bodies.

    There has been Revival amidst persecution in Sudan. Tremendous sacrifices have been made. Like the Nuba Church in Kauda which, within a 12 month period, endured 18 aerial bombardments from the Sudan Air Force. Yet the people continued to gather, and overflow their church, for Sunday worship. The cathedral in Lui, the birthplace of Christianity in Moruland, was bombed ten times. Three times the cathedral was destroyed, yet each time rebuilt and restored and filled with joyful Christians bringing a sacrifice of praise.

    Despite having arms amputated and feet axed off at the ankles, Sudanese evangelists have continued to take the Gospel to their neighbors.

    There has been tremendous church growth in South Sudan. Some pastors have reported adding over 8,000 people to their churches in just three years. Numerous pastors have multiple congregations to care for. The resilient Christians of Sudan have stood steadfast against the onslaught of Islamic Jihad. They have been a bulwark holding up the southward expansion of Islam in Africa.

    It is quite remarkable that such a vast amount of media attention was given to the suffering of Muslims in Darfur while completely ignoring the vastly greater and much longer tragedy of Islamic Jihad against the Christians of Southern Sudan and the Nuba Mountains. Approximately two million people, most of these Christians, died in the 50 years Jihad against the Christians of South Sudan.

    Yet the news media showed little interest, and the UN and Western governments did comparatively little for the Christian victims of Jihad in Southern Sudan. However, for some reason, the low intensity conflict in Western Sudan in Darfur has received enormous worldwide media and government attention.

    Darfur is a 99% Muslim area in Western Sudan. What was going on in Darfur was Muslim on Muslim violence. It was typical Arab banditry that has been going on for centuries. In this case Muslim Arabs were fighting against Muslim blacks. The Christians that are served in South Sudan, Northern Nigeria and other parts of Africa, are somewhat cynical about this pointing out that it seems the West is only concerned for Muslims and never about Christians.

    The West was tremendously concerned for Muslims in Bosnia, Muslims in Kuwait, Muslims in Somalia, Muslims in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria and Muslims in Darfur. However, the West stood by while hundreds of thousands of Christians were slaughtered in Rwanda, and in South Sudan and the Nuba Mountains. The point made is that it would seem that the world media, and the UN, would only mobilize international campaigns to support Muslim victims, seldom Christians.

    Another bit of irony, the black Muslims of Darfur have traditionally been some of the worst slave raiders, guilty of many of the worst atrocities committed against Christians in Bar-el-Ghazal, and the Nuba Mountains. When General Charles Gordon travelled to Sudan in the 19th century, he saw that the worst slave raids came from the Darfur Muslims. At that time he noted that seven out of every eight black people in Sudan were slaves.
     
    Last edited: Oct 26, 2018
  2. cerberus

    cerberus Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    Africa, the lost continent. The BBC's Lyse Doucette was reporting on the Sudan famine last night, focusing on a mother holding an emaciated 2 year old whose left eye was rotting in his poor little head, he was literally nothing but skin and bones, and the reporter was visibly and emotionally devastated. When she asked how many the hospital could cope with, the interviewee (a doctor I think) quoted a figure; when she asked 'So what happens to those children you can't accommodate?' she was told 'We have to send them home to die.' Unless and until they're forced to stop breeding like rabbits it can only get worse.
     
    Last edited: Feb 1, 2019
  3. Margot2

    Margot2 Banned

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    John garang was a Christian Marxist who waged war against Muslims and animist for 20 years and took many slaves.
     
  4. JessCurious

    JessCurious Well-Known Member

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    Some of the world's worst atrocities have been committed by the government of Omar El Bashir in the Sudan, and the outside world ignored them to their shame.
     

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