The American government represented by the ministry of foreign affairs and many organizations lately start to raise the religion freedom
issue again in Sudan. The government and all the institutes, which are responsible of religion co-existence, stated that this accusation is not true and it goes against all of what had been said, about the religion tolerance, from all religions leaders from all over the world.
Panel discussion was held in the Sudan Inter-Religious Council to give opinions about the reports that have been issued against Sudan:
Co-existence by Nature:
Revenant Anglo Alzaki, the president of executive committee in the Sudanese Christ church, had started the discussion by confirming that religion co-existence is a reality in Sudan and it is not an allegation. Also he added, while looking to the other revenants with a smiley face "Christians are celebrating the charismas and the new year, beside the independence day, what is so special about that is Christians are celebrating a religion occasion along with a national occasion", moreover revenant Alzaki noted that charismas vacation in America is just one day while in Sudan the vacation is a three days, and that prove Christians rights is respected in Sudan.
The Sudanese Christ church was established in Sudan by (SUN) Sudan united in 1920, the church have many branches in Sudan and the first unified meeting was held in 1960.
About the safety of Christians Revenant Alzaki answered, while resting his back in the chair, "judging from my visits to different countries i had never witnessed co-existence like the one in Sudan, beside all the churches in neighbor countries are targeted and it needs to be guarded not like Sudan" he stopped talking for two seconds and sat straight in the chair and said with angry voice "Muslims and Christians will protect and die for each other".
Revenant Theresa Philip, the administrative priest in the Pentecostalism church, agreed with what revenant Alzaki had proposed, and she added that, she came to Sudan in 1981 and there was no wide spread of churchs around Khartoum except some catholic, evangelical and Coptic churches. Revenant Theresa continued talking with a very serious face and added that she participated in the spiritual renaissance, and in all those years she leaved peacefully with Muslims and with the government support and that because Christianity is a religion of loving each other and respecting and supporting the guardians.
Revenant Alazi interrupted, while he was laughing and wandering and said "I came here by bus, I am wearing a revenant uniform, and this made no difference to the Muslims in the bus, also I go to church each Sunday and there is no problem". He also added that ''the government always gave us the approval to build churches and we have friends from all over the world from Australia and Canada, who came to Sudan and they saw the religions co-existence and they were happy about that, the people who give false information about Sudan to the organization they are just doing it for money and the organization accepts the information to gain more donation it is just business''.
The Pentecostalism church was established in juba in 1975 and it was moved to the north after that, the church had three branches.
Furthermore, revenant Theresa also talked about how after the split of the two countries, (Sudan-South Sudan) many people starts to promote the accusations of the absence of religion freedom in Sudan and how is these accusations were raised from those who didn’t find position in the church and they wanted just to be known, Christians and Muslims are treated equally.
About the demolition of the churches revenant Theresa breathed a little and said "all churches had been approved by the government and all of what had been said about that case is completely not true, it is just a rumors to turn the people against the government"
Revenant Alazki made an intervention while waving his hands in air and said'' we ask the organizations and all the people who claimed that there were demolishing of church to prove it and to locate those churches but no one had given us an answer"
Freedom of Worship:
Revenant Hamed Mohammed Salih the head of the evangelical council in Sudan said that while fixing his eyes in the ceil, he can't see the difference between Muslims and Christians in Sudan, and he can't find any discrimination between the two religions. Also he added that Muslims and Christians visit and greet each other in every occasion, beside Christians practice the worship with a complete freedom.
The evangelical church had been established in 1963 after the delivering of administrative work to the evangelical Presbyterian Church in Sudan that was established by the American missionary in Sudan in 1903.
About the Narrowing of religion freedom revenant Hamed was really surprised by that, and he said '' there should be some standers and not just unclear assumption, co-existence of religion do exist in Sudan comparing to the US and many European countries''. Also he added "that we are affected when the country is targeted because we are part of this country we are all Sudanese"
For the Editor
After all of what have been said about co-existence in Sudan and how it is a reality, I wonder why there is an aggressive campaign against Sudan especially when it comes to religion freedom.
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