By Paul Marshall Introduction I have been asked to focus on the nature of the Sudanese regime. Consequently, I will not try to repeat aspects of their excellent work, but merely emphasize some particular features of the government. I will then also trespass on the territory of some the later speakers by addressing regional concerns in Africa, and then current U.S. foreign policy. China is officially atheist, and Iran is officially Islamic.
Life can also be both economic and religious.
The Sudanese government s self-proclaimed jihad clearly strives for control over oil fields and hydroelectric power stations. In fact, outside of communist and radical Islamicist settings, it is comparatively rare for someone to be repressed merely for their individual confessional beliefs, if these beliefs do not also affect some other facet of human life. Moreover, it is usually the very fact of the interrelation with other matters that leads to persecution. Since religion refers to our ultimate beliefs, it is only to be expected that it is deeply connected to every other area of life, a fact emphasized by nearly every religion in the world. In the light of these concerns, we obviously need to emphasize that the Sudanese regime is, like every regime in the world, very many things at the same time.