Sudan Awareness Rally and Prayer Service
On Wednesday evening, August 24 approximately 125 people gathered at the Illinois Center for Intellectual Thought in the District of Rock Island to Open their eyes to the events occuring in Sudan. It is called the first genocide of the new millenium. People from the three Abrahamic faiths gathered to decry the 400,000+ innocent civilians who have been systematically murdered in a conflict over resources in the poor, arid region of Darfur. Rape, burning of villages, plunder, and torture are the tools of intimidation that haunts the land as 2.5 million have been displaced within Sudan and in neighboring Chad. There the squalid conditions open the door to approximately 10,000 more deaths a month as aid workers are harassed and denied access to the camps.
Speaking and telling a bit of their own stories were Sudanese Refugees Michael Agok and Rashida Ishag. Michael is one of the 14,000 orphaned boys who streamed into the refugee camps in the mid 1980s as part of the North-South conflict of Sudan. Rashida told the story of her father, a village elder who refused to send the men and boys of his village to pillage, burn and kill in southern Sudan and who was then murdered, himself. Songs were sung and methods of response were lifted up. (Those called for responses will be published here early next week.) Those organizing this event were Roger Butts of the Unitarian Church, April Johnson from Augustana College, Julie Abdul-Fattah of The Islamic Center, Rabbi Henry Karp from Emmanuel Temple, Joyce Basler of New Windsor Presbyterian Church and Ron Quay from Churches United. Please contact any of these individuals to gather more information. - qcprogressiveaction.org
Prayer Service
- Words of Welcome - Pastor April Johnson of Augustana College
- The Occasion - Julie Abdel-Fattah
- Music - Michael Agok and his Wife
- Litany - Rabbi Henry Karp
- Overview with stories - Michael Agok
- Stories from Sudan - Rashida Ishag
- Call to Action - Rev. Joyce Basler, New Windsor Presbyterian
- Song by Amy Hare
- Sending Forth - Roger Butts
Michael Agok and his Wife sing a traditional Sudanese song.
Photos From The Service
- Amy Hare
- April Johnson
- Julie Abdel-Fattah
- Michael Agok
- Rashida Ishag
- Mrs. Agok, Rashida 1
- Mrs. Agok, Rashida 2
- Roger Butts
Between 50 and 55 people from the African country of Sudan live here in the Quad-City area. They are helped in transitioning into their new lives by local, faith-based communities. Statistics on the genocide in Darfur indicate that 3.5 million are hungry, 2.5 million displaced and 400,000 dead. - Ann Grove, director of World Relief in Moline.
Press
Michael Agok shared his story about coming to the United States. "I left Sudan not because I wanted to leave Sudan but because I was forced to leave Sudan. Ladies of Sudan are crying always because if you give birth to a female, she faces to be raped. Males are subjected to be killed. That iswhy we have come here."
He talked about the war that started as a religious conflict by people who used the tools of religion to rape and kill millions of people. He spent a dozen years in a refuge camp with thousands of displaced people, all wondering where to go because there is no peace. - qctimes.net