A Voice Amid the Silence

The London-based daily Al-Sharq Al-Awsat on June 24 published an article titled "The Death of 300,000 People." It was written by the paper's former editor, Abd Al-Rahman Al-Rashed, and it decried the Arab media's indifference to the violence in Sudan.

"They are not the victims of Israeli or American aggression; therefore, they are not an issue for concern. This is how an approach of indifference towards others outside the circle of conflict with foreigners, and of permitting their murder, is spread as you read and write about the Darfur crisis and consider it an artificial issue, or one unworthy of world protest.

"Is the life of 1,000 people in western Sudan less valuable, or is a single killed Palestinian or Iraqi of greater importance, merely because the enemy is Israeli or American? According to estimates by U.N. delegations inspecting what is happening in the [Darfur] region, 300,000 Sudanese are in danger of liquidation because of the ongoing war there.

Here is the piece, courtesy of MEMRI. It's a rare instance of an Islamic voice decrying the Arab militias that have perpetrated the genocide.