Maybe President Obama has not really heard that there is another war brewing in Sudan. But TIME Magazine has already published an article by Alex Perry asking, “Is Sudan Moving Back to the Brink of War?” And, judging by the desperation of the aid groups and of many serious political analysts, the answer is most certainly “yes.”
Yes, I know that Archbishop Tutu, Jimmy Carter, Moammar Gadhafi, and the royals of Qatar have tried to intervene. The bitter fact, however, is that, since they are without armies, they are also without influence. Well, that’s not quite true: The ruling colonel in Libya once sent his forces into Sudan and quickly repatriated them in dishonorable and slovenly retreat.
The north-south war that is likely to intensify saw a “major upsurge in violence” in 2009, with 2,500 people killed and 350,000 made refugees. This would be the extension of two Sudanese civil wars (from 1955 to 1972 and from 1983 to 2005), which cut short the lives of “more than 2 million” people. There are tangible factors involved in the fighting. Or, as Perry puts it, “water, fertile land and, latterly, oil.” Still, there would be no such bloody rivalries were the aggressors not Muslims and the victims not generally Christians. This is hardly ever said clearly. But it is true. In the war in Darfur, both sides happen to be Muslim. The ones who attacked and murdered, pillaged and won were Arabs, supported by the whole Arab world; the losers were black Africans, supported by no one.
This fresh news about another Muslim assault on the south is very unpleasant news in Washington, which has a burdensome Islamic agenda with which to deal already. Of course, the administration has not confessed this to its public, as if that public doesn’t suspect it already. An article in the Financial Times on Friday by Lazaro Sumbeiwyo and former Senator John Danforth makes the forlorn plea: “The world must not let Sudan return to war.” And what if it does?
Now, Sudan is not the only Muslim war.
Just from the last few days: There have been two ongoing Muslim assaults on Christian communities. One, a continuing Egyptian saga, happened with Muslims killing seven and wounding nine after they left church. Then 1,000 Christians rioted in the village where the shootings occurred. Then more rioting and another six dead. Seth Mydans reports in the New York Times from Malaysia that seven churches and one convent school were firebombed. Hindus also reported troubles. “[T]he country has had a rise in political Islam.”
Again from the New York Times: a suicide bomber kills 6 police officers in the Russian region of Dagestan. A member of the NGO “Mothers of Dagestan” tells the Times’ Andrew Kramer that “Dagestan is in a civil war.”
In southeastern Afghanistan, ten people were killed and 27 wounded by a suicide bomber. The victims were mostly civilians.
Elisabeth Bumiller reports, also in the Times, that “Many Ex-Detainees Return to Terror, Pentagon Says.” Recognizing this predictable fact, the president announced that he was no longer sending Guantanamo detainees to Yemen.
All of these reports detail a war against civilization itself. And remember this particular blog post is built around news reports from only a few publications over a few days.
Here is my last notation of the night: Nazila Fathi reports in the Times that “Iran Accuses Five of Warring Against God, a Capital Crime.” They will be tried before the Revolutionary Court. This is Robespierre, Hitler, Stalin, Khmer Rouge, Saddam Hussein. There will be no one found innocent.