Allegations of Apostasy Against Christians in Darfur, Sudan Rejected

Apostasy charges against Christians in Darfur, Sudan, are dropped.

The 16th of September, 2022 at JUBA, South Sudan (The Morning Star) According to reports from September 8, a court in Sudan dropped apostasy charges against four Christians who were facing the death sentence if they did not renounce their faith.

Apostasy is no longer a criminal in Sudan, thus Judge Ibrahim Hamza dropped the charges against the Christians in Central Darfur state, according to their lawyer.

Christian Solidarity Worldwide reports that four former Muslims who converted to Christianity were detained on June 24 in Zalingei, Central Darfur, and humiliated during interrogation (CSW). That day, they were freed, but on June 28th, they were detained again.

“On July 3, the men were taken before the prosecutor, who warned them they faced the death sentence if they did not abandon their Christian religion and promise not to pray, communicate their beliefs, or engage in any activity that might identify them as Christians,” CSW said. In response, “the men refused and were charged with apostasy.”

Local reports claim that on June 30, Bader el Dean Haroon Abdel Jabaar, his brother Mohammad Haroon Abdel Jabaar, Tariq Adam Abdalla, and Morthada Ismail were taken into custody from their church in Zalingei and kept until their release on bail in early July.

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The Sudanese government imprisoned them on apostasy accusations under Article 126 of the penal code from 1991, which will be repealed in 2020. Apostasy, which had been punished by death, was decriminalized by the transitional administration that gained power in September 2019, and was effective in July 2020. The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom reports that the Sudanese Fundamental Rights and Freedoms Act of 2020 forbids the identification of any group as “infidels” (takfir) (USCIRF).

CSW reports that threats and assaults by local Muslim extremists have forced the closure of the church that the four Christians had built during the transitional period after receiving official approval from Sudan’s Ministry of Guidance and Religious Endowments. Moreover, the organization said that three additional churches in Zalingei had closed this year owing to an upsurge in threats and violence.

Church leaders in IDP camps have been threatened with heresy charges if they continue to congregate for prayer after the military coup on October 25, 2021, according to a report by CSW.

When the leaders complained about the legal changes made by the transitional government, they were told that the legal position had altered due to the coup, as reported by CSW.

Other Islamic-based provisions of the 1991 criminal code were also removed by the 2020 Act, including as public flogging as a punishment and alcohol restrictions. Although certain reforms have been made to legislation in Sudan that violate religious liberty, Christian groups believe that most current regulations are still based on Islamic law.

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The military revolution of October 25, 2021 reversed two years of progress toward religious freedom in Sudan after the overthrow of the Islamist regime of Omar al-Bashir in 2019.

In the months after Bashir’s overthrow in April 2019, the country’s transitional civilian-military administration reversed certain Islamic law (sharia) regulations that he had put in place during his 30-year reign. It essentially nullified apostasy laws that made abandoning Islam a capital offense by making it illegal to identify any religious group as “infidels.”

Christians in Sudan are worried that the most oppressive and brutal components of Islamic law would be reinstated after the coup on October 25. As prime minister of a transitional administration beginning in September 2019, Abdalla Hamdok was placed under house arrest for over a month before being freed and reinstalled in a shaky power-sharing arrangement in November 2021.

Hamdock had to clean up Bashir’s dictatorship from decades of endemic corruption and an Islamist “deep state,” the same “deep state” that is accused of removing the transitional government in the October 25 coup.

Both before and after the coup, Christians were being persecuted by non-state groups. Even though assaults by non-state actors decreased, Sudan remained at No. 13 on Open Doors’ 2022 World Watch List of the nations where it is most difficult to be a Christian. This was due to the lack of local implementation of religious freedom reforms at the national level.

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When Sudan debuted at No. 13 on the 2021 World Watch List, it had fallen out of the top 10 for the first time in six years. While the decriminalization of apostasy and the cessation of church demolitions are positive steps, the International Religious Freedom Report notes that conservative Islam continues to hold sway and that Christians continue to face discrimination, such as difficulty obtaining building permits for churches.

In 2019, the U.S. State Department elevated Sudan from the list of Countries of Particular Concern (CPC) that engage in or allow “systematic, continuing, and severe abuses of religious freedom” to a watch list. In 2020, the State Department de-listed Sudan from its Special Watch List. As recently as 2018, Sudan was removed off the CPC list after having been included on it since 1999.

There are about 2 million Christians in Sudan, or 4.5% of the country’s more than 43 million people.

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