Thought for the Day - 23 March 2012, part 2

Speaking of double standards, yesterday I got an update from the Bishop Gassis Sudan Relief Fund with an update on the situation in the El Obeid diocese that he is head of.

He shares a story about the recent (January 2012) bombings of a refugee camp just south of the Nuba Mountains. these were just the latest in a long string of attacks on South Sudan by those in charge of the Khartoum government.

While this is being painted in the media as a disagreement about oil, history shows the truth to be something much different. What they fail to mention is why South Sudan came into existence & what is really behind the attacks.

South Sudan is populated with Christians (mostly Catholic) as well as some animists. Sudan is Arab & Muslim. & therein lies the rest of the story.

In 1983, President of Sudan Gaafar Nimeiry declared all Sudan an Islamic state under Shari'a law, including the non-Islamic majority southern region. This led to wholesale persecution of Catholics & animists is Southern Sudan. As Bishop Gassis points out, there was 20 years of religious persecution, enslavement, rape, torture, starvation & murder of those in South Sudan. The Sudan sponsored genocide has led to the murder of 2.2 million people. The Khartoum government has bombed churches, schools, hospitals & refugee centers.

The Arab, Islamic government in Khartoum's policies led to decades of civil war. & opposed all attempts to allow Southern Sudan its independence. & even after it happenned in 2011 they are continuing their efforts to eliminate those in Southern Sudan who are Catholic.

With a few exceptions, (Is Sudan committing another genocide – against the Nuba people?) this fact is being totally ignored.

But is that surprizing given how the media as well as the Obama administration refuses to acknowledge the truth about Islamic violence towards Christians for what it really is?

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As an aside Bishop Gassis was nominated by Portuguese MP Jose Ribeiro e Castro for the 2012 Nobel Peace Prize.  While he deserves it, don't hold your breathe as his winning it would point out the inconvenient truth about what is really behind the attacks on Southern Sudan by Khartoum. & especially point out how underserved Obama's winning of it was as well.