Anti-Arab Propaganda Under Fire

Anti-Arab Propaganda Under Fire
by Mark Green

The U.S.-lead allegation that the present crisis in the black African nation of Sudan involves “genocide” was uniformly rejected by an all-black panel discussion cablecast Wednesday, Sept. 15, 2004, on C-Span. Characterizing the conflict in Sudan as a “civil war”, Akbar Muhammad, a spokesman for the Nation of Islam, asserted that the “complex...humanitarian conflict” is “not about race”. All the panelists agreed on this central point.

“It is not genocide, nor is it ethnic cleansing”, said black activist Imam Khalid Abdul-Fattah Griggs. The “humanitarian crisis” is real, but he says the war is about “unequal distribution of resources”.

Most, if not all of the participants, had recently toured Sudan. Akbar Muhammad, has spent years on the African continent. He called the genocide charges a “hoax”, claiming additionally that there was “media complicity” in this widely circulated allegation.

The conflict is the continuation of a “centuries-old war between (indigenous) farmers and herders”, said Muhammad—not a race war being waged by Arab Muslims against black Africans. The central government of Sudan is headquarted in Khartoum. The leadership there is black and, he noted pointedly, Muslim.

Muhammad claims many of the “same actors” who circulated the ephemeral stories about “black slavery” in Sudan in the 90’s are behind today’s propaganda. Why the disinformation? He believes they want to overthrow the Muslim regime now ruling Sudan.

Muhammad identifies the Sudanese rebels (and their “propagandists”) as having “strong links to Israel”.

Muhammad told the story of how a prominent Jewish activist recently urged a famous (unnamed) black entertainer to speak out against the “Arab genocide against black Africans”. But the black entertainer was perplexed, as his knowledge of the Sudan consisted only of what he’d heard on TV. After being briefed on the complex (and non-racial) dimensions of the conflict, the celebrity rejected the invitation to singularly blame Arabs.

Another panelist, complaining about the media’s sudden interest in Sudan’s plight asked: “Why has the genocide that has gone on for a half century in the land known as Palestine been allowed to pass”?”

Muhammad affirmed that the so-called “Arab militias” fighting the rebels in Sudan differ from one-another not by race but by language. He complained that the way the “civil war” is being covered in American media falsely heaps blame on one side only. He reminded the audience that both sides “are not without blame”, adding that U.S. figures of (rebel) causalities are highly “exaggerated”, implicitly for political purposes.

Johari Abdul Malik, President, Community Coalition of Muslim Organizations, claimed that Sec. of State Colin Powell said there was “no genocide” during his visit to Sudan, but “flip-flopped” when he returned to Washington and gave a speech to Congress claiming there was.

Mauri Saalakhan, Executive Director of the Peace and Justice Foundation asserted that there is “no epidemic of rapes as reported (in Sudan) nor genocide.” He too chaffed at the ‘Arab vs. black’ characterization of the war as circulated in American media. “The Western world is trying to divide the black and Arab world”, he said.

Adding to the unusual ideological flavor of the event, one of the speakers held up and praised Pat Buchanan’s latest book “Where the Right Went Wrong”.

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For additional information, the program invited viewers to visit:
http://www.darfurinformation.com

Mark Green is a writer and TV talk show host living in Santa Barbara. He can be reached through MarWenmedia.com.