as-salaamu alaykum ya muslimeen wa muslimaat,

May Allah (swt) deliver peace to Darfur and the rest of Darul-Islam. aameen. insha'allah, the Darfur peace agreement that was signed today will be fulfilled and end the conflict.

Rasolullah (sas) has said, "Every deed is measured by the intention behind it." So, you cannot evaluate a deed simply by the deed alone. It is like a man who gives charity so that he may be viewed as charitable by others, sure the charity may benefit others, but he may be sinning against himself!

So, I ask, what is the intention behind the organizers of this rally?

alhamdulillah, i did not attend the rally and i'm glad that most muslims decided to stay away from this disingenous rally for the "welfare" of the Darfurian Muslims. if the organizers (who are mostly Jewish) cared so much, then why did the original list of speakers not include a single muslim or a single native darfurian??? yet, evangelical christians were on the list.

indeed, the organizers rushed the week before to add muslim and native darfurian activitists only after it was brought to their attention. can you imagine a tibetan rally without a single native tibetan speaker or a buddhist speaker??? you would find the organizers certainly to be incompetent, so why heap praise on these people and support them?

as you can read in an article by anti-war Jewish activisit Yoshie Furuhashi at mrzine.monthlyreview.org. he writes, "Organizers rushed this week to invite two Darfurians to address the rally after sudanese immigrants objected that the original list of speakers included eight Western Christians, seven Jews, four politicians and assorted celebrities--but no Muslims and no one from Darfur." So, apparently they cared so much about the darfurians that they didn't even want to hear them speak!

he continues, "Last week, after an inquiry from The Washington Post, Sudan Sunrise changed its Web site to eliminate references to efforts to convert the people of Darfur. Previously, it said it was engaged in "one on one, lifestyle evangelism to Darfurian Muslims living in REFUGEE CAMPS in eastern Chad" and appealed for money to "bring the kingdom of God to an area of Sudan where the light of Jesus rarely shines."

Further why weren't the NAACP or the group Africa Action there either? and gal beckerman writes in the Jerusalem Post, "The fact that the aggressors in Darfur are Arab Muslims - though it should be said that the victims are also mostly Muslim - and are supported by a regime in Khartoum that is backed by the Arab League has made some people question the true motives of some of the Jewish organizations involved in the rally." www.jpost.com pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FPrinte r

when these organizers create a "Save Palestine" organization and return to their synagogues and churches and talk to their brothers and sisters demanding justice in Palestine, then i will consider them sincere. Allah (swt) says,

?O Ye who believe! Be ye staunch in justice, witness of Allah, even though it be against yourself or your parents or your kindred, whether a rich or poor man, for Allah is nearer unto both (than ye are)." (4: 135)

barakallah fi,
reza

Muhammad - thanks for the update. I'm not a Clooney fan but glad he's bringing publicity to the cause.

Oh yeah forgot the best part of all their drive for pulling it all capital from Sudan. Gee I wonder how that would improve the economic conditions of the average person already facing malnutrition and starvation............
Actually had the governor of NJ show up proudly proclaiming of having divested all funds that they had in Sudan. Um boo yeah? :(

Ambreen: Presume you've been to the antiwar rallies over the past few years (iraq war stuff). The muslim contingent in all of those was miniscule so didnt quite surprise me

Hey Nasreen yeah Clooney was there :)
About the rally itself was more then a tad bit disappointed, get Habiba's take on it if you want a really negative view.

Where do I start? :
1) Nancy Pelosi? Who invited her and why? All the major speakers were talking about the need for peacekeepers, international involvement and they bring in a career politician (I'm not GOP in case some1 was wondering) who proceeded to introduce about a dozen other politicians who were the first to do something about Darfur.... Her brilliant idea on the solution we'll send a special envoy to let the Sudanese government know of our resolve and that we are looking at what they're doing... boo f'ing hoo

2) The above mentioned circle jerk

3) The repeated mentions of Arab violence and we shouldnt blame Muslims etc (Muslims vs Muslims conflict so gee whoever you do blame....), basically seemed like a not so subtle way to associate islam / arabs with violence

4) the Jewish presence , depends on ones level of cynicism, I've never seen that massive a presence ever for any cause before. Non cynical pov would be because the cause of genocide is dear to their heart, the cynical pov on the other hand would be an opportunity to point out Muslim violence, regardless the contingent was abnormally large.

The positives , people cared showed up , lots of great organizers and speakers was great but the hijacking of their agenda that they (knowingly or unknowingly) allowed took away from the entire rally.

Yeah, it really was a shame. You'd think more of our people would come out in support... especially in DC where so many Muslims are politically active.

Forget coming out to a rally, I feel like the discussion regarding Darfur just isn't taking place among Muslims.

I felt the same way Ambreen - I was really disappointed that there were no muslims as well. anyway, wish i had seen this before i went to the rally so i coulda gone with someone!

The rally was cool and all but I was hella disappointed about the fact that there were no Muslims there!! I saw maybe a handful that I could identify. It's so sad that this is an intra-Muslim conflict and the people who are rallying for it are predominantly Jews. There were so many synagogue groups there...I even say a few people waving Israeli flags. And as my friend so eloquently said, "Well, we have no right to complain...our people are not doing anything!"

And please don?t misinterpret what I am trying to say. I am all about multi-faith allies, but this case was odd because we?re not even present in an issue that is about OUR community!!

How was it? Hope all is well. Didn't hear about it until today....salaams.

Did u see Clooney? I was out of town and didn't make it back in time...

Im planning on going. What time are you planning on being there :)