CHRISTIAN - MUSLIM RELATIONS IN SUDAN

This book is about Christian-Muslim relations in Sudan, examined from the perspective of church-state relations in a country where Islam, the majority religion, has increasingly been identified as the religion of the state, and where the state has, since 2000, declared itself to be Islamic Republic. The book therefore, addresses Christina-Muslim relations within the constitutional arena of Sudan’s national identity and integrity.

In order to understand the evolution of Christian-Muslim relations in Sudan, the book examines both the pre-independence period of the Anglo-Egyptian Condominium (1898-1956), and Sudan’s history as an independent state from 1956 to 2005. Within this time-frame, the book examines the main factors that have influenced the course of church-state relations. In the period of the Anglo-Egyptian Condominium, this entails the role of mainly European missionaries and the colonial administration. The five decades of Sudanese independence (1956-2005) have witnessed an almost constant state of civil wars between the north and the south, the effect of which has been to polarize Christian-Muslim relations. This period has been examined in two phases: firstly, from independence to the 1973 constitution, the later based on the Addis Ababa Agreement of 1972 that brought a temporary cessation of the civil war; secondly, from 1973 to 2005 in which the state has been progressively Islamized by ideological movements and presidential degrees, and civil war resumed. The book concludes with an examination of the 2002 Machakos Protocol, and the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) between the government of Sudan and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement.

The book advances four main arguments: firstly, both Christianity and Islam in Sudan have allowed themselves to become polarized by political, ethnic and cultural factors; secondly, the policy of successive governments and military regimes since independence has been to deploy Arabisation and Islamization as means of national unity; thirdly, both Christianity and Islam have ethical and theological resources that can contribute to national reconciliation and lastly, that the African traditionalist have theological resources that can contribute to consolidate peace building mechanisms among the Sudanese communities.

This book examines relationships between the Sudanese churches, either ass denominations or as ecumenical bodies and the successive central governments in Sudan. In this context, and for the purpose of this book, church-state relations focuses on constitutional, political and social aspects of Christian-Muslim relations. The term “church-state relations” refer to constitutional dimensions of the history of Christian – Muslim relations in Sudan. The author also uses the term theologically with reference to the challenges that face Sudanese religious communities to find theological resources in their respective traditions.

The objective of the book is to contribute to an understanding of the complexity of the factors that have strained the course of church-state relations in Sudan. Which in the view of the author may help religious communities to enable them draw lessons that can contribute to the challenge of reconciliation and peace-building within the Sudan as a nation.

The foregoing study of history of Sudan has shown that religion is an inalienable part of Sudanese culture; and Sudanese society is religiously plural comprising traditional religion, Islam and Christianity. It is on this basis therefore, the author proposes contextual theology of the Nuer people that is rooted in the religious reality of people of Sudan by devolving indigenous African concepts of peace and inter-religious understanding as observed by Hans Kung that “there will be no peace among nations until there is peace among the religions”. It is intention of the author in this book to apply this maxim to challenge of post-Naivasha Peace Agreement, recognizing the contextual foundation for an indigenous Christian-Muslim dialogue for reconciliation and peace building. Contextual theology therefore, addresses political realities and cultural needs of Sudanese people by bringing both Christians and Muslims to political and community dialogues to discuss and resolve their problems contextually.

Firstly, contextual theology must deal with the historical facts, that Islam and Christianity were each introduced by outsiders – Arab Muslims and Western Christian missionaries – neither of whom understood and respected the religious traditions of the indigenous Nilotic African peoples. Neither Arab Islam nor Western Christianity was disposed to acknowledging the validity of the other, or of African traditional religion, in a religiously plural society. Religious pluralism, is argued in this book, as a condition for a sustainable peace building in the Sudan.

Secondly, the political analysis of Sudan’s history has shown that Islam and Christianity have, in different periods of times, been manipulated by ruling political elites for their own propose. In each case religion has been used for political ends. From the perspective of contextual theology, however, this did not improve the situation, but simply changed the religion that was being imposed on the South, opening the region to the progressive Islamization as the Government’s means of controlling the peoples and the resources of the South.

Thirdly, contextual theology has to deal with the reality that there are increasingly large numbers of Sudanese who at the time , recognizing the dangers of co-opting religion into the service of the state, have turned to the alternative of a secular state on the Western model that privatizes religion to the sphere of the individual.

The book has laid out a conceptual approach to reconciliation based on the notion of “covenant” that is found in the three religious traditions of Sudan. The author has given three examples of Christian-Muslim dialogue for reconciliation and peace-building. The first two are empirically based instances of successful initiatives in Christian-Muslim dialogue that have been undertaken in situations of conflict, in Nigeria and in the Sudan. The third, borrowed from Pakistan, elaborates an understanding of dialogue that is appropriate for Sudan as well, and serves as a conceptual conclusion to this book.

The book is recommended as an essential reading for everyone seeking to understand these complexities of religions in a multi-cultural state where Islam is dominant such as the historical narratives in Sudan and the need for finding theological resources that would bring together religious communities involved around the subject.