I wrote 10 days about the reluctance of Arab countries to speak against the Sudanese government over the crises in Darfur or pressure them to allow a UN peacekeeping force. I found this opinion column on Beliefnet. com, a website on spirituality and religion.

I’m not sure when this column was written, it’s by Hesham Hassaballa, a physcian from Chicago who contributes regularly to the website on issues of Islam. The essay, Shameful Hypocrisy, looks at the history of the different ethnic groups in Western Sudan and also references what the Qu’ran says about Muslims fighting each other. On the site, there is a sidebar with readers’ comments. I’m posting the whole thing. Check out Hassballa’s blog God, Faith and a Pen for more postings on Islam in the face of terrorism.

By Hesham Hassaballa 
 
When the photographs of the abuse of Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib first emerged, the Muslim world rose up in condemnation. The Organization of the Islamic Conference, for instance, “expressed its strong condemnation of the brutal acts of torture perpetrated against Iraqi prisoners…in flagrant violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention.”

Yet as the chorus of condemnation loudly rang across the Muslim world, worse crimes were being committed within the Muslim world–crimes that also were in “flagrant violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention.” As angry fingers were wagged at the West, they passed over vicious genocide being committed in the Darfur region of Western Sudan.

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