Sadly, in the Arab world only acts committed by non-Arabs against Arabs seem to be worthy of condemnation: if an Arab is responsible for crimes against his brethren then there is always room to debate the merits of the argument. Saddam killed Iraqis and Kuwaitis. “Yes, but so did the Americans, why don’t you condemn the Americans?” Hizbollah and Hamas were partly responsible for hundreds of innocent deaths in 2006 and 2008 respectively. “Why don’t you condemn Israel?” Typically, talking about a crime by an Arab leader in the Middle East, one will almost always end up talking about other concerned parties. It seems to be a special built-in ability to auto-dodge accountability. No one ever admits responsibility in the Arab states and no one is ever held accountable (unless he is toppled, that is)...
The reason the so-called Arab street was not outraged about the killing in Darfur was because it is Arabs who are carrying out the crimes, although they forgot that the victims are Arabs and Muslims. Just imagine for one minute our reaction if the Janjaweed death brigades were American. This may explain the numerous Arab pleas for a delay in the indictment; a postponement that is really yet another thinly veiled procrastination attempt.
http://www.thenational.ae/article/20090313/OPINION/909187169/1033/EDITORIALS
See also:
Comparison is not apt for war crimes
http://www.thenational.ae/article/20090315/OPINION/936936555/1099
