U.S. priest who served 8 years in Sudan said he saw abuses of Islam

Published: 2004-08-20

GREEN BAY, Wis. (CNS) -- A Green Bay priest who has served in western Sudan for the past eight years said he observed many abuses of Islam. "What I found in Sudan was a very fanatic and fundamentalist view that really abuses Islam, and it doesn't follow the kind of respect they talk about in being a religion of peace and tolerance," said Comboni Father Dave Bohnsack. "In Sudan, they teach intolerance to young children, to be intolerant of anyone different. It was very negative." Father Bohnsack, who has returned to the United States for an assignment in Chicago, said that in Sudan many stores include the name "bin Laden," in honor of al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden. "He's the hero. We made him a hero for them. Even Saddam's picture was put up in buses, and you'd see it around town because he's standing up against America," Father Bohnsack said, referring to former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. From his parish in Nyala, in the Darfur region of western Sudan, Father Bohnsack ministered to African Catholics who fled fighting first in southern Sudan and more recently in Darfur.

Copyright (c) 2004 Catholic News Service /U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. The CNS news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed, including but not limited to such means as framing or any other digital copying or distribution method, in whole or in part without the prior written authority of Catholic News Service .