Mark Siljander
speaker
279 appearances
1 recordings
1 series
first heard Mar 2025
last heard Mar 2025
Mark Siljander’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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Appearances
Families, friendship. Then he interrupts. Says, why are you really here? Yeah. I've heard Qaddafi did the same thing. Why are you really here? Yeah. He said, the truth is we want to become prayer partners and pray for peace together and together discover the commonalities between the Quran, and the Injil, which is the New Testament in Arabic.
And why would he be skeptical of that? We talked already about the difference between the approach that you're using, let's say, and the classic State Department approach. So how would you contrast the discussion that you had with him in which this question arose with what he would have expected from the typical diplomat?
Okay, that's a very insightful question. First of all, a typical diplomat You know, diplomacy is shame. Diplomacy, the things we alluded to earlier, and accusations, and failures, and positioning, and manipulation.
And then if they don't agree, and the politicians come in and assert themselves, and if the person to whom we are addressing these things to as diplomats disagree, then we bring up the other two, what I call tracks of and that would be economics. We could threat sanctions on you, your government, or trade. Right, so threat. Threat, or military, peacekeeping, or bombing. Take your choice. Right.
So where is, my question, Jordan, where is the good cop? You know, everyone's watched police shows during the interrogation. And the first interrogator slams the table, says, you better talk. Tell us everything. You're going to prison for 30 years and we're going to go after your mother, your father, your sister and your brother. And this person is frightened to death.
He's taken out and his partner comes in and says, here's a cup of coffee. Don't mind my partner.
Yeah.
You know, he gets a little nervous. Part under the collar, yeah, yeah. So don't pay... In other words, where is the good cop in U.S. policy? We don't have to be religious with this. So if I were speaking to President Trump or Marco Rubio, who has the State Department, I would encourage them to consider some type of training for a special...
advisor or a special envoy that would be for peace and reconciliation, something, I don't care about it. How could we, in every country, there needs to be a good cop. So we're sitting there getting back to Omar al-Bashir. He said, why are you here? And I told him, we're just here to be prayer partners, find common ground and pray for peace. So we leave. We go back home. Did he believe you? Yes.
I'll tell you why. How much time do you spend with the president typically? Me? Anyone.
A very short amount of time.
Two and a half hours later, it was embarrassing, but we had to go.
He was still interested in talking. Okay, got it.
So he said, well, can you come back?
Yeah, that's good evidence.
Yes, we will. Within weeks, we came back all the way back to Khartoum with another team. This time, he had a room full of his scholars.
Oh, yeah.
All dressed in, you know, the Sudanese attire. And some of my friends who hadn't experienced this before in politics were a little shocked. Said, remember... If you're coming, you don't have to come with me. I'm just a former member. I'm a nobody. But we have behavioral agreement. Do not bring up anything political. Right. Only ask personal questions unless they ask you. Let them open the door.
So we spent two and a half hours again with all his... Scholars asking penetrating questions. Well, about the crucifixion and what the Quran says, and what about son of God? All these provocative issues.
How do you feel confident in addressing those issues from a Christian perspective, let's say? Because I presume you didn't bring a team of scholars with you.
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