Complaints Arise as Sudan Closes Christian Schools During Ramadan

|TOP|The Christian community in Sudan has voiced anger over the government’s decision to close down all schools for refugees during Ramadan, a particularly holy month in the Muslim calendar, reports Catholic World News.

The Ministry of Education of the Sudanese government announced that any school functioning during the month of Ramadan would be heavily fined. The Muslim government defended the move on the grounds that the schools provide students with food which is forbidden for Muslims in the day time during Ramadan.

The move is already being protested by the Sudanese Catholic educational system, which runs 80 schools for refugees, many of whom are dependent on the schools for their daily meals, with others joining in the protest.

“It is ridiculous for the government to force non-Muslims to fast and close schools for internally displaced persons on the pretext they were offering food,” read a commentary in the pro-southern Sudan newspaper, the Sudan Tribune.

|QUOTE|According to the peace treaty signed at the end of Sudan’s civil war, Islamic shariah law should apply only to Muslims in the northern part of the country, with secular law governing the south.

When the National Islamic Front came to power in Khartoum in 1991, however, parts of shariah law were extended to Christians, including the requirement that women and girls wear headscarves on entry to school.