Mithl Me

There are things about the Middle East and its treatment of diversity that I really like. Countries like Syria and Jordan have absorbed wave after wave of refugees through history. Circassians, Chechens, Armenians, Palestinians, Iraqis and many other groups and now an integral part of the fabric in those countries. I met a community of Sudanese Christian refugees in Syria in the 90s. Many Muslim families in Syria go to church with their neighbors for holidays and others proudly recall attending Jewish schools growing up.

There is of course the unfortunate other side of the coin. I find all the bloodshed in Iraq so depressing, but was really saddened by the recent attack on the Yazidi community that took more than 250 lives. This was not the first attack on the community and other minority religions (e.g. Jews, Christians, Sufis and Mandeans) have been persecuted (to say nothing of certain occupations or political views). Is the region unique in its intolerance? With any broad historical perspective the answer is certainly, no, but that does not excuse these kinds of acts. I have to respect a democracy like India, that until recently had religious minorities as both President and Prime Minister (not to say India does not have sectarian problems of its own).

Sadly another group that has been failed by the Middle Eastern community, the Sahrawi, have been served merely "good discourse" rather than substantive progress in recent UN brokered talks. I think it would almost magical how quickly things could get sorted out if France and the Arab League put a bare modicum of pressure on Morocco.

Although it has been late coming in some quarters, it has been heartening to see more and more voices speaking out against the atrocities in Darfur. We can sort out the problems (to put it lightly) in the media coverage later, there needs to be action yesterday. For examples click here and here. Al Jazeera English has also had some good coverage on the issue, which can be seen on their Youtube page.