Arab activists slam Islamic silence over Darfur atrocities
June 20, 2008 (KAMPALA) — A coalition of Arab rights activists criticised the Islamic world for its silence on the atrocities and crimes committed in the troubled region of Darfur, Sudan.
In a statement issued on the sideline of the 35th OIC Council of Foreign Ministers Meeting, the Arab Coalition for Darfur blamed the Organisation of the Islamic Conference for focusing their concern on Iraq and Palestine.
“The suffering of Muslims in Darfur is as real as that happening in Iraq and Palestine,” the coalition said.
“The Islamic world’s response to the daily killings and suffering of millions of Muslims in Darfur has been largely silent, from both civil society as well as from institutions and majority of Islamic governments,” it said.
Yesterday the Ugandan President urged the OIC countries to accord some of their efforts and concern to Darfur crisis and southern Sudan peace process. He added that failure to resolve the Darfur issue would undermine the unity of the organisation.
The Arab rights coalition also underlined that negligence of Darfur crisis would not be good for the Islamic world. “The Islamic world must decide to end its wall of silence, before it is too late … More silence could be catastrophic on the Islamic community.”
The coalition is made up of human rights groups in Egypt, Jordan, Bahrain, Algeria, Iraq, Yemen, Syria, Libya, Mauritania, Kuwait, Palestine and Saudi Arabia.
The United Nations says up to 300,000 people have died from the combined effects of war, famine and disease and more than 2.2 million have fled their homes since the Darfur conflict broke out in February 2003.
Created by Arab activists last May in Cairo, the coalition urged the Arab heads of states to “use all their potential, relations and resources to stop the conflict.”
Initiated by the Arab Program for Human Rights Activists, the coalition includes rights activists from Sudan, Jordan, Bahrain, Algeria, Iraq, Yemen, Syria, Libya, Mauritania, Kuwait and Egypt.
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Yaak Barach
Arab activists slam Islamic silence over Darfur atrocities
The so called “arab countries” don’t know anything about human rights. They are so occupied with their religion and hatred against the West and anyone with connection to the west.
Take an example of the Iranian president who condemned the SPLA in the wake of recent clashes in Abyei with the SAF. Any sound leader with no prejuidice ‘ll instead ask for restraint from both sides and peaceful solution to the problem.
The issue of Darfur in every sense is very worse than the palestine cause, and so was the north-south conflict but the arab nations instead throw their weight behind their muslim and arab brothers in Sudan.
I sympathesize with those arab activists, for their call ‘ll fall on no ears but in the fall we Africans and the real owners of this land (SUDAN “LAND OF THE BLACK”) ‘ll prevails.