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Arab condemns Mideast silence on Sudan
No response to genocide carried out by Islamist regime

Posted: December 28, 2004
1:00 a.m. Eastern

The Arab world's "deafening silence" on the genocide in Sudan carried out by Khartoum's Islamist regime is a result of pan-Arabism, says an Arab human-rights activist.

Abu Khawla, former chairman of the Tunisian section of Amnesty International, notes the attacks by Arab militia allied with Khartoum in Darfur, Sudan, have created what many regard as world's worst humanitarian crisis.


"According to all credible reports, nearly a quarter million people are already lost, and 1 million more will follow suit in the coming months, unless urgent action is taken," Khawla wrote in an article on the website Middle East Transparent, according to the Middle East Media Research Insitute, or MEMRI.

Khawla said the only effective way to counter the pan-Arab "propaganda of hate-mongering and deceit" is to mobilize the Arab liberal movement.

He said that amid U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan's description of the situation as a "collective massacre of civilians," the Arab world is silent to the "horrendous crime being committed by their fellow Arabs in Sudan."

The silence cannot be explained by the Arab human-rights community's lack of access to official media, he said, because that no longer is relevant, due to the advent of independent TV channels and the Internet.

"In our judgment, the Arab silence could only be explained once we understand the true nature of the twin fascisms of Islamism and pan-Arabism that continue to wreak havoc on Arab land, and the impact they are having on the ignorant masses," he said.

Most Arabs are turning to satellite TV channels, especially Al-Jazeera and Al-Arabiya, to get their information, he said.

But one of Al-Jazeera's most influential founding members is Youssef Al-Qaradhawi, a leading figure of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood terrorist organization.

"Why did these fundamentalist havens try to hide the truth about the Darfur massacre?" he asked. "For starter, we should notice that the matter wouldn't have raised an eyebrow among Muslim public opinion had the slaughter targeted non-Muslims. Fighting infidels until they either convert to Islam or submit to Muslims as 'Dhimmis,' i.e., citizens of second class status under Islamic rule, and pay the 'Jezya' [a poll tax], is still considered by Islamists to be a religious duty."

In the 1980s, the regime declared a jihad against the mostly Christian and animist south, resulting in the deaths of about 2 million. A peace pact is being hammered out, but Khartoum has turned its attention to Darfur, where it is bringing under its control Muslim tribes that do not subscribe to the regime's radical form of Islam.

Khawla said that while the fundamentalists give second-class citizenship to "people of the book" -- Christians and Jews -- animists, Hindus and other "heretics" are considered "Najus," or filthy, and fit for extermination.

"Today's animists in Southern Sudan as well as Bahai and Ismailite sects in most Islamic countries are learning about it the hard way," he wrote.

"But Darfur is different, since it is a slaughter of Muslims even though they are non-Arabs of African descent," he continued.

Khawla said that in theory, Muslims aren't allowed to slaughter other Muslims.

"The practice, however, tells a very different story," he said. Slavery is among the most horrendous means by which Arabs subjugated non-Arab Muslims, especially those of African descent. The practice was widespread in Saudi Arabia until the mid-1960s when it was abolished due to intense international pressure."

He insists, nevertheless, that Islamism is not responsible for Darfur.

"To their credit, both Al-Jazeera and Al-Arabiya ended up reporting on the massacre," he said. "… So the fact of the matter is that Arabs knew about what was going on in Darfur, but they didn't react. Why?

"The chief culprit in this particular case seems to be pan-Arabism, the fascist movement that rose to power half a century ago through military coups. Nasserism took over Egypt, Sudan, Algeria, Northern Yemen, and Libya, while Baathism took care of Syria and Iraq. In all these countries, the previous reformist-modernist attempts of the first part of the 20th century came to an end. The whole social strata of people of liberal leaning was decimated. Through intimidation and terror, its members were either silenced at home or forced to emigrate abroad.

"And despite pan-Arabism's crushing military defeat in 1967, and its failure to deliver on economic and social matters, the so-called Arab street is still captive to its propaganda. A propaganda that, in many instances, seems to have the support of Arab governments, with the hope that anti-Western diatribes may help deflect the attention of the masses from their own failures.

"The only effective way to counter this propaganda of hate-mongering and deceit is to mobilize the Arab liberal movement. That hasn't been very successful so far, especially given the lack of support of the Western democracies. As a result, the ignorant Arab masses will continue to be kept hostage to charlatans of pan-Arabism and Islamism, and other Darfurs may be forthcoming."