Arabs & Africans, how serious a rift?

As our affiliates at Or Does it Explode? recently pointed out, this report by the Associated Press does indeed raise an issue that warrant immediate and serious consideration. For the nature of Afro-Arab relations have always been problematic, as the current tragic developments in Darfur and Somalia can attest. Indeed, and in the last year alone, more people died as a result of internecine warfare in Darfur between Arab African tribes, both Muslim, than in the entire Arab-Israeli Conflict. Still, the attention afforded to this issue in Arab press and public discourse remains far incommensurate with the nature of the unfolding tragedy and official Arab response has been all too reluctant, if not nonexistent.

So, what’s really going on here? Why do Arabs pay more attention to the Arab-Israeli conflict than they do to the more bloody and equally long-standing conflicts in the Sudan and Somalia?

Comments

[Yaman]

In many ways and on many layers, "internal" issues in the Middle East are connected to forces perceived to be as "external," specifically Israel and the United States. The truth is that Israel has not been accepted as a neighbor into the Arab national consciousness (indeed, neither has it been very neighborly to begin with), and that as such societies will project onto it their frustrations simply because it is the convenient "other," the easy scapegoat with which nobody has much room for disagreement. As long as Israel is perceived as an external force, then, it is only natural that it be the victim of those who understand the use its existence plays in covering up domestic problems and rallying the masses. While it may be daring or radical in other parts of the world, specifically the United States, blaming everything on Israel is indeed the cowardly and easy thing to do in the Arab countries that are not directly suffering under the oppression of Israel (namely, Palestine, and recently, Lebanon). It is very clear who today can rightly focus their ire on Israel (namely the Palestinians and Lebanese), and who we must be skeptical about when they try to raise the sword of resistance (Bashar al-Assad and Ahmadenijad).

In short, I don't think there is anything particularly malign about this trend, I just think it is an unfortunate result of the way societies tend to operate. Why, for example, is it so difficult to rally Americans around something as simple and fundamental as universal health insurance, but easy to build a national concensus on which to go to war?

[jbpaz101]

Yaman already has put it well. I would add money into the equation. Israel is the target of choice for generating aid and contributions. However, the real tragedy is in Darfur. They have 200,000 dead and nobody has shown a serious interest in making the situation right.

[jodetoad]

I read some opinions of several mental health professionals who said that because the cultures of the middle east are "shame/honor" cultures, they are culturally incapable of admitting any wrongdoing, not just the leaders, but the population.

If that is true, then blaming Israel is easy, because they are not Arabs, or Muslims, a different culture entirely. However to blame Arab Muslims in the Sudan for the Darfur catastrophe is possibly too much like accusing a "family member" of wrongdoing, which would besmirch the whole family. I gather that to protest Darfur would be an accusation of the leaders of the Sudan, and accusations of wrongdoing in the culture are seen differently than in the west.

I don't have the personal knowledge to say, but it's an interesting idea. Here in the west, we accuse each other with enthusiasm.

[مواطن عربي]

الحكام فى الأمه العربيه و بالتحديد فى سوريا أوسخ من الوسخ. و على هذا لا يختلف مجنونان نيفا عن عاقلان. و لكن فساد و وسخ الحكومات العربيه لم يكن بيوم من الأيام عذر للخاينه.

و لكن للإجابه بشكل بسيط على سؤال النفاق التي يتم طرحه:

مشاكل السودان و الصومال لم و لن تجهض تقدم العالم العربي و الأسلامي. لم و لن تفرض هذه المشكال هيمنتها الوسخه الصليبيه الحاقده على عالمنا. لم تقتل مئات الألاف و تجهض إقتصاد الأمه كل عشر سنوات. هذا طبعا إذا قبلنا بالطرح الغربي لما يحصل بالسودان. و أنا هنا لا أنكر أنا أخطاء حصلت ولكن هي بالتأكيد لا تصل لما يطرحه الغربي الذي لا يسعى إلا للحصول على خيرات دارفور قبل أن تصل إليه الصين.

أخي الكريم الوسخ الداخلي لا يعذر الوسخ الخارجي. و العكس كذلك صحيح. و الأمه لما تصحوا - و هي الآن فى صحوه - ستتعامل بشكل صحيح مع الجانبين. و وقتها لن تطرح أسألت النفاق هذه.

هذا ما حصل مع كل الأمم التى نجحت على عدوها الداخلي و الخارجي. فالأنتصار على الجانبين هو الحل الوحيد و القائم و بعدها يظهر كل منافق على نفاقه:

" فَتَرَى الَّذِينَ فِي قُلُوبِهِم مَّرَضٌ يُسَارِعُونَ فِيهِمْ يَقُولُونَ نَخْشَى أَن تُصِيبَنَا دَآئِرَةٌ فَعَسَى اللّهُ أَن يَأْتِيَ بِالْفَتْحِ أَوْ أَمْرٍ مِّنْ عِندِهِ فَيُصْبِحُواْ عَلَى مَا أَسَرُّواْ فِي أَنْفُسِهِمْ نَادِمِينَ" 5-52

[Yaman]

I disagree with jodetoad's cultural argument in this case--cultural arguments are useful when they are simply observations, but they are obsolete and can be border-line racist if they are used to create a set of mechanical rules that subset X of humanity is culturally bound to follow, thus removing them of their own individual agency.

I had some other thoughts to add: I wonder the degree to which the Sudanese conflict is mentioned in the Arab press. In American press, it's fairly widespread. It's become a fashionable topic on which nearly every American can agree, simply because it is noncontroversial. The Darfur movement has become the most popular brand name in political consumerism--and I'm sure the administration appreciates all the attention that is diverted away from Iraq, Afghanistan, Palestine, Lebanon, Iran, and Syria, and to the altogether marginal location of the Sudan. I am not saying that humanity is more worthwhile in the far-East of the Arab world than in north Africa; rather, I am bringing attention to the fact that the "humanity" that is lost is only noticed in non-politically charged environments. This makes certain elements of the Darfur movement somewhat disingenuous in my eyes.

[dick]

Because 'muslim' is their core identity. Emotionally, it's more comfortable to perceive 'us' as victims than as villains.

The same reason that jails are full of criminals proclaiming their innocence.

So they brush aside anything wrong that 'our group' does, and focus on what's done to 'us'. Muslims can do no wrong, or 'we' become bad.

If they identified as 'humans', or 'world citizens' - they'd have a different response. Or if they gained more facility with the concept 'wrong-minded muslim'.

[Drima @ The Sudanese Thinker]

Nobody cares about the Darfur conflict simply because the nature of the conflict is not as complex as that of the Pali-israel one. Put Jews or Americans into the equation of Darfur and we will most probably ger a completely different reaction.

Muslims kill Muslims who cares. Non-Muslims kills Muslims it's a different story. Plus, I must also say that to some extent nobody cares coz the victims are dark skinned sub-human Africans. I've experiences this from a considerable number of racist Arabs. To them a dark-skinned, Indian, Indonesian etc. Muslim is a lesser Muslim.

[mossholder]

"Why, for example, is it so difficult to rally Americans around something as simple and fundamental as universal health insurance, but easy to build a national concensus on which to go to war?"

Maybe the "health insurance issue" is so hard because there are more MRI scanners in the City of Philadelphia than in the entire nation of Canada? Maybe Americans realize that their "health insurance" isn't the best it could possibly be but is a damn site better than the government programs we are able to investigate?
My husband needed an MRI last month. He had to wait 5 days (five days) for access to the machine. Compare that to the 12-18 months that a Canadian needs to wait for his state insurance to grant him access to the machine.
This whole socialized health debate is a bunch of hooey. During my 20's I didn't have health insurance. I went to the local clinic or hospital emergency room and was seen based on the severity of my illness. Yeah (dear me) I had to wait in the waiting room in a plastic chair for a few hours... Or, I had to pay the clinic based on a sliding scale. My first child was born in a welfare ward. It cost me $350 total. I had the entire resources of the hospital at my disposal, just like the rich people with health insurance.
I am so totally sick and tired of this cannard. If the U.S. medical industry is so screwed up, why do the Canadians flock down here for medical care? My mother used to say (she lived in Maine) that an illegal alien was a Canadian in the U.S. at the doctors office...

[mossholder]

on the main point: I have interacted with a few people in the U.A.E.: Jews bad, Muslims good. When I have brought up the situation in Darfur and pushed them to the wall, they have admitted that there is very little coverage of the situation in their press. They actually wondered what all the hub-ub was about... At least it was an honest answer...

[OGCAL]

Arabs are culturally racist, and that's all it boils down to. They don't really look up to whites or any non-Arabs a whole lot, but they look down on Blacks more so than any other. Islam is egalitarian, but Arabs haven't let that sink in, despite large numbers of Black Arabs and despite their kinship with us. They seem to have a love-hate relationship with us. We're so much alike in some ways, but divided.

But you know what? No one is as racist against Blacks as Pakistanis. They should all be deported out of Africa unless they sign a written document disavowing racism and white supremacy, period.

[Mescalito]

Why must Pakistanis disavow white supremacy? I thought Pakistanis were a result of the mongrelisation of the Aryo/Hindus branch with liberal sprinklings of indigenous rice monkey. Pakistanis could indeed, be welcomed back into the fold with a few generations of purification. It makes me laugh to see "Arab racism". You could purify Semites forever...but you can't polish a turd.

[mark]

The conflict in Darfur is between two black African groups both Muslims, just like Rwanda is between black Christian groups

[mark]

Does anyone else think it's misleading that the media keeps calling this an African-Arab conflict?

[mark]

Does anyone else think it's misleading that the media keeps calling this an African-Arab conflict?

[hafsa]

what so arabs are rasict towards their own people??
im somali so i dont really mind that noone is helping the crisis in somalia but they should assisst sudan a bit more and to think of people dark skinned as 'slaves' or 'inferior sub-humans' is truly disgusting.