Where is the Muslim Outrage over Darfur?

In a part of the world not far from the Middle East, there is a war-ravaged country whose government is supporting a brutal military offensive against a population of Muslims living on territory under its control.

According to UN estimates, 300,000 people have died in the conflict so far; the Coalition for International Justice put this number at almost 400,000 - and that was in 2005.

The United States has officially termed it a "genocide".

In July 2008, prosecutors at the International Criminal Court (ICC) indicted Omar al-Bashir, the president of Sudan - who has funded and supported the Janjaweed militia that has carried out the murder and systematic rape of non-Arab African Muslims in Darfur - charging him with war crimes, genocide, murder, and crimes against humanity.

For five years, the Arab League was functionally silent.

But last year, they finally spoke out - against the head of the ICC's prosecutorial team against al-Bashir, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, slamming him for having an "unbalanced stance".

The Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC), made up of 57 Islamic countries, issued a statement declaring its solidarity with al-Bashir, calling the indictment "unwarranted and unacceptable".

Less than a year later, at the Arab Summit held in Kuwait City January 19, President Bashar al-Assad of Syria called on other Arab countries to brand Israel a "terrorist state". Millions of Muslims worldwide voiced their outrage against Israel's military offensive in Gaza. Massive protests were organized in most major cities across the world. Real-time casualty counts were posted on Facebook statuses. I was asked to sign more petitions in support of Gaza in three weeks than I have for Darfur in five years.

Where are the large-scale protests and outrage from the Muslim community over the senseless deaths and rape of hundreds of thousands of poverty-ridden African Muslims?

Why is there such a glaring discrepancy between the Muslim world's response to the atrocities in Gaza and the atrocities in Darfur?

If the Darfur genocide was being carried out by Jews or Christians instead of Arab Muslims, would we see a different response?

My Oscar Predictions for 2009... Throw in Yours!

My picks say 'will win' next to them. I'm taking bets, so go ahead and write down what you think in the comments section! Here goes:


Best picture
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button - *will win*
Frost/Nixon
Milk
The Reader
Slumdog Millionaire


Best director
Danny Boyle - Slumdog Millionaire
Stephen Daldry - The Reader
David Fincher - The Curious Case of Benjamin Button - *will win*
Ron Howard - Frost/Nixon
Gus Van Sant - Milk

(Boyle's a very close second for Slumdog...)


Best actor
Richard Jenkins - The Visitor
Frank Langella - Frost/Nixon
Sean Penn - Milk - *will win*
Brad Pitt - The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Mickey Rourke - The Wrestler

(though that one's a tough one this year - Langella could take it just as easily...)


Best actress
Anne Hathaway - Rachel Getting Married
Angelina Jolie - Changeling
Melissa Leo - Frozen River
Meryl Streep - Doubt
Kate Winslet - The Reader - *will win*


Best supporting actress
Amy Adams - Doubt
Penelope Cruz - Vicky Cristina Barcelona
Viola Davis - Doubt - *will win*
Taraji P Henson - The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Marisa Tomei - The Wrestler

(again, Penelope Cruz was brilliant and this will also be close...)


Best supporting actor
Josh Brolin - Milk
Robert Downey Jr - Tropic Thunder
Philip Seymour Hoffman - Doubt
Heath Ledger - The Dark Knight - *will win*
Michael Shannon - Revolutionary Road

(Heath Ledger will get it, but it really should go to Robert Downey Jr...)


Best foreign language film
Revanche - Austria
The Class - France
The Baader Meinhof Complex - Germany
Departures - Japan
Waltz With Bashir - Israel - *will win*


Best animated feature film
Bolt
Kung Fu Panda
Wall-E - *will win* (duh!)


Best adapted screenplay
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Doubt
Frost/Nixon
The Reader
Slumdog Millionaire - *will win*


Best original screenplay
Happy-Go-Lucky
Milk
Wall-E
In Bruges
Frozen River - *will win*

(I have no idea about this category, but 'Frozen River' is the 'odd one out' screenplay among the rest of the nominees - if it got nominated, it could most likely win)


Best original score
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Defiance
Milk
Slumdog Millionaire - *will win*
Wall-E


Best original song
Down To Earth - Wall-E
Jai Ho - Slumdog Millionaire - *will win*
O Saya - Slumdog Millionaire


Art direction
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Changeling
The Dark Knight - *will win*
The Duchess
Revolutionary Road


Cinematography
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Changeling
The Dark Knight - *will win*
Slumdog Millionaire
The Reader


Costume design
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Australia
Milk
The Duchess - *will win*
Revolutionary Road


Best documentary feature
The Betrayal
Encounters at the End of the World
The Garden
Man on Wire - *will win* (tightrope walkers ROCK)
Trouble The Water


Best documentary short subject
The Conscience of Nhem En
The Final Inch
Smile Pinki
The Witness - From the Balcony of Room 306

(no idea)


Film editing
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Dark Knight - *will win*
Frost/Nixon
Milk
Slumdog Millionaire


Make-up
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Dark Knight - *will win*
Hellboy II: The Golden Army

(though Benjamin Button could take it...)


Best live action short film
Auf der Strecke (On The Line)
Manon on the Asphalt
New Boy
The Pig
Spielzeugland (Toyland)

(again, no idea)


Best animated short film
La Maison en Petits Cubes
Lavatory - Lovestory
Oktapodi
Presto
This Way Up

(and yet again, no clue)


Sound editing
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Iron Man
Wanted
Slumdog Millionaire
Wall-E - *will win*


Sound mixing
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Dark Knight
Wanted
Slumdog Millionaire
Wall-E - *will win*


Visual effects
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button - *will win*
The Dark Knight
Iron Man

(that's a hard one)


Any predictions / bets? Put 'em down in the comments section!

The Middle East Conflict is Still a Religion-Fueled One

Forty four percent of America is a large voting bloc.

That is the percentage of Americans - 44% - who, according to a 2003 Pew Research poll, said they believed that the land of Israel was given to the Jews by God.

According to the same poll, 36% believed that the creation of the state of Israel is a step toward the Second Coming of Jesus Christ.

One in three that supported Israel cited their religious beliefs as their primary reason for doing so.

These numbers can be difficult to dismiss - specially if you're trying to get elected, whether as a Democrat or a Republican.

Despite the current contention that the Arab-Israeli conflict is rooted in politics and economics - it is naive and dangerous to overlook its religious roots.

A video of Rabbi Yisroel Dovid Weiss is making the rounds on YouTube where he accuses Zionists of hijacking Judaism and politicizing it, while he stands in front of a sign that says "Torah Forbids a Jewish State."

Unfortunately, apart from losing credibility even among non-Zionist Jews by attending and speaking at Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad's Holocaust denial conference in Tehran in 2006 (Weiss' parents were Holocaust survivors), and being skewered by Bill Maher in his comedy Religulous last year, Weiss' statements and the sign he stands in front of are very, very wrong.

Zionism, often thought to be a politicization of Judaism, takes root in the Torah which Jews believe is the word of God revealed to Moses, and is also accepted by Christians as part of the Bible, where it forms the first five books of the Old Testament.

There are numerous passages in the book that are explicitly consistent with the Zionist goal of a Jewish state in the Middle East. Genesis 15:18 states:

"In the same day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates."

Exodus 23:31 gives us an idea of geography of the Promised Land:

"I will establish your borders from the Red Sea to the Sea of the Philistines, and from the desert to the River. I will hand over to you the people who live in the land and you will drive them out before you."

Deuteronomy 1:8 reiterates the promise:

"See, I have placed the land before you; go in and possess the land which the LORD swore to give to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to them and their descendants after them."

Several other passages descibe the borders of this land in great detail.

Christians - who make up most of those that the Pew poll surveyed - rely on the presence of the Jews in the Promised Land for the Second Coming of Christ and subsequent salvation to happen.

In 2006, Pat Robertson - the American evangelist whose considerable influence among American Christians is evidenced partially by his defeating George H. W. Bush in the 1988 Republican presidential caucuses in Iowa - declared that then-Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's stroke was divine punishment for "dividing God's land."

He was widely denounced for his statement, but again - Scripture backs him up.

Although they'll play the role of mere pawns when it happens, the return of the Jews to Israel is promised by God in the Bible as a prelude to the Second Coming of Christ. Again, of many passages, here are two:

Ezekiel 20:34:

"I will bring you from the nations and gather you from the countries where you have been scattered - with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm and with outpoured wrath."

Isaiah 11:11-12:

"In that day the Lord will reach out his hand a second time to reclaim the remnant that is left of his people from Assyria, from Lower Egypt, from Upper Egypt, from Cush, from Elam, from Babylonia, from Hamath and from the islands of the sea. He will raise a banner for the nations and gather the exiles of Israel; he will assemble the scattered people of Judah from the four quarters of the earth."

Even Scripture-adhering Christians, who believe as per Biblical teaching that Jews who do not accept Jesus Christ as their savior will end up in hell, tend to be pro-Israel largely because they still need for the Jews to be in the Promised Land for Christ to return.

Remember - forty four percent.

Islam is the third and latest of the Abrahamic religions. Although the Muslims in the conflict are probably the most unabashed and vocal in associating their struggle with their religion, the Quran - which they believe to be the indisputable, undeniable word of God as revealed to Muhammad - isn't as unequivocal about granting any specific chunk of real estate to them.

However, the Palestinians elected Hamas in what is considered to be a free, fair democratic election, a party whose Covenant clearly defines the group's program as an "Islamic movement" in Article One, and quotes profusely from the Quran and the hadith (the traditions of the prophet Muhammad) throughout its text, which begins with verses 3:110-111:

"Ye are the best nation that hath been raised up unto mankind: ye command that which is just, and ye forbid that which is unjust, and ye believe in Allah. And if they who have received the scriptures had believed, it had surely been the better for them: there are believers among them, but the greater part of them are transgressors. They shall not hurt you, unless with a slight hurt; and if they fight against you, they shall turn their backs to you, and they shall not be helped..."

Article 13 of the Covenant references another unflattering verse, 2:120:

"But the Jews will not be pleased with thee, neither the Christians, until thou follow their religion; say, The direction of Allah is the true direction. And verily if thou follow their desires, after the knowledge which hath been given thee, thou shalt find no patron or protector against Allah."

It is true that the Middle East conflict has devolved into a conglomeration of political, geographic, economic, and human rights issues in the thousands of years since these texts were written.

The dynamics, however, remain tribalistic.

The Arab-Israeli schism isn't one between the rich and the poor - Israel's economic might is balanced well by oil-rich Arab states. In the same way, there are both men and women, people of varying ethnicities, different levels of education, and of different political leanings - conservative, liberal, or otherwise - on both sides.

The dividing factor, by and large, is that of religious heritage and religious belief. Worldwide, those born in Muslim families overwhelmingly and almost unconditionally side with the Palestinian struggle; and Jews and Christians, whose scriptural teachings are more in line with the Israeli cause, support Israel.

The phenomenon is that of tribalistic loyalty, which is indoctrinated according to identity at birth: if you know deep down that you may have supported the other side if you were born into a different family, you've been indoctrinated, and it's most likely this partially blind loyalty, not rationality or conscience, that dictates what rally you attend, what your sign says, which consulate you're protesting in front of, and yes - whether you're praying to Yahweh for Israel or Allah for Palestine.

European Christians learned their lessons the hard way, over centuries, before they embraced secularism and the separation of religion and state as the only workable way to a peaceful coexistence with others. Secularism is not about taking religion out of society, but about dissociating it from government, politics, and legislation.

Israel claims to have done this, but this is a difficult claim to substantiate. If a non-Jewish majority in Israel as the consequence of a one-state solution is unacceptable because it would interfere with Israel's character as a "Jewish" state, Israel is not truly a secular state. If all Jews are automatically eligible for Israeli citizenship (including converts to Judaism who may be of any ethnicity or race) over those of other religions or no religion, Israel is blatantly engaging in religious discrimination, against secular principles, in the way that Jordan and Saudi Arabia do.

Arabs and Muslims on the other hand could take a lesson from studying the Jewish and Japanese communities after both underwent horrible atrocities during World War II. If, after sixty years of struggle and occupation, you're still throwing shoes instead of having the patience and long-term vision to educate your next generation, build your economy, and embrace modernity - you're missing the big picture.

A distinct separation of religion and state is the starting point for any kind of resolution, as has been seen often throughout recent history. In the Middle East, this would mean an unequivocal abandonment - at the state level - of archaic scriptural concepts like a Promised Land from Yahweh, or armed jihad in the way of Allah. These texts and their spokespersons should have no more influence over state policy and legislation than a Harry Potter book or an astrologer.

Pointing fingers, protesting, and praying can be very satisfying, but the new generation that's going to inherit these issues will need to do a much more courageous thing: consciously make an effort to break out of the shackles of a rigidly conditioned, tribalistic, indoctrination-borne loyalty in order to embrace rationality, reason, and an all-encompassing humanistic approach to this conflict, which for now seems to have almost limitless staying power.

Decades have passed. Thousands are dead.

The other approach - obviously - has not worked.