PrintSudanese Interfaith Dialogue
Envisioned as an opportunity to apply lessons learned from USIP's experience working with various religious groups in the Balkans and elsewhere, in the fall of 2004, the Religion and Peacemaking program initiated discussions with the New Sudan Council of Church and the New Sudan Islamic Council about co-sponsoring an interfaith dialogue project for Christian and Muslim leaders in Sudan
The interfaith dialogue project in Sudan reinforces the prospects for peace following the signing of a north/south peace agreement. While religious differences are only one source of division between north and south, religion has been a seriously divisive factor in the decades-long civil war in Sudan.
In July 2005, the Religion and Peacemaking program co-sponsored a conference with the Sudan Inter-Religious Council for sixty Christian and Muslim leaders from the north and south to discuss the role of Sudanese leaders as peacemakers, and as active participants in constructing a culture of tolerance.
The declaration from the conference was published in all the leading Sudanese newspapers. Participants described the conference as the most open and honest dialogue between religious leaders in Sudan ever held.