A Conversation with Simon Deng

Simon Deng, a black Christian African was kidnapped by a Muslim Arab at the age of nine and given as a gift to one of the man’s relatives. Deng is now a free man who just recently marched from New York to Washington to meet with President Bush and to raise awareness for the plight of Sudan’s enslaved peoples.

Yes, slavery is common in the Sudan today. Just this past May Deng personally liberated 200 Christians from slavery in the Sudan.

Listen to his interview with Pamela from Atlas Shrugs here. Note: the first three quarters of the program consist of Pamela’s rants. Interesting as they are, the really good stuff starts about 45 minutes in when Pamela gets Deng on the phone. The twenty minute long conversation is well worth listening to.

I found his comments about the use of the word Jihad in the Sudan to be particularly fascinating. According to Deng, the Arab dictator of the Sudan Omar Hasan Hamad al-Bashir utilized the word just a few weeks ago to call upon the Muhjahadeen to wage war.

Deng is sure to explain that it is not he who uses this word nor is it Pamela, a right wing blogger. Jihad (not the internal struggle kind of Jihad that the left talks about but the relentless war on infidels and polytheists kind that is found in the Quran) is utilized by the President of the Sudan to rally his troops for genocide, mass rape, and war.

I’ve never been one to view Bashir or his regime as Jihadists for the sake of Jihad that is to say for the sake of Islam. I might view Ahmadinejad this way but I don’t see Sudan operating under the same motivations.

Rather, I believe that the Sudanese Regime has always had to rely on chaos and war to maintain its grip on the country and its oil reserves. Jihad against Christian and animist blacks has just been the most effective tool in the regime’s arsenal with which they can motivate the minority Arab tribes towards that purpose.

Regardless of the specific nature of the genocide and enslavement of Africans in the Sudan two facts remain clear. One, Islam was the stated justification for the genocide of more than 3.5 million Africans. Two, Islam remains the justification for the enslavement of many thousands of Christians and animist Africans in the Sudan. That is a reality that few in this country wish to accept but until we come to grips with it there is little we can do to ease the plight of the African tribes in Darfur or the Christian tribes in the south.