Press Clippings 1

taken from EUREKA STREET

Overcoming Religious Difference
An Affirmation of Humanity

A Sudanese fable
'A family sat eating their evening meal in their home. As they cheerfully recalled the day’s events one child noticed a snake slink into the house. Panic broke out. Outside were another family with whom the first family had often argued and disagreed. The second family noticed the commotion and immediately called for everyone to go to the aid of the troubled household. Together, they fended off the snake and made the house safe once more.'

Religious conflict covers the globe like water fills a tray. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the Irish situation of years past and even the so-called War on Terror, at least superficially, feed on religious difference. World conflicts embrace peace rarely, often temporarily as opposing sides reconcile and rescind with depressing regularity.

Africa hosts too many conflicts of this nature, and most are made all the more wretched for having fallen into the shadows of the media spotlight. Sudan, the largest nation in Africa, is one of these. Sudan has a long history of war and bloodshed which, of late, has gone through the cycle from war to peace and then re-entry into civil war.

Perhaps the most universal doctrine of global belief systems is that of caring for one another. An Islam devotee acts upon the doctrine that ’Those who act kindly in this world will have kindness.’ Confucious taught, ‘Help others to achieve their goals as you wish to achieve your own.’ ‘Do unto others as you would have them do unto you’, says a Christian believer.

A Hindu follows the rule that ’ One should not behave towards others in a way which is disagreeable to oneself.’ ‘In the garden of thy heart plant nought but the rose of love’, says a member of the Bahá'í Faith. A Buddhist calls people to ’hurt not others in ways that you yourself would find hurtful’.

Inevitable and perplexing questions arise: how is inhumanity perpetrated at the hands of believers of such noble faiths? And how is it, that these convergent view points result in conflict at all? Indeed, why is it that the only places where humankind coexists without any conflict are the places that are naturally inhospitable; the moon and the poles?

In every other place we seem to do our best to make the land inhospitable for our neighbour without nature’s assistance. In most conflicts it seems that there is an implied historical obligation to act in hate. And where there isn’t, perpetutors require core leaders, sometimes with official religious positions, to promote scapegoating. What ensues is a self perpetuating reciprocity of the kind that no religion condones.

Does this have to be? Of course not. Every now and again, reports seep through of small-scale reconciliation efforts. One memorable example was a project run in Israel between Israeli and Palestinian schoool children. They were encouraged to build a garden together and see for themselves that theirs could be a nation of fruitful cooperation.

Thank the God (or common Gods) of all religions that in some instances, manufactured religious differences are overcome. And thank that same God that in Melbourne such reconcilliation is experienced on a weekly basis.

Sudan’s wars are being fought along lines of religious difference. In essence, they are being fought on a national and a provincial level. Nationally, the ruling Islamic military government in the north are at war with the animist and Christian south. Within the south, centuries-old conflicts prevail along tribal lines – the Nuer and the Dinka, for example, remain at odds.

These civil conflicts have rendered four million people internally displaced and have forced nearly a million others to seek refuge in neighbouring countries including Kenya, Uganda, Ethiopia or Eritrea. The conflict is further complicated by the presence of rich oil reserves in the south. Regrettably, thousands of southern Sudanese have been displaced in order to access the oil, but the south has seen little of the revenue it has brought to the nation.

Of late, the warring north and south factions have engaged in a series of complex and delkicate peace talks, which aim to end neasrly twenty years of war and come to an agreement that both are satisfied with. However, the agreement was tenuous at best and, without a ceasefire, fighting continued. Most recently, talks broke down and nation tacitly re-entered civil war.

It is beyond comprehension that Dinka, Bare, Christian, animist and Muslim Sudanese people can sit side by side with others whose communities have caused them immeasurable suffering. And yet every week over one hundred people voluntarily and enthusiastically, subject themselves to this. Animosity is left at the door with the umbrellas.

Every Saturday in a run down hall, on a busy road, in a nondescript street, an increasingly vibrant buzz of individuals gather. The gathering is called the Sudanese Australian Integrated Learning (SAIL) Program. It acts as a cultural, educational and social hub for Victoria's fastest growing ethnic community.

The SAIL Program has ballooned exponentially since its humble beginnings just two years ago when five siblings and one nervous tutor first met. Initially, SAIL provided an English support service for the Sudanese community, as well as a very welcome source of mentoring and pastoral care.

Today, there is a dedicated, motivated team of eighty volunteers who provide one-on-one tutoring, a free lunch, a computer loan service, a library, free excursions, camps and artistic performances, cooking classes, craft workshop and the same immeasurable source of support to over 100 newly arrived Sudanese refugees. After all, we are mentoring a new generation of Australians, not ”just refugees”

Prosaically, the SAIL Program as an embodiment of the United Nations directive: ‘Think global, act local.’ We do this in the hope and expectation that if, through no fault of our own, we were made to leave our country, our family, our house or our community that we too would be cared for and educated in the place that received us. It is not a charity group.

There are tutors and students in title, but not in practice. It is a place to exchange cultures, stories, experiences and hopes- the currency of good faith and good will. We share their past struggles and our present successes and future hopes. Ours is a group which has developed into a microcosmic expression of the aspirations of peace activists the world over.

As an enth generation Jew, I turn up to a church hall for this gathering, dare I say, religiously every Saturday. My differences, like the differences of every other SAIL-or are acknowledged yet unnoticed. As is the case in so many Australian volunteer groups, SAIL has attracted a layered and diverse mix of cultures in its volunteer base and consequently an impressive conglomeration of belief systems. The Sudanese SAILors are no less diverse. There are several; Christianity, Islam, and Animism in its various forms. Indeed, it could be said that the SAIL Program lives and thrives on difference, and a very healthy dose of mutual respect.

Perhaps the SAIL Program is an example of the tyranny of distance disarming the tyranny of history. More likely, it is a very real case of people sharing their humanity, searching for sameness and feeding on commonality. Either way, I get the priviledge of witnessing a celebration of the human spirit every Saturday. Together we fight the symbolic snake in a concerted commitment to harmony and unity as we work to reconstitute a future global reality.

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