Even though Beshir’s Khartoum government is responsible for mass genocides (not to mention mass rapes) in Darfur, where some 300,000 people have been killed, this story is a reminder that, to many Muslims, “justice” has no “universal” meaning, but rather is about supporting fellow Muslims vis-a-vis non-Muslims, regardless of what the former may have done to the latter. As Ibn Kathir reminds Muslims with the following sahih hadiths: Muhammad said “‘A believer to a believer is like unto a building that makes firm all its parts together.” At this, he [Muhammad] interlocked his fingers. Another trustworthy saying: “˜In the compassion and mercy the believers possess for one another, they are like one body: Should one of its members be struck ill, the rest of the body suffers from fevers and insomnia,’ [The Al Qaeda Reader, p.99].” Then of course there is the whole doctrine of “loyalty and enmity” — the former solely reserved for Islam and Muslims, the latter for all things non-Muslim.
“OIC slams warrant for Sudan’s Beshir,” from AFP, March 28:
JEDDAH, Saudi Arabia – The Organisation of the Islamic Conference has slammed the international arrest warrant against Sudanese President Omar al-Beshir for alleged war crimes in conflict-ravaged Darfur.
In a statement after a meeting of the OIC executive committee at the United Nations on Friday, the Saudi-based grouping condemned the International Criminal Court action of March 4 as “unwarranted, totally unacceptable.”
The ICC move would “not only undermine the ongoing efforts aimed at facilitating the early resolution of the conflict in Darfur and promote long lasting peace and reconciliation in the Sudan, but also lead to destabilisation of the country and the region,” it said.
The United Nations says 300,000 people have died — many from disease and hunger — and 2.7 million been made homeless by the Darfur conflict, which erupted in 2003. Khartoum puts the death toll at 10,000.
On the day the ICC warrant was issued, OIC chief Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu had rejected the move as “void and lacking sound reasoning.”…