2 MILLION DEAD

FROM "JIHAD" IN THE SUDAN

From: Family Policy Network

Date: Tuesday, September 24, 2002 19:32:06

To: pappy111567@charter.net

Subject: 2 MILLION DEAD FROM "JIHAD" IN THE SUDAN

by the numbers: 2,000,000 - people

NOTE FROM FPN: The following commentary was written by Paul Weyrich, Founder and President of the Free Congress Foundation in Washington, D.C. Please read it and make it available to Christian friends everywhere. Then pray for God to intervene on behalf of Christ's followers in The Sudan.

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The Southern Sudan's Fight Against Islam Is Our Fight, Too

By Paul M. Weyrich

September 24, 2002

This evening right outside the State Department, two pastors who traveled all the way from Midland, Texas are scheduled to appear at a vigil in support of the Sudan that has been held all week. Rev. Jon Stasney of St. Nicholas Episcopal Church will appear with Rev. Roy Smith of the True Light Christian Fellowship Church to explain why the West Texas city that is the hometown of President George W. Bush and First Lady Laura Bush – so distant from Africa -- has a strong connection with Sudan.

Rev. Stasney recalls the story told by Bishop Bullen Dolli when he visited Midland last year to raise awareness of religious persecution. The Bishop was conducting services when soldiers from Sudan's National Islamic Front (NIF) government came into his church and took him out to be shot. Standing in front of an open grave, the Bishop refused a blindfold and prayed right then and there for the souls of the triggermen in the same way that Jesus did for those who would kill him. The Muslim commander stopped the execution, telling the Bishop: "Your God's powerful."

All too often, however, the trigger has ended up being pulled or the bomb has been dropped by the NIF in southern Sudan where an estimated two million civilians -- many of them Christians -- have been killed in nearly twenty years of fighting. "One of the connections is our church. We want our suffering brothers and sisters to know that they are not alone," explains Rev. Stasney. "We also want to do whatever we can to end their suffering."

Anyone who wants to know what Islam is all about should examine what is happening in the Sudan. This is more than a civil war being fought in terms of geographical independence or race or resources. True, the more Arabic North is seeking control of the oil-rich lands in southern Sudan where the population is predominantly dark-skinned blacks. More importantly, this conflict exemplifies the hostility harbored by Islam's true believers toward those who are so-called "non-believers," namely Christians and anamists (believers in traditional religions) and even moderate Muslims who oppose the imposition of Shari'a (Islamic law) on a largely non-Islamic population.

There is only one word to describe what is going on in southern Sudan and that word is jihad -- the Islamic term for Holy War. But what is occurring would be considered anything but holy in terms of the Judeo-Christian tradition: an active campaign of genocide is being carried out.

The NIF makes it a point to target villages in oil-rich areas, conducting what are called "scorched earth" attacks. The villages are ransacked, destroyed by fire. So are the crops. The old and infirm have next to no chance of surviving. Men are actively sought out for being killed. The women and children will be captured and sent to the North to be sold into slavery.

The NIF sent bombs falling on such civilian and humanitarian targets 152

times in 2000. Even after the government signed an agreement earlier this

year to refrain from bombing such targets, they have continued to do so.

Just two weeks ago, it was reported by Agence France Presse that the

government's Antonov bombers dropped ten bombs near a school compound in the town of Yabus in southeast Sudan, killing two children and wounding eight more. More than 20 people were said to have died this past week as the government blanket bombed civilian targets using newly bought MIG-29 planes.

The South's resistance is concentrated on military installations and the

towns that harbor them, but they have refrained from committing the kind

of atrocities that personify the North's zeal in fighting this war.

More than that, the NIF has pursued policies that have been intended to

starve the South into submission, having blocked aid in 1998 that caused a famine which killed 100,000 people. The NIF requires non-Muslims to convert to be able to receive food. Right now, there are thousands of refugees being denied food and medical assistance.

The Sudanese government is said to have adopted a more cooperative attitude on stopping international terrorism. The fact remains, however, that Sudan was still listed in the State Department's "Patterns of Global Terrorism 2001" report, which was issued this spring, as one of seven state sponsors of terrorism, placing it with the likes of villainous countries such as Cuba and Libya and North Korea. Earlier this month, it was reported that al-Qaeda had sent gold to the Sudan because the terrorist group's leadership have good contacts there.

The Sudanese government was involved in peace talks only to walk away

earlier this month from continuing to participate in them.

Fortunately, there are leaders in Congress who have been speaking up about the Sudan. Sen. Sam Brownback (R-KS) has visited the country and been active in raising awareness of the plight of the southern Sudanese. Rep. David Weldon (R-FL) has also been active in the vigil as has been Rep. Frank Wolf (R-VA).

The House and Senate passed versions of the Sudan Peace Act last year, only to see it scuttled because of sanctions that would have prevented the stock of foreign oil companies that deal with the Sudanese government from being listed on the American stock exchanges. Now, Senator Sam Brownback is promoting an amendment that has "hammers" to be used against the Sudanese government if a peace agreement is not signed within the next six months. One of the hammers calls for having the U.S. government give $100 million in non-military aid to southern Sudan. Another calls for having our representatives on the boards of international monetary institutions to oppose giving aid to the Sudanese government. Also, our diplomatic relations with the government of Sudan would be downgraded.

This is a conflict that most Americans and the news media that supplies us with information discount as another tragedy in another far-away country that is of no real concern. How wrong the news media and many of our citizens are about what is happening. We need to realize that the same mindset that drove the al-Qaeda to commit the 9/11/01 attack on the World Trade Towers and the Pentagon is the very same motivating force that is driving the NIF to take on the southern Sudanese. That is taking on Christians in Indonesia. That is taking on Christians in the Philippines. That talks of launching further attacks against the United States, wreaking havoc on our country and its people.

The vigil's organizers like to say "9/11 is 24/7 in the Sudan." No! This is not just a fight of Africans in a country whose primary importance to most Americans is that it is a trivia question -- or an answer in a crossword puzzle. The fight by the southern Sudanese to defend themselves against the Islamic government of Sudan is our fight too. And so is the fight of any Christian, Jew, or non-believer who has to fend off Islamic believers who commit jihad. And the sooner that we realize it, the safer and better off our country and its citizens will be.

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ACTION ITEM:

The last day of the Sudan Vigil is September 24, 2002. But the killing will continue in the Sudan until a peace accord is reached and enforced. There is still much that ... readers can do to alert our friends and neighbors to the true nature of the conflict in the Sudan. A visit to the Institute for Religion Democracy website [ http://www.ird-renew.org ] and its project, the Church Alliance for a New Sudan, will enable you to find more information about the conflict. The site also has downloadable materials that you can distribute to your churches and civic organizations, and has a list of ideas on how to help raise the public's consciousness of what is happening in the Sudan.

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