Sudan’s Separation of Religion from State a New Beginning of Faith Without Fear: Cleric

It reads in part, “No citizen shall be discriminated against based on their religion. For Sudan to become a democratic country where the rights of all citizens are enshrined, the constitution should be based on the principle of separation of religion and state.”

The decision to separate religion from state in Sudan came days after the Sudanese government agreed to a peace deal with a coalition of rebel groups in the Sudan Revolutionary Front in South Sudan’s Juba city.

According to Fr. Peter who is a member of the Clergy of Sudan’s El Obeid Diocese, “The religion is to be purely based on faith and not to be abandoned but considered an individual thing.”

“The current politicians in Sudan are focusing on the issues affecting the country and it gives a positive sign, not like the former governments when many conditions were imposed on the people to join Islam,” the Juba-based Cleric added.

“Muslims are now converting to Christianity in Sudan, although it is not public, and some of our brothers and sisters who were Christians are now back to the Islamic faith,” Fr. Peter revealed and added, “It is simple to believe that truly the faith embraced previously (in Sudan) was by condition.”

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Religion plays an important role in Sudan with Islam being the predominant religion at slightly above 90 percent of the population and Christianity forming a paltry 5 percent, according to Pew Research Centre.

There are approximately 1.1 million Catholics in Sudan, about 3.2 percent of the total population.

Government statistics indicate less than one percent of the population, according to International Religious Freedom Report 2019, primarily in Blue Nile and South Kordofan states, adheres to traditional African religions.