Sudan 2014 Religious Freedom Report

The State Department has released the Sudan 2014 International Religious Freedom Report.  The Sudan government estimates that approximately 97 percent of the population is Muslim and 3 percent is Christian.  Some religious advocacy groups estimate non-Muslims make up between 15 to 20 percent of the population.

There was a general consensus among religious leaders that Muslim and Christian communities generally co-existed peacefully.  Muslim citizens sometimes harassed and intimidated non-Muslims, however, and pressured them to convert to Islam.  Because of the overlap between ethnicity and religion, it was often difficult to determine whether reported abuses were specifically due to religious intolerance.

The Secretary of State redesignated Sudan a country of particular concern under the International Religious Freedom Act for having engaged in or tolerated particularly severe violations of religious freedom.