Scream Bloody Murder, reflections on Holocaust and Genocides

Scream Bloody Murder, reflections on Holocaust and Genocides

You feel angry knowing that the world stood by silently when the Jews were put on the train to the gas chambers; you feel anger when the Bosnian Muslims children were given chocolates and told not to worry and go right behind and open gunfire and massacre them; you feel anger when the Canadian general sends faxes upon faxes to the United Nations to send help, while the UN and USA did not want to get involved and 800,000 Rwandans were massacred, they were even announcing on their radio how to torture pregnant women to pull out the babies… It was a difficult documentary to watch, but you must watch and face the world; you have to do your share to clean your own slate of conscience.

Continued: http://www.foundationforpluralism.com/Articles/Scream-bloody-Murder-reflection-on-holocaust-genocides.asp

Muslims Stand with Darfur

Muslims Stand with Darfur
Mike Ghouse, August 18, 2007

Ray Hanania,

Thanks for writing the following piece, indeed, as a Muslim, I have written a similar piece and have continued to write urging Muslims to speak out against injustice and the genocide.

I have made this appeal time and again for Muslims and every human on the earth to take time to understand this crisis; nearly half of a million people have been killed and more than 2 million innocent Citizens have been displaced and it is a shame if we sit in silence, and in another note, I wrote that to regain our lost moral grounds, we have to express that we stand for justice.

This disgusting act of apparent silence of Muslims has a additional shameful turn to it - it is the Muslims killing other Muslims and this is where we need to speak out most. We have to condemn this barbarism, first because as Muslims we have to speak out even if it is against our own family members. Justice is the most important element of world peace. If there is an organization doing something about it, please join them, one such group is www.Savedarfur.org.

We have to speak out and speak up when there is injustice no matter where and to whom. That is the least we can do. I am glad the Jewish organizations have taken this up and we support them.

The Arab reluctance on the issue is wrong, even if they think Jews are taking advantage of this situation, they should have simply joined the voices of Justice on Darfur. May be this would have been an opportunity for Israel to ponder over its’s own apartheidic policies.

When it comes to nearly 75% of Muslims who are not Arabs, they have raised voices against Darfur genocide, they have spoken, but they are not given the voice in the media, that does not mean they have not.

By the way, Savedarfur organization that we support has not listed our organization, despite three follow ups and requests via emails and additional phone calls. I am sure there are plenty of Muslim Organizations who support these efforts out of conviction for Justice, but because either they are Muslim they are not listed to make it appear that there is no Muslim organization and feed the wrong information to the writers around the world. I do not understand if they have other reasons, I have copied the emails to some of my Jewish friends to let them know about this as well.

Mike Ghouse, President
World Muslim Congress
2665 Villa Creek Dr, Suite 206
Dallas, Texas 75234 - USA

www.WorldMuslimCongress.com
www.FoundationforPluralism.com

http://www.mideastyouth.com/2007/08/17/column-on-jerusalem-post-on-darfur/

Column in Jerusalem Post on Darfur
Ray Hanania (Palestine/USA)
August 17th, 2007
This Palestinian stands with Darfur
By Ray Hanania
Jerusalem Post August 15, 2007

One would hope that what is going on in Darfur would bring people together. Instead the tragedy has blurred moralities because it has cast ethnic black Africans as victims of Arab oppression.

Rather than subdue Sudan, the Arab League has stood by doing nothing, except to argue that bringing up the Arab aspect of the conflict is wrong. And why should the Arabs act when the United Nations - where Arab clout is practically non-existent - has done so little?

The UN is characteristically shackled by larger political forces which have stymied plans to create a truly international force over four years of worthless rhetoric.

Although Muslims around the world are quick to champion Muslim rights, even when they are “Muslim wrongs,” there is a cultural hesitancy over Darfur driven by racism; the victims, who are mostly Muslim, are “Abeds” - the Arabic word for “slave,” which, when used in this context, is equivalent to “nigger” in English.

Much of the movement to protect the persecuted black Africans in Darfur from the Sudanese government’s militia allies, including the notoriously brutal Janjaweed, is based in the West, where good causes make for great celebratory music festivals, fabulously huge fundraisers, and news media coverage for headline-addicted Hollywood types.

THE JANJAWEED were unleashed by Sudan’s government to repel a rebellion in Darfur, although the Sudanese claim they have no ties to or control over the Janjaweed. Yet the best that a spokesman for the government of Sudan can do is to blame it all on the Jews. During an interview with a Saudi newspaper, Sudan’s defense minister, Abdel Rahim Mohamed Hussein, accused “24 Jewish organizations” of “fueling the conflict in Darfur.”

Hussein brushed off what the rest of the world decries as genocide as the result of “friction between farmers and herders and shepherds.”

Sudan’s response sits well with many who would love to distract attention from the atrocities by claiming the negative publicity is being generated by a Jewish conspiracy. The logic goes that Jews are only too happy to help because Darfur refugees are not Palestinians but black Africans oppressed by Israel’s sworn enemies, the Arabs.

EVIDENCE CITED by Abdel Rahim Mohamed Hussein and other Sudanese officials is that often heading up the do-gooder campaigns such as Save Darfur are an array of Jewish American organizations. Actually, I counted nearly 50 US Jewish groups in the coalition.

Yet overlooked is the presence of many Arab American and Muslim American organizations, too, including the Arab American Institute, Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC), Muslim American Society (MAS), American Islamic Congress (AIC), American Islamic Forum, and the American Society for Muslim Advancement (ASMA).

Not included, however, is the largest Arab grassroots organization, the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC).

Many of the 78 Arab American newspapers have run stories that reflect Abdel Rahim Mohamed Hussein’s line of thinking.

SAVING DARFUR is not a cornerstone of Arab or Muslim American concerns, and I suspect that even the involvement of many of the Arab groups participating in the coalition is related to politics; knowing full well that if they are not part of the effort, the Jews might turn Darfur into one big bash-the-Arabs (and Palestinians) campaign.

But I ask: Is there anyone who just cares about the lives of innocent people? Can’t we just help people without blaming things on “the Jews,” or “the Arabs,” or “the Muslims?”

Sudan is no different than any other country in the world. The rich get richer, living off the enormous profits of the oil industry, while the poor get poorer, struggling to survive with dwindling food and water.

Why should the Arab-Israeli conflict play a role in the Sudan crisis? It may be true that US Jewish organizations are seizing an opportunity to cast the Arabs in a bad light. But on the other hand, why bother when Arabs are already portrayed so negatively in the Western news media?

Even if Jewish leaders may be enjoying the drubbing the Arab reputation is taking in Darfur, are the Sudanese government and Arabs in general saying the Jews started the fight there?

From a Palestinian standpoint, I know it is exactly troubles like these that harm our cause.

But we are undermining our cause if we insist that the world not pay attention to other crises as bad or far worse than our own.

The first people who should be standing up to tell the Sudanese government to stop oppressing innocent people and to disband the Janjaweed are the Arabs, Muslims, and especially the Palestinians.

The writer is an award-winning Palestinian American columnist, author and stand-up comedian. www.hanania.com

END

Save Darfur

Latest info on Darfur : Jan 10, 2007
Thanks God for this Good News,
May God help build peace

Dear mike,
I want to share some important news from Khartoum. New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson just released a joint statement with Sudanese President Omar Al-Bashir that, if implemented, would bring some immediate security and relief to the people of Darfur as well as provide a clear path forward to long-term peace in the region.

We asked Governor Richardson to travel to Sudan to discuss ways to secure peace in Darfur and to end the genocide. The Governor was accompanied by Save Darfur Senior International Coordinator Ambassador (ret.) Lawrence Rossin, Refugees International Executive Director Kenneth Bacon, and Public and International Law and Policy Group senior attorney Amjad Atallah. Since Sunday, when they arrived in Khartoum, Governor Richardson and the delegation have visited Darfur and participated in a variety of meetings with government officials, rebel leaders, humanitarian officials, AU commanders and UN officials.

The promises from President Bashir in this agreement are encouraging. They include commitments to:
A 60-day ceasefire with an international peace summit to be held before March 15, 2007.
Sudan's cooperation to work with the African Union and United Nations on the deployment of a hybrid peacekeeping force in Darfur.

Ensuring "zero tolerance" policies for gender-based violence in Darfur.
Free access for humanitarian aid workers and journalists.
Click here to read the full joint statement and the press release.
Your concerns for the people of Darfur were voiced directly to President Bashir by Governor Richardson and Ambassador Rossin. We believe that today's agreement offers a promising step forward to end this four-year nightmare for the people of Darfur. By no means, however, has the genocide ended.

We call urgently upon Sudan, the United Nations, the African Union, and the Bush Administration to make these promises become a reality for the long-suffering people of Darfur.
We must demand that the international community take advantage of this dramatic progress. Your help in this effort will be vital in the months ahead.

Thank you for your contribution to these new developments.

Best regards,
David RubensteinSave Darfur Coalition


AA,

I appeal to Muslims and every human on the earth to take time to understand this crisis; 400,000 people have been killed and more than 2 million innocent Citizens have been displaced.

This disgusting act has a additional shameful turn to it - it is the Muslims killing other Muslims. We have to condemn this barabarism. If there is an organization doing some thing about it, please join them, one such group is www.Savedarfur.org.

We have to speak up, speak up load when there is injustice no matter where and to whom. That is the least we can do. Insha Allah, on this link, we will continue to update the issue and you are welcome to post your comments and news here.

May God help us to be just.
Below this you will find information about Darfur.

Mike Ghouse
www.WorldMuslimCongress.com

FROM THE WEBSITE SAVE DARFUR.

Darfur has been embroiled in a deadly conflict for over three years. At least 400,000 people have been killed; more than 2 million innocent civilians have been forced to flee their homes and now live in displaced-persons camps in Sudan or in refugee camps in neighboring Chad; and more than 3.5 million men, women, and children are completely reliant on international aid for survival. Not since the Rwandan genocide of 1994 has the world seen such a calculated campaign of displacement, starvation, rape, and mass slaughter.

Since early 2003, Sudanese armed forces and Sudanese government-backed militia known as “Janjaweed” have been fighting two rebel groups in Darfur, the Sudanese Liberation Army/Movement (SLA/SLM) and the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM). The stated political aim of the rebels has been to compel the government of Sudan to address underdevelopment and the political marginalization of the region. In response, the Sudanese government’s regular armed forces and the Janjaweed – largely composed of fighters of Arab nomadic background – have targeted civilian populations and ethnic group from which the rebels primarily draw their support – the Fur, Masalit and Zaghawa.

The Bush Administration has recognized these atrocities – carried out against civilians primarily by the government of Sudan and its allied Janjaweed militias – as genocide. António Guterres, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, has described the situation in Sudan and Chad as “the largest and most complex humanitarian problem on the globe.” The Sudanese government and the Janjaweed militias are responsible for the burning and destruction of hundreds of rural villages, the killing of tens of thousands of people and rape and assault of thousands of women and girls.With much international pressure, the Darfur Peace Agreement was brokered in May 2006 between the government of Sudan and one faction of Darfur rebels.

However, deadlines have been ignored and the violence has escalated, with in-fighting among the various rebel groups and factions dramatically increasing and adding a new layer of complexity to the conflict. This violence has made it dangerous, if not impossible, for most of the millions of displaced persons to return to their homes. Humanitarian aid agencies face growing obstacles to bringing widespread relief. In August 2006, the UN's top humanitarian official Jan Egeland stated that the situation in Darfur is "going from real bad to catastrophic." Indeed, the violence in Darfur rages on with government-backed militias still attacking civilian populations with impunity.

On July 30, 2004, the UN Security Council adopted resolution 1556 demanding that the government of Sudan disarm the Janjaweed. This same demand is also an important part of the Darfur Peace Agreement signed in May of 2006. On August 31, 2006, the Security Council took the further step of authorizing a strong UN peacekeeping force for Darfur by passing resolution 1706. Despite these actions, the Janjaweed are still active and free to commit the same genocidal crimes against civilians in Darfur with the aid of the Sudanese government.International experts agree that the United Nations Security Council must deploy a peacekeeping force with a mandate to protect civilians immediately. Until it arrives, the under-funded and overwhelmed African Union monitoring mission must be bolstered. And governments and international institutions must provide and ensure access to sufficient humanitarian aid for those in need.

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Lobbying Congress:

You can help pressure Congress to do more to help the people of Darfur by meeting with your congressional representative or members of his or her staff.

Now that the elections are over, we are asking our activists to meet with their Representative and Senators before the new Congress convenes. If your member has a poor record on Darfur, this is the perfect opportunity to educate him or her on the issues. If he or she is already a leader for Darfur, it is important that you thank them for their previous support and urge them to continue their efforts.

To learn how your member of Congress voted on important Darfur legislation please visit DarfurScores.org.While lobbying a member of Congress may sound intimidating, most of our activists find it to be an easy and enjoyable activity.

We have created the materials you need for a successful visit:

•Overview of how to organize a lobby visit
•Training guide for citizen lobbyists
•Meeting outline for your visit
•Sample letter to give to your member of Congress
•Talking points on Darfur and our current policy requests of Congress