Anglican Bishop Andudu Adam Elnail, who is a leader in interfaith relations for his church in Sudan was in the U.S. when he and his fellow Anglican pastors were hunted and their cathedral burned on the northern province of South Kordofan.  He believes if he had not been here, he might now be in a mass grave in Kadugli.  As I learned in the course of our interview, he is an articulate exponent of the values of religious pluralism -- even in the face of a genocidal regime.  He thinks that this may be part of why he was targeted. It seems that Arab Islamic theocrats from Khartoum find religious pluralism of the Nuban people of South Kordofan, threatening.  

As displaced people flee Kadugli in all directions, Bishop Andudu has become a refugee of a different kind:  He is a black African Christian leader called to the world stage as a voice for the persecuted, the displaced, the slaughtered, and the silenced.

As chair of an interfaith committee, I have developed good relationships with Arabs and Muslims in some parts of the State and some Islamic extremists are not happy because of that. In addition, I am black and a Christian, which means inferior and an infidel to some Muslims and Arabs--but not to all.  I know some Muslims and some Arabs oppose what the Khartoum regime is doing. In the Nuba Mountains, there are marriages between Christian and Muslim families, so we are showing the world how to live together.  We know how to build relationships based on mutual trust and respect, if the Khartoum regime would leave us in peace.

I also asked Bishop Andudu about the inter-religious dynamics as they relate to war and peace in Sudan.

The issue is complex and has more to do with Arabization--some Arabs imposing their own culture on black people, refusing, denying other black cultures.  In some learning institutions and schools in Sudan, there is little or no history of black people; what children learn is history from Arab perspectives.

We do not have big problems with Muslims in most parts of South Kordofan, only in a few places, especially in the areas where Arab culture and politics are mixed with radical perspectives of Islamic religion.  As you can see from the genocide in Darfur, where most Darfuri people are Muslims, the Khartoum regime has shown willingness to kill Muslims, so it is obviously not just a matter of Islamic religion.  The Khartoum regime is led by individuals who are Arabs and who are indicted war criminals, and who have a record of oppressing black people, whatever religions we take. But the Khartoum regime does not speak for all Arabs, any more than they speak for [all] Muslims.

There is much more, and I think worth reading his carefully chosen words in context.

For those of us in the U.S. who have to contend with the relentless politics of "blame it on Islam" led by demagogues of the Religious Right, Andudu's articulation of the values of inter-faith respect and understanding, and his refusal to smear all Arabs and Muslims because of the horrific actions of some, is a model for how we can better contend with some of our own theocratic demagogues.