• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
ReligiousLiberty.TV / Founders' First Freedom®

ReligiousLiberty.TV / Founders' First Freedom®

religious liberty and religious freedom news

  • Home
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Articles
  • Podcast
Home » Article18: Sudan — Referendum Could Split Nation in Two; Potentially Good News for Millions of Sudanese Christians and Muslims

Article18: Sudan — Referendum Could Split Nation in Two; Potentially Good News for Millions of Sudanese Christians and Muslims

January 12, 2011 by Martin Surridge

By Martin Surridge – Quietly making news this week, nestled between the East Coast snow storms and the Arizona shooting, is an event which, if all unfolds as expected, will make history in a corner of the world that has so often been tragically forgotten. Welcome back to Article18–RLTV’s first weekly blog specifically dedicated to religious liberty issues in other countries around the world. Each week, we will be focusing on a different nation, and the struggles facing its different religious communities. This week: Sudan and specifically the soon-to-be independent nation of Southern Sudan.

In north-east Africa, the continent’s largest country is about to be sliced in two. In most respects, the split has been conducted peacefully and with little resistance, especially for a country that in recent years has suffered through civil wars, systematic genocide in Darfur, and numerous other tribal conflicts. The latest news, according to officials in the region on Wednesday, is that the 60% vote threshold needed to secede has been passed with one more day of voting left.  The southern referendum on independence has been largely welcomed by the international community, including President Barack Obama and former President Jimmy Carter, and the Sudanese government has even pledged their support–President Omar al-Bashir has promised financial and logistical assistance and says that his government will accept the results of the referendum, whatever the outcome.

Since the days of British occupation, Sudan has been divided between an Arab Muslim north and a African Christian south. This, is you might expect, led to years of tension, hostility, and violence. But for a time, the world’s eyes were fixed on Sudan as a place of hope as Al Jazeera filmmaker Jamie Doran explains,

“It was the giant of Africa: a nation which once represented the greatest hope for peaceful coexistence between Muslim and Christian. That hope is all but gone. The promise of Sudan was just an illusion. [But they] were never given a proper opportunity to interact, which is a genuine tragedy as they could have learned so much from each other.”

In more recent years, attempts by Khartoum to marginalize and even persecute the Christian minority communities in the north, as well as in the south, included the decision to impose Sharia law throughout the nation. While the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) in 2005, which also set the independence referendum in motion, officially ended this practice,  Sudan’s Christian population continued to live under threat from Muslim extremists in the north, including those that played such a devastatingly active role in exacerbating the genocide in Darfur.

So it would appear that a complete separation from the north should put an end to any possible future attempts, short of an illegal invasion, to implement any similar measures in the future. For the time being, Southern Sudan’s Christian communities look to have gained a certain degree of autonomy, religious liberty, and perhaps most importantly, an invaluable sense of safety.

Article18 is a weekly blog written by Martin Surridge, Associate Editor of Religious Liberty TV. Article18 logo and artwork created by Bradley Kenyon.

Filed Under: Article18, Current Events

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Miliki says

    February 18, 2011 at 12:44 pm

    Sudan is known as the “country of the anarchy” nowadays, so perhaps with the foundation of South Sudan the “whole” country, if one should use that term, could reach the desired peace. However, I am not pretty sure about how peaceful will be the new Islamic country…

  2. Miliki says

    February 18, 2011 at 5:44 am

    Sudan is known as the “country of the anarchy” nowadays, so perhaps with the foundation of South Sudan the “whole” country, if one should use that term, could reach the desired peace. However, I am not pretty sure about how peaceful will be the new Islamic country…

  3. GUEST says

    February 19, 2011 at 10:26 am

    A pretty resounding vote for change – over 90% choosing independance. However no doubt now their will be a powerstruggle between those wanting control over the oil reserves in the south. Hopefully the Sudanese people can show the same unity in building their new nation that they did in creating it.

  4. GUEST says

    February 19, 2011 at 3:26 am

    A pretty resounding vote for change – over 90% choosing independance. However no doubt now their will be a powerstruggle between those wanting control over the oil reserves in the south. Hopefully the Sudanese people can show the same unity in building their new nation that they did in creating it.

Primary Sidebar

Geneva, Switzerland - December 03, 2019: World Health Organization (WHO / OMS) Headquarters - DepositPhotos.com

Biden admin could hand over US control of health emergencies to WHO next week

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The ultimate control over America’s health care and its national sovereignty will be put up for a vote next week at a meeting of the World Health Organization’s (WHO) governing legislative body, the World Health Assembly (WHA).  On May 22-28, 2022, the 75th World Health Assembly will convene at the United Nations […]

Statement on the Leak in Dobbs

The leak was intended to disrupt the processing of the decision and we are not going to dignify the leak or the unidentified leaker by analyzing it prematurely. As a constitutional republic we cannot go down that road without doing severe damage to the institution of the Supreme Court where there must be professional courtesy between the justices and their staffs.

Boston City Hall - photo from Supreme Court Opinion

Supreme Court rules 9-0 that Boston violated 1st Amendment in refusing Christian flag at City Hall

This morning the Supreme Court unanimously ruled in Shurtleff v. Boston (Dec’d 5/2/2022) that the city of Boston violated the free speech rights of a Christian group when it refused to allow them to participate in a city flag raising program.

Active Liberty - a survey of Justice Stephen Breyer's religion clause jurisprudence - Supreme Court

Active Liberty: A Survey of Justice Stephen Breyer’s Religion Clause Decisions

A comprehensive review of retiring Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer’s decisions in Free Exercise and Establishment Clause cases.

Canadian gov’t calculates that expansion of assisted suicide will save taxpayers millions of dollars

In Canada, it is easier for the disabled who do not suffer terminal illness to get approval for assisted suicide than approval for affordable housing. The government has calculated the cost of providing healthcare versus providing assisted suicide.

Random Quote

“Cruelty and wrong are not the greatest forces in the world. There is nothing eternal in them. Only love is eternal.”

— Elisabeth Elliot

Get the ReligiousLiberty.TV Newsletter!

Comes out a couple of times a month. Unsubscribe anytime automatically, no questions asked.
* = required field
unsubscribe from list

powered by MailChimp!

Copyright © 2022 Founders' First Freedom is a registered trademark. All rights reserved.

  • Home
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Articles
  • Podcast
0
0
0
0