Sudan might currently be the last place on earth where one would expect to see creative forms of inter-religious cooperation and, at the same time, a diminution of hostility to conversion. Yet such cooperation is evident, especially since the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement between predominantly Muslim Northern Sudan and the largely Christian South.
One notable example is a campaign to promote public education about HIV/AIDS, jointly undertaken by the government and churches in Northern Sudan. This is a dramatic shift for the government, which for years denied that Sudanese Muslims suffered from the disease.
Pressure for such cooperation comes from within the Muslim community, both within Sudan and without. Sudanese Muslims are increasingly vocal about their own experiences of HIV/AIDS, and fear a holocaust such as other African countries now suffer. Syria and other Arab states have broken their silence about the reality of AIDS within their own populations.
This new cooperation is made possible also by the fact that many church groups are giving priority to the work of reconciliation. Christians in Sudan are reaching out in new ways, crossing boundaries between Muslims and Christians as well as between Christians of different tribes, in order to heal wounds left by more than twenty years of unabated war.
The churches of Southern Sudan have created much of whatever fragile infrastructure exists there. Church-based clinics, schools and flood-relief teams provide services to all residents, regardless of their religion. Schools offer a secular curriculum, focusing on reading, writing, language, math and computer competency. In many areas, even devout Muslim parents are choosing these schools over madrassas (Islamic religious schools), because they believe the modern curriculum promises the best future for their children.
The church-run schools are staffed by both Muslims and Christians. Classes in religion are taught, with the children receiving instruction in their own traditions: education, not conversion, is the object. The headmistress of one church-run school, a Muslim, recently married a Christian in the same village; neither converted, since inter-religious marriage has been legalized by the new government of Southern Sudan. Even when the question of conversion does occur, it does not tear apart the community that has formed for the sake of education. If a child expresses a desire to convert, the parents are informed, and their wishes for the child are respected by the school.
These Sudanese Muslims and Christians are not religiously apathetic, nor are they religious relativists -- most of them are strongly committed to their own traditions. Yet their very commitment is resulting in forms of cooperation that lower and even bring down walls of separation that the three monotheisms have often erected and reinforced. These educational initiatives are thus traditional and at the same time innovative, even revolutionary. In a place like Sudan, probably that strange combination is the only thing that might yet bring healing, build community and open up a future for a people who has seen far more war than peace.
Ellen F. Davis, Professor of Bible and Practical Theology at Duke University, is active in theological education in Southern Sudan. She has long been engaged in inter-religious study and dialog. This article is part of a series on apostasy and proselytism distributed by the Common Ground News Service.
