A Bible school in Sudan that was torched by an Islamist mob earlier this year has re-opened but remains in danger as Muslim hostility towards Christians intensifies.
Classes resumed at Gerif West Bible School in Sudan on 15 October. The compound, which includes a Sudan Presbyterian Evangelical Church (SPEC) building, was targeted on 21 April. The Islamist attackers bulldozed a wall and set fire to the school and church; three other congregations were affected, as they used halls at the school for their services. A clinic, home for the elderly and living quarters were damaged.
Some of the students’ belongings were destroyed, as were library books and a large number of Bibles. The perpetrators broke into a safe and made off with school funds; they also ruined school furniture.
The Bible school is yet to fully recover its losses and is facing ongoing attempts by Islamists to seize the site.
Before the arson attack, Islamists had obtained approval from the Commissioner of Khartoum to take part of the property. It appears that he based his decision on the incorrect assumption that the land belonged to South Sudanese Christians and should therefore be confiscated because they were no longer citizens of Sudan.
On 9 April, the Islamists turned up with a bulldozer and threatened to demolish the Bible School. On that occasion, SPEC leaders showed documents proving the church’s ownership of the land, and the police persuaded the aggressors to desist. But they are still laying claim to the site and threatening to take it by force.
Hostility towards any remaining Christian presence in the overwhelmingly Muslim Sudan is growing. Messages over the loudspeaker of a nearby mosque assert that Christian institutions should not be allowed as the country should be a “purely Islamic state” following the independence of South Sudan. The Muslim sheikh who instigated the arson attack called Christians “infidels” and urged Muslims to have no dealings with them.
Since the secession, Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir has repeatedly stated his intention to introduce a “100% Islamic” constitution and strengthen sharia law. Barnabas Fund
