Some Humans' Rights Are More Important Than Others

A coalition representing the human rights groups of Egypt, Jordan, Bahrain, Algeria, Iraq, Yemen, Syria, Libya, Mauritania, Kuwait, Palestine and Saudi Arabia are upset. In fact, doggone it, they are really, really upset.

This time it's not about the plight of the besieged inhabitants of the Gaza Strip. No siree. Not this time. Nor are they perturbed about the poor Iraqis groaning under the heel of the American occupation. Nope. Not this time.

The coalition demanded that the Organisation of the Islamic Conference meeting in Kampala, Uganda DO SOMETHING about the "killings and sufferings of millions of Muslims in Darfur." The combined human rights groups stated, according to AFP, "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." http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5hRaXY64EALx_dgu0xU9_4KIfpiqw

The Geek acknowledges that life in the Darfur region of Sudan is unpleasant and dangerous to the max. He does not take exception with the dire warnings of an impending food crisis for the region brought about by the combination of violence and the rise of global food prices. Several sites give this coverage. http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/RWB.NSF/db900SID/RMOI-7FUKY2?OpenDocument. Or for a less agenda driven view but one which has an African slant, http://africa.reuters.com/wire/news/usnMCD255717.html. Or, a little less subjective there is, http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/06/22/africa/AF-GEN-Sudan-Darfur.php

Get a grip on this. The human rights coalition is disturbed so mightily because, as in the case of the Gaza Strip and (in their view) Iraq, the "killing and suffering" of Muslims is at the hands of non-Muslims. In Darfur, as the Muslim human rights wallahs make clear, the villain is the Black government of Sudan. A non-Islamic bunch to be sure.

The "killing and suffering" of Muslims as the result of presumed or actual non-Muslim actions is apparently completely reprehensible to these exemplars of human rights concerns.

They are unbothered by the killing and suffering of Muslims as a result of Muslim actions.

Witness the coalitions complete silence on matters in neighboring Somalia. Somalia is Islamic, specifically Sunni Muslim. It is (or at least has been) a member of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference. Somalia is in the middle of a war even longer and bloodier than the one going on in Darfur. Starvation is just as rampant--if not more so.

Uganda (remember that is where the OIC is currently meeting and where the human rights coalition made their plea regarding Darfur) has furnished a couple of thousand troops for the failed African Union peacekeeping force. Ugandan troops were found a month ago to have furnished guns and other weapons to their coreligionists, members of the Islamist hardline entity, the Council of Islamic Courts, which is the heart and soul of the internal war.

The CIC partisans and others of an equally hardline stripe, no less than the non-Muslim Ethiopian "peacekeepers" supporting the Transitional National Authority, have been up to their beards in atrocities and unjustifiable killings. While Islamic governments have been front and center at denouncing the Ethiopians, silence has reigned regarding the similar conduct of Muslim Ugandans. The worthies of the Islamic states have also been silent regarding the documentable charges of Ugandan arms sales to the OIC and affiliated crews.

The UN Security Council has answered the request of the African Union to take over the peacekeeping functions in Somalia with a reluctant, "Yes." Considering the history of the last UN attempt at peacekeeping and humanitarian relief back in the early Nineties, the reluctance is quite understandable.

The UN peacekeepers, who just celebrated their Sixtieth Anniversary among a welter of charges regarding sexual abuse by blue beret wearing personnel in numerous countries, are already overstretched, poorly coordinated, badly supported and officered by what seem all too often to be the most rank of amateurs. Contingents from some 120 member states are to be found within the many operations currently being conducted by the UN.

It will be awhile, maybe a long while, before an effective (or, more likely, an ineffective) UN presence will appear on the ground in Somalia. Be that as it may, the Islamists are wasting no time.

The AP reports (http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gKOtmEruZ32U-yU3e-6meqQNf7LwD91FAPN80) that a video purportedly from al-Qaeda has been posted on the web. It calls for Muslims, particularly those in Somalia, to resist any UN peacekeeping force. Presumably such resistance will be no more considerate of civilian non-combatants caught in the midst of battle or ambush then has been the case to date.

Where are the Muslim human rights advocates on this one? Where is the OIC?

They are too busy condemning Danish cartoons, Dutch videos, Israeli defensive actions, or the presence of Western forces in Iraq and Afghanistan to be bothered by Muslim-on-Muslim "killing and suffering." Not even the usual rhetorical denunciations of violence were invoked this time.

As far as the coalition of "human rights" advocates is concerned, the only humans whose rights matter are Muslims.

And, then, only if those rights are threatened by non-Muslims.

Hypocrisy, anyone?