Slavery in the Sudan has come to increasing public attention during the country's 16 year war waged by the Muslim north against the black Christian south

Despite mounting evidence pointing to the disturbing reality of Black enslavement in the Sudan, Minister Louis Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam maintain ties with Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir and leader of Sudan's ruling party, Hassan al-Turabi. Under this leadership, the country has become a base for Islamic extremist terrorism, and Muslim enslavement of Sudanese Blacks has persisted.

The Minister refuses to condemn the current regime regarding this atrocity occurring in Africa to his fellow Blacks.

• An article in The Boston Globe on April 1, 1997 by journalist Jeff Jacoby exposed proof of Minister Farrakhan's awareness of slavery in the Sudan.

According to Jacoby's article, phone call interviews with two south Sudanese resistance leaders at the end of March, told of two meetings in spring 1994 with Louis Farrakhan. One of the men, Steven Wondu, a Sudanese People's Liberation Army official, was quoted as saying that Farrakhan had stated that "When it comes to a choice between religion or the dignity of the black man [between Muslim masters and African slaves] I will choose my skin." The other, Bona Malwal, a former minister of the Sudanese cabinet, said that when he had met with Farrakhan in Nairobi, "We talked about the situation. We talked about slavery…He knew blacks in the South were being persecuted. He said that he had been told about the slave camps."

• In an interview in the July 23, 1996 issue of The Final Call, the Nation of Islam's weekly newspaper, Minister Farrakhan questioned the motives of those who criticized slavery in the Sudan. Is the Sudan now being targeted, Farrakhan asked, "because this Islamic government is trying to build an Islamic nation?"

• He added, "I should condemn (slavery) and certainly will, but I will not allow myself to be used as a pawn for the West in a political game that is being used by Western government to destabilize the Islamic government of Sudan… Let it be known, that as a descendant of slaves I stand ready to condemn slavery in all its forms…A lot of what I have been reading, when it comes to life in Sudan, are vicious lies…"

• Reacting to the June 1996 three-part series in the Baltimore Sun which documented specific cases of slavery in the Sudan, The Final Call printed the following:
  

"The Sun is a Zionist Jewish daily…Reject the Slavery propaganda against Sudan…Don't let the Zionists get away with damn lies!" (July 16, 1996)

• Responding to a question at a March 1996 press conference, Minister Farrakhan flatly denied that slavery existed in Sudan. Following the press conference, he challenged the questioner, saying,

"Why don't you go as a member of the press? And you look inside the Sudan, and if you find it, then come back and tell the American people what you have found."

• The Daily Challenge, a New York Black community oriented daily paper, reported on May 30, 1995 that Abdul Akbar Muhammad, International Representative of the Nation of Islam, claimed that slavery allegations against the Sudanese government were part of a "Jewish conspiracy" to divide the Black community. As evidence, Muhammad pointed out that Charles Jacobs, co-founder of the American Anti-Slavery Group is Jewish. (Note: He failed, however, to identify the group's other founder, Mohamed Athie, a former Mauritanian diplomat. He also failed to explain how Mr. Jacobs' religion was evidence of a "conspiracy.")

• Muhammad was quoted in the April 26, 1995 issue of The Final Call as saying,

"Another objective of the propaganda is to divert attention from the role Jews played in the slave trade as revealed in the book, 'The Secret Relationship Between Blacks and Jews' [the NOI book alleging Jewish control of the slave trade in America]."

• Muhammad also wrote in the April 12, 1995 issue of The Final Call that

"As in all other cases, I am sure that this 'Big Lie' being circulated by the American Anti-Slavery Group [the group publicizing the facts of slavery in the Sudan and Mauritania] against Libya and the Sudan will eventually be exposed as another manipulative devise [sic]. I believe their propaganda is intended to continue to divide the black and Arab people in America and on the African continent."