They Cry in Silence Jul/Aug 2006
Thousands of people rallied in Washington on April 30, hoping to pierce the conscience of America concerning the slaughter that continues in the Sudan. The focus of the demonstration was to protest the mass killings and ethnic cleansing the Sudanese government is carrying out against black farmers in the Western region of Darfur. Estimates are that the number of people massacred over the past three years stands at 200,000, with at least 2 million displaced. Most of the refugees have sought safety in neighboring Chad, where they exist in squalor and poverty.
Organizers of the rally were principally Jewish organizations. They sponsored a full-page ad in The New York Times promoting the event that brought together a faith-based coalition of more than 130 groups, including humanitarian and human rights organizations.
Interestingly, the Sudanese government is backing Muslims who are viciously driving other Muslims off the land. Furthermore, the belligerents and the Khartoum government enjoy the support of the Arab League.
As one listened to the principal spokespersons for the massive demonstration in Washington, it was difficult not to notice that virtually nothing was mentioned about the greater tragedy still going on in Southern Sudan, where 2 million Nuba Christians have been slain or starved to death and 4.5 million have become refugees. In this phase of the war, the Christians are called “rebels” against “government forces.”
These continuing atrocities are hardly a secret. But the world takes little notice. Several years ago WorldNetDaily.com published an article detailing this persecution. It reported that Christian villagers in several areas in the Upper Nile region said that, when women were captured, the government forces asked them if they were Muslim or Christian. Women who answered “Muslim” were free to leave. Those who responded by admitting they were Christian were gang-raped, then had their breasts hacked off as a warning to others.
One account told of five pastors who were killed before their parishioners; then the rest of the group—men, women, and children—were driven into a hut and run over by a Russian-made tank.
These grotesque accounts are examples of an endless series of tragedies the black Nuba Christians of Sudan have endured since 1983. Sudan’s Muslim jihad (holy war) was reaffirmed by the units slaughtering Christians. “The jihad is our way,” they declared in 2002, “and we will not abandon it and will keep our banner high. We will never sell out our faith and will never betray the oath to our martyrs.”1 True to their word, jihad is still their way.
Recently we are hearing of progress, peace treaties, and promises in this war against Christians in Sudan. However, the hatred continues, and the killing goes on.
And though we must be encouraged to see people finally going public with cries for justice and for an end to the violence in Darfur, we cannot neglect telling the world about the nature of the predators and the identity of the oppressed. What’s happening in Sudan is just one front in the war of aggression being waged against Christians the world over. And there is no end in sight.
ENDNOTE
- Art Moore, “Faith Under Fire: Sudan jihad forces Islam on Christians; Women refusing to convert gang-raped, mutilated, says relief worker,” March 4, 2002 <worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=26672>.
