Religious Liberty Prayer Bulletin | RLPB 147 | Wed 22 Feb 2012

By Elizabeth Kendal

* SUDAN: NUBA NEED BREAKTHROUGH IN FOOD & SECURITY

As reported in RLPB 145, the UN estimates that some half-million displaced
predominantly Christian African (non-Arab) Nuba will face famine
conditions by March. Not content to decimate the Nuba by means of famine —
something the Arab-supremacist, Islamist regime in Khartoum achieved in
the early 1990s — nor to allow their escape into South Sudan, Khartoum
appears to be preparing to completely annihilate the Nuba. Sudan Armed
Forces (SAF) soldiers are killing Nuba at manned checkpoints. Furthermore
SAF tanks and artillery are blocking the refugees’ southward escape route
through the Kauda Valley while helicopter gunships and Antonovs (used as
bombers) arrive at recently renovated airstrips.

The regime has warned that any attempt to cross the southern border with
aid for the Nuba would be regarded as a hostile act, i.e. an excuse for
war against South Sudan. Urged on by Christian and Jewish anti-genocide
groups, the US administration has intensified efforts to pursue a
breakthrough in Sudan, even offering to write-off Khartoum’s debts,
estimated at $2.4 billion. Yet Khartoum remains intransigent, maintaining
the Nuba are ‘rebels’ — enemies of the state — being assisted by foreign
aid groups.

On Sunday 19 February the Government of Sudan (GoS) agreed to involve
international organisations in an operation to assess humanitarian needs
in South Kordofan. Khartoum also advised it was considering a proposal put
forward by the Arab League. Sudan’s Minister of Social Welfare and
Security, Amira Al-Fadail, reiterated the GoS position that all aid must
be distributed through Sudanese facilities. Of course this has happened
before in the early 1990s when the GoS, after engineering famine in the
Nuba Mountains, herded the displaced and starving Nuba into ‘Peace
[concentration] Camps’. Receiving food there was conditional on converting
to Islam. Forced thus to choose between Islam and starvation, hundreds of
thousands of Nuba chose starvation. To allow repetition of such a
situation would be absolutely unacceptable. However, with famine closing
in, Sudan analyst Eric Reeves is warning of ‘a looming catastrophe that
will make Syria, in terms of total casualties, look like a gang war in the
park’.

* SYRIA: CHRISTIANS NEED BREAKTHROUGH FOR POLITICAL SOLUTION

The NATO-US-Saudi-Gulf Arab alliance and al Qaeda both want the same thing
in Syria: regime change to install a Sunni Islamist regime more favourable
to their interests. According to former Central Intelligence Agency
officer Philip Giraldi, unmarked NATO planes are transporting weapons from
Libya to the Free Syrian Army (FSA) base at Iskenderum, on Turkey’s border
with Syria. Meanwhile, Western Special Forces trainers are there on the
ground training the Syrian rebel jihadists [echoes of Afghanistan?].
Furthermore, US military and intelligence drones are operating over Syria,
reportedly gathering evidence to ‘make a case for an international
response’, but doubtless also monitoring Syrian troop movements for the
FSA.

On 11 February al Qaeda leader Ayman al Zawahiri publicly exhorted
‘honourable’ Muslims across the region to join the jihad in Syria.
Subsequently, a group calling itself the Al Baraa Ibn Malik Martyrdom
Brigade announced its formation in the Syrian town of Homs and vowed to
start employing suicide bombers against Syrian security forces.

British author and a former UK foreign correspondent John Bradley recently
cautioned that Muslim Brotherhood and Salafi forces, with funding from
Saudi Arabia and the Gulf, have totally hijacked the popular revolts.
Bradley maintains that the conflict in Syria is now principally a US-Saudi-
Gulf Arab alliance war aimed at countering ascendant Iran. He claims that
what will come after Assad will be much worse: ‘ . . . the minority
Alawites and Christians and Jews and moderate Sunnis in Syria will fight
to the death because they know much better than us that the opposition,
the civilian opposition is dominated by the Muslim Brotherhood and the
insurgents [are] now infiltrated by Salafi jihadis.’ As Bradley notes, for
all its faults Assad’s has been a secular regime that has protected
minorities. Russia is brokering talks. The 2 million-plus Christians in
Syria (including over 300,000 Assyrian refugees from Iraq) are in
desperate need of a political breakthrough. For, as Bradley notes, the
alternative is ‘a civil war in Syria that will be so bloody and murderous
that it will make what took place in Libya look like a high school prom’.

[To see this RLPB with links, go to  http://rlprayerbulletin.blogspot.com  ]

PLEASE PRAY SPECIFICALLY THAT GOD WILL —

* send his Holy Spirit into these war zones in a powerful and palpable
way, bringing awakening, repentance and spiritual revival to
multitudes.

* hear the cries of his imperilled people and be quick to answer with
demonstrations of power, love and justice; may escape and deliverance
be enabled and may there be provision of food, shelter, security and
hope.

* erect a bulwark against those who devise evil against God’s Kingdom and
cruelty against his precious children. (See Psalm 140.)

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SUMMARY TO USE IN BULLETINS UNABLE TO RUN THE WHOLE ARTICLE
———————————————————–

MILLIONS OF CHRISTIANS FACING DEATH IN SUDAN & SYRIA

In Sudan, some half-million predominantly Christian Nuba, displaced by
ethnic cleansing in South Kordofan, face impending famine. After
destroying their lands, the Arab-supremacist, Islamist regime in Khartoum
has closed off not only their escape routes, but all access to
humanitarian aid. Satellite images show the government is also
concentrating troops in South Kordofan preparing for a military onslaught.
Unless there is a breakthrough, the genocide of the Nuba is imminent.
Meanwhile in Syria, some two million Christians (including over 300,000
Assyrian refugees from Iraq) face the prospect of a brutal and deadly
civil war if the Assad regime falls — a secular regime that protected
minorities. The NATO-US-Saudi-Gulf Arab alliance and al Qaeda are actively
backing its destruction. Please pray for breakthroughs in Sudan and Syria.

——————–

We suggest that churches and fellowships using the above Summary might
also provide a copy of the listed prayer points to be used in their
worship by people who are leading in prayer.

For more information, updates and helpful links see Elizabeth Kendal’s
blog ‘Religious Liberty Monitoring’ <http://elizabethkendal.blogspot.com>.

Previous RLPBs may be viewed at <http://rlprayerbulletin.blogspot.com/>.

This RLPB was written for the Australian Evangelical Alliance Religious
Liberty Commission (AEA RLC) by Elizabeth Kendal, an international
religious liberty analyst and advocate, and a member of the AEA RLC team.

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