Bin Laden neglects to tell Darfur truth
Editorial
The San Antonio Express-News
April 27, 2006

What 400,000 deaths haven't done, Osama bin Laden may have finally accomplished with an audiotape — put the crisis in Darfur at the top of the headlines.

The al-Qaida leader's latest message discusses a global "Crusader-Zionist war" against Islam. Among the fronts in that war is the Darfur region of Sudan.

Bin Laden implores Muslims to go to Darfur to fight against international peacekeepers, whom he says are really there "to occupy the region and steal its oil under the cover of maintaining security," according to media reports.

There are a number of ironies in the terrorist mastermind's statement — there is, for instance, no oil in Darfur, which goes a long way in explaining why the international community has been so complacent about the ethnic cleansing taking place there.

The greatest irony, however, is that the victims of gang rape, mutilation and mass murder in Darfur are Muslim. And a great mystery of this genocide in slow motion concerns the utter silence in the Islamic world about the slaughter of Muslims because they happen to have dark skin.

Fatema Abdul Rasul, a research fellow at Citizens for Global Solutions, addressed this issue in a recent opinion piece published in Lebanon's The Daily Star. "Arab and Muslim leaders have never hesitated to condemn the killing of innocent civilians in Iraq or the Occupied Palestinian Territories. Yet, none of them have spoken out against Khartoum's policies in Darfur, even though the number of Darfurians killed surpasses those in the other two conflicts."

Rasul encourages Arab and Muslim leaders to embrace international efforts to alleviate the conflict and protect civilians in Darfur. Her message is precisely the opposite of that on the new audiotape.

Unfortunately, infamy gives bin Laden's deceitful call for violence far greater exposure than Rasul's constructive call for peace.

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