CHAPTER SIX
Anne Sofijie Roald
Introduction
The multiplicity of ethnic and religious communities has created divi- sions in the social setting in Sudan.1 The present social tension is fijirst and foremost portrayed in religious terms; there is an assumption that the Muslim-Christian division is the main cause of instability and that the basic line of demarcation goes between followers of these two religions. Moreover, Christians in Sudan are often depicted as the weaker part, and there is a tendency to single the ‘Southerners’ out as the Sudanese Christians par excellence. In February 2007, I conducted a fijieldwork in Khartoum together with a colleague; the task consisted in interviewing Muslim and Christian leaders, as well as western representatives, particularly from Christian organisations responsible for aid programs among Christians in Khartoum and in Southern Sudan (Tønnessen and Roald 2007).2 Contrary to the claim of the Christian-Muslim religious opposition, our fijindings point to cultural diffferences between the mainly urbanised population in Northern Sudan and the mainly rural population in the South, as well as those between the Africanised South and the Arabised North, as important reasons for the social tensions. In both cases, the diffferences are unrelated to religious afffijiliation. A third reason is the variation in religious practices among Christians coming from the South and the long-established Chris- tian communities in the North: the Sudanese Copts and the European and Middle Eastern Christians. All the Sudanese constitutions after independence in 1956 have taken religious diffferences in Sudan into consideration. Even the 1998 Constitution,
1 This article is part of the research project Moderation of Islamists Movements at the Chr. Michelsen Institute, Bergen, Norway, funded by the Norwegian Research Council. 2 The following is built on a fijieldwork conducted by myself and Liv Tønnessen in Khartoum in February 2007 (see Tønnessen and Roald 2007). This study deals thus with the situation before the partition of Sudan into Sudan and Southern Sudan. ‘Sudan’ in this article therefore refers mainly to Sudan before the partition. 150 anne sofie roald which was designed by the Islamist ideologue, Hasan al-Turabi, at the time Speaker of the National Assembly and a close ally to the President Umar al-Bashir, uses the term religiousness rather than Islam, in an attempt to avoid stirring tensions between religious groups. Because Sudan ratifijied the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR [1966]) in 1986, the regime which came to power in 1989 was committed to grant citizens freedom of religion. Article 18 in the Covenant states:
1. Everyone shall have the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion. This right shall include freedom to have or to adopt a religion or belief of his choice, and freedom, either individually or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in worship, observance, practice and teaching. 2. No one shall be subject to coercion which would impair his freedom to have or to adopt a religion or belief of his choice. 3. Freedom to manifest one’s religion or beliefs may be subject only to such limitations as are prescribed by law and are necessary to protect public safety, order, health, or morals or the fundamental rights and freedoms of others.3
This chapter explores the topic of freedom of religion according to the UN conventions. The focus is directed at how various religious communi- ties in Khartoum perceive and assess the way their freedom of religion is guaranteed in the State of Sudan.
The Coming of Monotheistic Religions
Both Christianity and Islam were introduced into the region in the sixth and seventh centuries (Holt and Daly 2000). At the time of the Ottoman- Egyptian invasion in 1820 the Northern part of the country was Arabized and Islamized, and during their reign (1820–1881) Middle Eastern Catholics started to settle in Northern Sudan, establishing small Christian minority Churches in the then mainly Muslim area (Holt and Daly 2000: 22–37). Although the Ottoman-Egyptian rulers never controlled Southern Sudan, it was formally included in the Ottoman Empire. Nevertheless, British mission- aries entered Southern Sudan from the South of the region and converted
3 “International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights” at http://www2.ohchr.org/ english/law/ccpr.htm.