Establishment of inter-religious dialogue announced

The Minister for Guidance and Endowments Dr Islam Ahmad al-Bashir on Wednesday announced the establishment of a department within his ministry to foster dialogue within and between the Islamic and Christian religions in Sudan, and to support peaceful coexistence through constructive dialogue, the official Sudanese News Agency (SUNA) reported on Thursday. The minister stated his intention to cooperate with all religions and sect to maintain national unity, and said he would establish a council to deal with the affairs on non-Muslins, it added. The Sudanese civil war, increasingly a battle for political power and economic resources, has also presented itself in religious terms at different times, as rebel groups from the predominantly Christian and animist south have battled against successive Arab and Islamic-dominated regimes in the north. Influential Christian groups have also presented the abduction of women and children in southern Sudan - and alleged slavery, which the government denies - as an extreme form of religious intolerance by the Islamic north.