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Sudanese Expert Warns Against Proselytization In Darfur
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Sudanese
women demonstrate in Khartoum against any foreign intervention in
Darfur (AFP)
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By
Mustafa Abdel-Halim, IOL Staff
CAIRO,
July 28 (IslamOnline.net) – Christian missionaries could flood
Darfur under the guise of humanitarian relief in case of any foreign
military intervention in the predominantly-Muslim region, a Sudanese
expert warned Wednesday, July 28.
"Darfur
has been the base of Islamic culture in Sudan for as many decades and
is the only region in the country that has no Christians or
churches," said Hassan Mekki, a member of the Sudanese Foreign
Minister's advisory board.
Speaking
in a live dialogue with IslamOnline.net's audience, he warned against
a feared wave of proselytization that could lead to a situation
similar to what happened in the south.
"Until
1919, there were no Christians in the south. Now, there are more than
three million people embracing Christianity in the region due to
active missionary work," Mekki said.
"Southern
Sudan has 28 churches, including 20 ones financed by American churches
and the Orthodox Church financed by British Anglican church."
The
expert pointed an accusation finger at British occupation of Sudan,
ended in 1956, for allowing missionaries into the country in large
numbers in what he described as "a bid to upset the demographic
balance in the Arab Islamic country".
A
few years after independence, a civil war broke out pitting black
Christians in the south against the Arab-Muslims of the north and has
cost at least 1.5 million lives, as well as the displacement of
millions of others.
Mekki
said the situation after any military action in Darfur could bear a
similarity to Iraq's.
The
Daily Telegraph had reported that American missionaries, mainly
evangelicals, have secretly
rushed to Iraq after the US-British invasion of the Muslim
country.
In
public, the groups had put the emphasis on their delivery of food
parcels and their medical work, but their internal fund-raising
materials emphasize missionary work, said the British daily.
The
goal was spreading some one million Arabic bibles along with Arabic
religious videos and tracts throughout Iraq, after only 8,000 copies
were circulated in their last missions, it added.
In
2000, press reports said a number of American missionary groups have
established the "Institute for Islamic Studies"
somewhere in Latin America to teach enough about Islam to invade
Muslim countries and try to convert Muslims to Christianity.
Darfur,
an area of 200,000 miles, is double the size of France and populated
by six million people, all Muslims.
Intelligence
Activities
Mekki
also referred to heavy presence of western intelligence agents in
Darfur, in what he called "bids to remap western Africa and
tighten control of the neighboring Arab heavyweight".
"They
want to infiltrate Egypt and keep a tight lid on Nile tributaries,
necessary for Egyptians to survive."
Mekki
said French intelligence agents are also joining the game, as
"Paris seeks to maintain its interests in former western African
colonies".
The
expert noted that Darfur has large reserves of such riches as uranium
and Dioxide.
"The
region has a large oil reserves as well," he said.
Mekki
pointed out that Darfur came under an international spot at recent
months after the Iraq invasion, saying the region was visited by UN
Secretary General Kofi Annan and US Secretary of State Colin Powell as
well as the foreign minister of France in one month.
Powell
and Annan threatened
Sudan with an unspecified UN Security Council action if it failed to
crack down on Arab militias in Darfur.
US
Congress also called humanitarian situation in Darfur a
"genocide" and the European Union warned against backing
sanctions on the African country.
However,
Sudanese officials and experts have refuted
the claims and warned of plots targeting the unity of the
oil-exporting country.
Sudanese
Foreign Minister Mustafa Osman Ismail fired back, warning: "Those
voices which have drawn the world to the Iraq war not to take it to a
new war which it will be difficult to disengage from".
He
questioned
the need for foreign troops in the western province of Darfur,
saying his government was doing all it could to disarm Arab militias.
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