Opinion-editorials decyphered [Voltaire Network]

Opinion-editorials decyphered

Every day, the International Op-Ed section presents an overview and analysis of the positions of the major international decision makers and manipulators.

“Sudan follows the steps of Iraq”

by Moukhtar al Dobabi

10 March 2006
The call issued by the Secretary General of the United Nations Kofi Annan, to replace African forces with international troops is not a personal initiative. In effect, it is a US-European project and that explains the justifiable rejection it has found in Sudan. The deployment of international troops will lead to the failure of the African Union to solve the Darfur crisis. It is another way to say that the African and Arab solution is not enough and that implies the intervention of the big (...)

“War is not the solution to the crisis in Darfur”

by Aissam Eddine Al Hajj

10 March 2006
Sudan’s Liberation Army movement expresses is views on the role being played by the British government to solve the crisis in our country. The movement thanks the British Minister of Foreign Affairs for his presence at negotiations; the movement is even more thankful for the fact that he is the first European foreign minister to have taken that step. The movement also thanks his statement confirming the strong willingness of the United Kingdom and its commitment to develop peace and (...)

“ Darfur: Stop the killing, or pay the price”

by Jack Straw

10 March 2006
The Darfur crisis has already claimed between 70,000 and 400,000 lives. It can only be solved through a political accord that targets the cause of the conflict and that is supposed to be the objective of those gathered in Abuja, Nigeria. The United Kingdom supports the peace process and it has financed the ongoing meeting with one million pounds, but the advancement of negotiations is quite slow, while negotiating parties do not respect the deadline set for December 31, 2005 as the moment (...)

“ Our friend, an architect of the genocide in Darfur”

by Don Cheadle, John Prendergast

10 March 2006
Eighteen months ago, the United States made the conclusion that genocide was taking place in Darfur. However, George W. Bush, the only president to have said that genocide was occurring there has taken little action in order to stop it. The reason for that lack of action could well be Salah Abdallah Gosh, a name well known by those responsible for anti-terrorist war and the victims of atrocities in Darfur. _Between 1990 and 1996, Gosh was assistant to Bin Laden in Sudan and after 2003, he (...)

“Ending genocide in Darfur”

by David Tuller, John Heffernan

10 March 2006
In September 2004, the Bush administration said that murder, rape and violence in Darfur constituted genocide. Since that moment on, hundreds of thousands of people have been killed, but the responsible ones for such a massacre (the Sudanese government and the militias) continue to wage their campaign against the non-Arab population. That campaign began in 2003. Belligerents present or identify their adversaries as “Arabs” or “Africans”, though the distinction is not based in skin color but on (...)

“U.S. must act now to end genocide in Sudan”

by Joseph R. Biden Jr.

10 March 2006
In Darfur, we are witnessing a methodical kind of genocide which has claimed between 180,000 and 400,000 Sudanese lives and the displacement of 2 million people since the early 2004. That is the result of systematic elimination campaign launched by the Sudanese regime, whose target are the non-Arab and African tribal groups. At present, genocide continues to increase and the situation has worsen in such a manner that the UN and humanitarian agencies can no longer reach certain areas. (...)

Darfur: Simplification and Moralization of the Conflict

by Voltaire Network

Paris (France) | 10 March 2006
The extremely complex situation in Darfur is being ignored by analysts and by the commentaries published in the western mainstream media, particularly in the United States. US media analysts deal with the Darfur issue only as an ethnic conflict, or more precisely as the “genocide” of “Africans” at the hands of the “Arabs”. If it is a fact that the conflict leads to massacres that cruelly affect sedentary populations, it is false to suggest that confrontation is based on such ethnic or “racial” reasons and that such a division is the cause of the conflict.

“The new anti-Semitism, cartoon division”

by Bradley Burston

2 March 2006
If there is something that journalists know what to do is insulting people. The good journalists know how to avoid that, including using racist terms, personal attacks and denigration of individuals. The bad journalists usually do not care about insulting people, thus contravening the professional ethics. The worse journalists, a group in which sometimes experts of this profession are found, hurt people voluntarily. And of these people, no one can offend so many people at once as a (...)

“Don’t be Fooled. This isn’t an Issue of Islam versus Secularism”

by Robert Fisk

2 March 2006
The story about the cartoons has nothing to do with what has been called the issue of Islam versus secularism. The fact is that Muslims live with their religion in their daily lives, culture, but not us. They have preserved their faith beyond countless historical vicissitudes. We, on the contrary, have abandoned our faith. Therefore, this conflict implies the “West against Islam” and not the “Christians against Islam” – because there are not many Christians in Europe. And we cannot come out of (...)

“The freedom that hurts us”

by Sarah Joseph

2 March 2006
The battle has already come up: the religious extremism vs. freedom of speech. Reportedly, this is the bundler caused by the world tensions resulting from the publication of cartoons featuring Mohammed in Denmark and in other parts of Europe.
However, apart from the media, I have been receiving in my mailbox a number of messages about this matter since two weeks ago and the tone is very different. Everybody has a passionate vision about this issue, and not only because it is related to (...)

“Freedom of expression or freedom to offend”

by Abdel Bari Atouan

2 March 2006
We would have preferred demonstrations in the Arab-Muslim world to be limited to a pacific expression and not to be aggressive acts like the attacks against Danish embassies and consulates. It’s true these are regrettable and unjustified acts, but we understand the irritation of the 1.5 billion Muslims after the publication of the caricatures of Prophet Mohammed. These are irresponsible drawings which reflect a racist view that encourages hate against Islam.
To boycott the products of the (...)

“To Muslims of the world”

by Carsten Juste

2 March 2006
Muslim Citizens:
Allow me to say that our newspaper, Jyllands Posten, believes in the freedom of religion and respects all individuals. We apologize for the great misunderstanding caused by the publication of the caricatures which presented Prophet Mohammed and fed feelings and fuelled militaristic feelings with regard to Denmark and provoked the calls to boycott the Danish products. I’d also like to dispel some misunderstandings. On September 30, 2005, our journal published the (...)

“Free speech and civil responsibility”

by Tariq Ramadan

2 March 2006
There are three aspects to be taken into account while analyzing and assessing the caricatures of Prophet Mohammed. The first is that painting any prophet is forbidden in the Muslim religion. The second is that, in the Muslim world, it’s not common to make fun of our religion or others. Thus, these caricatures are considered, even by the “moderate” Muslims, an attack against a sacred person and as a provocation against our religion. The third aspect is that Muslims must understand that making (...)

“A call for respect and calm”

by José Luis R. Zapatero, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan

2 March 2006
With increasing worry, we witness the tensions provoked by the publication of caricatures of Prophet Mohammed in the European journals which have been considered offensive by the Muslisms. We make a call for respect and calm and we ask the voice of reason to be heard. Last year Turkey and Spain began a common work about an “alliance of civilizations” aimed at putting an end to the spiral of hate. The current events confirm the legitimacy of our diagnosis and the urgency to act.
In a (...)

“Short glossary of a caricaturist week”

by Philippe Val

2 March 2006
Prophet Mohammed: religious and military leader born about 570 in Mecca followed by a long period of successful victories that went from Spain to the whole Middle East. A historical figure that belongs to mankind. Therefore, in those countries where freedom of expression has been achieved, he can be represented as people want even when the Sunni can not represent his image.
The right to representation: To represent a thing or a person is a founding element of language. To question the (...)

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