The Darfur
Crisis
By Zaid Adhami
Stanford University
In February 2003, under the shadow
of the US war against Iraq, one of the world’s
worst humanitarian crises began, without the blink
of an eye from the rest of the world. In a demand
for more political representation in the Sudanese
government of Khartoum, rebel groups in Darfur,
a remote region in Western Sudan, attacked a Sudanese
military installment, invoking the wrath of Khartoum
and igniting the start of a bloody carnage on
a scale of violence and suffering that is simply
unfathomable. The Khartoum government, known as
the National Islamic Front (NIF), responded to
the Darfuri insurgency with a strategy of collective
punishment, rooting out rebels by attacking whole
civilian populations in villages where rebels
might be supported or reside.
The Sudanese government not only responded with
their own military power, but employed militias
of nomadic tribes in Sudan, the janjaweed,
exploiting the historic tensions between traditional
tribal and ethnic enemies to cripple the rebel
movement. The janjaweed, clearly supported
and assisted by the NIF, have been the primary
culprits in the terrifying conflict, as they indiscriminately
murder, rape, loot, and burn Darfuri villages.
After four years of relentless bloodshed, the
death toll in Darfur is estimated to be well over
200,000, according to the UN and human rights
organizations such as Human Rights Watch. Many
organizations put the death toll at anywhere from
400,000 to 500,000 people, over 40 times that
of Bosnia and Kosovo in the 90’s. There
are over two million internally displaced refugees
inside Darfur, as well as over 200,000 who have
fled to neighboring Chad. Over four million are
now critically dependent on food aid from humanitarian
agencies, agencies that are being forced to evacuate
the region as they too have been attacked by the
janjaweed, the Sudanese military, and
even rebel groups, leaving countless victims behind,
hungry and unprotected.
Deafening Silence
The devastation and magnitude of
destruction of this human rights tragedy begs
the question: where are the Muslim voices speaking
out for Darfur?
As much as many of us would like to believe, this
nightmare is not a conspiracy, nor is it a colossal
hoax by Western powers out to demonize Muslims
and Arabs and push forward their imperialistic
policies. There certainly are forces misusing
the crisis in Darfur to push their own agendas
and further their own crooked interests, yet the
politicization and exploitation of this tragedy
in no way gives us an excuse to remain silent.
The extent of this human rights catastrophe is
well documented. The figures mentioned and the
facts presented all come from reports by reputable
and well-respected human rights groups, such as
Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and
others, all groups that we ourselves cite when
protesting atrocities in Palestine, Iraq, and
Afghanistan. There is no denying the immensity
of the suffering in Darfur, and to ignore it because
of political considerations is a frightening moral
failure that reeks of a callous disregard for
human life.
The human rights tragedy in Darfur cannot be denied,
nor can it be ignored, yet it has been. To date,
the American Muslim community has resoundingly
failed to respond to the crisis in any meaningful
way and has remained deafeningly silent. The crisis
in Darfur never enters the Muslim community’s
dialogue, and if it does, it is to complain of
Western manipulation and exaggeration of the conflict,
but never of human suffering.
How can this be? How can it be that we have ignored
this tragedy so thoroughly? How can it be that
a cartoon or a mere comment by the Pope could
evoke worldwide condemnation for months, making
us so indignant and filled with rage that we protest
and burn embassies and churches to the ground,
while we watch in silence as hundreds of thousands
of human beings are mercilessly slaughtered? Why
is it that the Muslim community can only respond
to injustices perpetrated against our Palestinian,
Iraqi, and Afghani brothers and sisters, while
blatantly ignoring the oppression and suffering
of people throughout the rest of the world? In
the case of Darfur, can it be that we refuse to
recognize that Muslims are culpable, and that
this time, it is Muslims themselves who are to
blame for such terrible suffering?
Perhaps an answer to these questions is that we
have forgotten the teachings of the Qur’an
exhorting us to “stand out firmly for justice”
even if it be “against yourselves, or your
parents, or your kin” (4:13). Perhaps we
have forgotten the teachings of our beloved Prophet
(pbuh), commanding us to change evil with our
hands, and if we cannot, then with our tongues,
and if we cannot then we should hate it in our
hearts, “and that is the weakest of faith.”
Although at the very least we can easily speak
out against this evil, it seems as if we have
failed even to fulfill the last requirement, “the
weakest of faith,” as our hearts and tongues
remain silent in the face of unimaginable suffering.
The tragedy in Darfur has gone on four years too
long, with no end in sight, and we are yet to
raise our voices, yet to open our eyes to the
catastrophe at hand. The Muslim community must
wake up. We must educate ourselves and bring an
end to the apathy that dominates our consciousness.
We must begin to speak out against the injustices
being perpetrated against innocents. We must begin
to take action and advocate for an end to this
crisis that has plagued these lives for four years.
And above all, we must give the voiceless victims
a voice.
(For those interested in standing up for the victims
of Darfur and taking action to help stop the suffering,
email the Stanford Muslim Action for Darfur Committee
Muslims4Darfur@gmail.com or zadhami@stanford.edu
to receive more information on the conflict and
what practical steps we can take to raise our
voice effectively and take action today.)
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