Here at ChristianPersecution.com, we have covered many stories of the closing and even the destruction of churches in Sudan.
During the regime of Omar Al Bashir, Christians were prevented from visiting churches, and a number of church buildings were demolished.
Those who acted against the churches and persecuted Christians believed that Christianity was an alien faith in Sudan. In reality, during the time of the Emperor Justinian (AD 527-565), Nubia (modern-day Sudan) was a center of Christianity. Today, most of the small minority of Sudanese who are Christians are Roman Catholic or Protestant, and there is also still a small number of courageous Greek Orthodox Christians there.
For previous ChristianPersecution.com coverage of the persecution of Christians in Sudan, see here.
“Church Building Locked, Leaders Arrested in Sudan,” Morning Star News, March 6, 2022:
JUBA, South Sudan (Morning Star News) – Church leaders in Sudan were detained and questioned last month after Muslim extremists upset about the presence of their worship building locked it shut, sources said.
Hardline Muslims locked the building of the Sudanese Church of Christ (SCOC) in Al Hag Abdalla, about 85 miles southeast of Khartoum in Madani, Al Jazirah state, on Feb. 21, said Dalman Hassan, an SCOC evangelist arrested on Feb. 27 and released along with the church pastor later that day.
Hassan said the Muslims accused church members of hostility toward Islam by holding gatherings on Fridays, the Muslim day of mosque prayer.
“They cause chaos and disrespect others’ religion,” read one of the charges against the church presented to Al Hag Abdalla officials, Hassan said.
Church member Kotti Hassan Dalman said the hardline Muslims also charged the church with providing food to children to win them to Christianity and with taking their land for the worship building.
Church members said the land belongs to a Catholic school, and that hardline Muslims fabricated the land-grab charge because they don’t want a Christian congregation worshipping in the area. Police who arrested the evangelist and another leader identified only as Pastor Stephanou on Feb. 27 requested and received ownership papers showing the land did not belong to the Muslims, church members said….
The U.S. State Department in 2019 removed Sudan from the list of Countries of Particular Concern (CPC) that engage in or tolerate “systematic, ongoing and egregious violations of religious freedom” and upgraded it to a watch list. The State Department removed Sudan from the Special Watch List in December 2020. Sudan had previously been designated as a CPC from 1999 to 2018….
