Hypocrisy in action

In Darfur, the western region of Sudan, and in the border area of the neighboring nation of Chad, Arabs are slaughtering non-Arab African blacks. Religion is not a factor in the genocide, for both peoples are Muslim. The slaughter is primarily racially motivated.

The Sudanese Arabs are not as dark-skinned as the non-Arab African blacks. They consider themselves racially and culturally superior. A minor factor in the fighting is the traditional rivalry between nomads like the Sudanese Arabs and the blacks who live in farming communities.

While the brutality in Sudan and Chad rages, I hear no outcries from the Islamic world condemning the slaughter by one Muslim people of another Muslim ethnic group. Nor do I hear any significant outrage from African-American leaders or from other Africans, both Christian and Muslim, about what's going on in Sudan and Chad.

Instead, much of the world's political outrage continues to focus on Israel's alleged mistreatment of the Palestinian Arabs. Among the latest Israel-bashers is former President Jimmy Carter, who in his new book has the audacity to compare Israel to the former white-ruled apartheid South African government. I have never regarded Mr. Carter as a religious bigot unfriendly to Jews. So I can only describe his comparison as a sign of senile foolishness.

Rarely if ever is the background of the Israel-Palestine conflict placed in proper context by the Israel-bashers. Overlooked in the world debate over the issue, notably in Europe, is the fact that Palestinian leaders and their Arab and other Muslim allies are opposed to Israel's very existence and have for decades fought to destroy it through both military and diplomatic measures.

Meanwhile, as Israel has been forced to become a garrison state, struggling to maintain a secure society in the face of harsh criticism from much of the outside world, the outside world does nothing about the Arab slaughter of black Africans in Sudan's Darfur region and in neighboring Chad.