Hypocritical Silence On Darfur

The on going genocide of non-Arab Darfurians by the state backed Arabmilitias called janjaweeds have left nearly 2,00,000 people dead and morethan a million homeless. Almost all the dead and refugees are Muslims. Thisbrutal ethnic killing has been going on for more than three years now. And yet,it is shameful that the Muslim world has remained silent on the issue. While theMuslims legitimately raise issues of torture and killing in Guantanamo, Iraq andPalestine, it is hypocritical of them to remain mute spectators to the killingsin Darfur. Why is it that the Muslims only raise a hue and cry when theperpetrators of violence happen to be America or Israel but choose to look theother way when Muslim regimes do the same?

If the Arab press and Muslim internet groups are to be believed, what ishappening in Darfur is not genocide at all. Rather it is just a law and orderproblem within Sudan which should be treated as the ‘internal’ matter of theMuslim community. Like the revisionist historians of Holocaust, they put thenumbers of dead in Darfur to be only in few hundreds — and, of course, those displaced, they claim, have‘chosen’ to do so out of their own will.

But more disturbingly perhapsMuslims blame the Jews for making Darfur into an international crisis. Accordingto this reasoning, Jews are at the forefront to campaign against the ‘Islamic’government of Sudan with the intention to malign Islam and Muslims. Anydiscussion on Darfur therefore will help the Jews in their objective and soMuslims should remain silent on the issue. Such anti-Jewish ideas travel a greatlength in the Muslim world. Even in India, where Muslim organizations andmosques repeatedly condemn America and Israel over the question of Palestine, itis shameful that they haven’t spoken against the killing of innocent Muslimsin Darfur. It is sheer hypocrisy that the Indian Muslim leadership mobilizeslakhs of Muslims against Bush’s visit, but willfully ignores state sponsoredkilling of their own brethren.

It is true that partly, the crisis in Darfur has much to do with meager landresources. The Arab janjaweed are mostly comprised of pastoral tribes whowant to usurp the land of ethnic Darfurians. The conflict escalated when themainly black Darfurians took up arms under the leadership of Sudan LiberationArmy in February 2004. In retaliation the Sudanese government armed the janjaweedwho fought along with the regular Sudanese army to crush the legitimate demandof the Darfurians.

However, it will be too restrictive to understand the crisisas a conflict over economic resources alone. As sections of Muslims are becomingpainfully aware, race is an important element in the whole conflict. TheSudanese government, aided by certain ‘Islamic’ regimes, has embarked on awholesale program of ‘Arabization’, which privileges peoples and cultures ofArab descent over non-Arab tribes. No wonder then that the janjaweed,mainly composed of Arab tribes has the support of the Sudanese government. Andin this unequal contest, it is the non-Arab and black Darfurians who are beingkilled everyday while the government in Khartoum cries ‘Islam in danger’ atany attempt to corner it over the killing, rape and plunder of its ownpopulation.

The Arab governments as well as Muslim religious organizations across theglobe, which cry hoarse on American aggression on Iraq, have not only remainedsilent, rather, by raising the specter of the ‘Jewish hand’ they haveactively sought to subvert the issue. Muslims, particularly black Muslims areasking whether the lives of Palestinian, Iraqi or Bosnian Muslims are moreimportant than the lives of black Darfurians. Islamic government and religiousleaders, who proudly tell the world that there is no racial discrimination inIslam, must then explain their reluctance to even condemn the mass murder inDarfur, let alone finding a solution to the problem.

In fact, even from a purelyhumanitarian angle, their efforts are disgustingly inadequate. Canada alone hasgiven more aid to Darfur than all the Arab countries put together. The ArabLeague has consistently supported the government at Khartoum and even rejectedthe sanctions imposed on Sudan in 2004. Emboldened by such show of Islamicsolidarity, the Sudanese government called the Darfurians ‘thieves and robbers’and unleashed unprecedented repression on them.

While it is within the democratic right of Muslims to protest against theAmerican or Israeli aggression, but this spirit would remain hollow,hypocritical and unjust if it does not encapsulate a similar protest againstthose Muslim regimes which deny basic human security and freedom to its owncitizens. Rather than blaming others all the time, Muslims would do much betterto introspect the rot within. And if Muslims are really serious, then Darfur canbecome the starting point to talk about what is horribly wrong within their ownsocieties.

It would be foolhardy to expect Muslim religious organizations,especially those in developing countries, to raise this issue, as they areheavily dependent on Arab funds. It is the common lay Muslims, who should riseand protest against the ongoing genocide in Darfur. Such a protest will alsoexpose the complicitious silence of the Muslim leadership on the issue.

Arshad Alam is with the Center for Jawaharlal Nehru Studies, Jamia MiliaUniversity