ReligionLink

The United States calls it genocide, and the United Nations calls it the world’s worst humanitarian crisis. Whatever you call it, the murderous conflict in Darfur, in western Sudan, is deepening as the government and rebels step up attacks on each other. A stunningly diverse range of individuals and organizations are pushing for the United States – and the world – to put a stop to it. Religion and ethics are key to most aspects of the story:

• Darfur has attracted one of the largest, broadest and deepest coalitions of faith groups ever to agree on the urgency of a crisis and the need to lobby persistently for action to address it. They have organized rallies and public education campaigns, pressured government officials, prayed, and joined forces with secular groups.
• The problems in Sudan and Darfur include religion but are inextricably bound up with ethnicity, race and abuse of government power, as religious conflicts throughout the world tend to be. Sudan has endured a two-decade civil war between the Arab Muslim north and the south, where mostly black Africans who practice Christianity or animism live. Violence escalated in Darfur in 2003 when rebels increased attacks and the Sudanese government sent militias to stop them.
• Morality is the central topic in the debate over how the United States should address problems in Darfur. For many, morality stems from religious faith. At a time when Americans say they are concerned with morals and values, the debate over Darfur presents a prime example of how moral issues are debated and acted upon in the public square. How does a country decide what can and should be done?
• Darfur highlights that genocide is a real threat in the world. Some of the earliest advocates of intervention in Darfur were Jewish individuals and organizations who say they feel a moral obligation to stop other genocides after the experience of the Holocaust. Journalists will find that in the 60 years since the Holocaust, dozens of research centers, human rights organizations, academics and activists have acquired considerable expertise on genocide. (See an April 12, 2004, ReligionLink issue on Holocaust museums.)
• While some feel powerless when they hear of an international crisis, Darfur has inspired many ordinary individuals to take extraordinary actions. Consider Eric Reeves, an English professor whose lunch with a Doctors Without Borders member led to a six-year writing and advocacy campaign that has catapulted him – and Darfur – into national news stories. Darfur has also inspired a good deal of student activism. A group of Swarthmore College students’ long nights of sending emails out to raise money for Darfur inspired the national Genocide Intervention Network, which includes campus groups across the nation. Wherever they live, journalists can find other compelling stories of people who decided to take action or raise their voice.
• Darfur raises the specter of evil. The government of Sudan has turned away help and advice, blocked international efforts to stem the killing and continued what it calls an anti-insurgent effort, which has resulted in the murder of thousands of people. How do people respond when they sense they are dealing with evil? (For resources, see an October 2005 ReligionLink issue on evil.)
• Victims are suffering unimaginable traumas as the killing continues, including torture and rape. The relatives and survivors of victims of other genocides – in Rwanda, Armenia and the Holocaust – are among those advocating for action. Torture has been in the news because of abuses during the Iraq war, and religious groups are at the forefront of pressing for an end to torture and helping with recovery. (For resources, see an April 17, 2006, ReligionLink issue.)
• Darfur is being debated internationally (through the United Nations), nationally (in Congress and with President Bush), in states (through state legislatures) and locally (through rallies and awareness-raising events). Save Darfur’s Web site lets you search for groups throughout the nation.

Why it matters

All religions encourage helping the powerless and oppressed. If Catholics, Protestants, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists and others press for action, will anything happen?

Jump to:
National sources
    Advocacy organizations
    Academics
    Other
    Religious organizations
Background
 

National sources

ADVOCACY ORGANIZATIONS
• The Save Darfur Coalition is an alliance of more than 170 faith, advocacy and humanitarian organizations, representing all the major religions and dozens of Jewish, Muslim and Christian groups. It advocates for public awareness and public policy change and provides aid. Contact communications director Alex Meixner, 202-478-6194, alex@savedarfur.org.
• The Genocide Intervention Network was begun by Swarthmore College students in 2005 as a way to raise money to help resolve the Darfur crisis. It has developed into a network of campus groups across the country. Read a March 6, 2005, Boston Globe story about the group. It is now based in Washington, D.C. Contact executive director Mark Hanis, 202-481-8220, hanis@genocideintervention.net.
• Gregory Stanton is president of Genocide Watch, a Washington, D.C., organization that “exists to predict, prevent, stop, and punish genocide and other forms of mass murder,” including in Sudan. Its board of advisers includes academics from around the country. Contact 703-448-0222.
• Ricken Patel is a fellow at Res Publica, a group that works to support refugees in Darfur, and co-director of DarfurGenocide.org, an information and advocacy source. Contact 646-229-5416, ricken@therespublica.org.
• Human Rights Watch, an independent, nongovernmental organization dedicated to protecting human rights worldwide, maintains a page on Sudan with essential background and linked articles and essays. Contact media director Minky Worden, 212-216-1250.
• The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C., posts a “genocide emergency” page on Darfur. The museum sponsors research and education efforts on genocides worldwide. Contact 202-488-0400.

ACADEMICS
• Francis Mading Deng is director of the Center for Displacement Studies at Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies and research professor of International Politics, Law and Society. From 1992 to 2004, he was the representative of the U.N. Secretary-General on Internally Displaced Persons. He is author of more than 20 books, including War of Visions: Conflicts of Identities in the Sudan (Brookings Institution Press, 1995). Essays are posted at his home page at the Brookings-Bern Project on Internal Displacement, where he is a nonresident senior fellow. Contact him in Washington, D.C., at 202-663-5870.
• Jok Madut Jok is an associate history professor at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles and author of Sudan: Race, Religion and Violence (OneWorld Publications, forthcoming in March 2007) and War and Slavery in Sudan (The Ethnography of Political Violence) (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2001). Contact 310-338-7040, jjok@lmu.edu.
• Mahmood Mamdani is an anthropology professor at Columbia University in New York and author of When Victims Become Killers: Colonialism, Nativism and the Genocide in Rwanda (Princeton University Press, 2002.). His current research includes Sudan. ZNet posts one of his essays. Contact 212-854-8777, mm1124@columbia.edu.
• Walid Phares is a senior fellow at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, where he focuses on Middle East history and politics, global terrorist movements, democratization and human rights. A frequent media commentator, he also leads the Future of Terrorism Project. Contact through 202-207-0190.
• Samantha Power is the Anna Lindh Professor of Practice of Global Leadership and Public Policy at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government. She wrote A Problem From Hell: America and the Age of Genocide (Basic Books, 2002), which won the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for general nonfiction, the 2003 National Book Critics Circle Award for general nonfiction and the Council on Foreign Relations’ Arthur Ross Prize for the best book in U.S. foreign policy. Power’s New Yorker article on Darfur won the 2005 National Magazine Award for best reporting. Contact 617-495-3140, samantha_power@ksg.harvard.edu or through her assistant, Robin Trangsrud, robin_trangsrud@ksg.harvard.edu, 617-495-0743.
• Samuel Totten is professor of secondary education at the University of Arkansas’ College of Education and Health Professions. He is co-editor of Genocide in Darfur (Routledge, 2006), editor of Genocide at the Millennium (Transaction Publishers, 2005) and author of Teaching About Genocide (Information Age, 2004). He is a member of the Council of the Institute on the Holocaust and Genocide (Jerusalem) and the Centre for Genocide Studies (Sydney, New South Wales, Australia) and co-chief editor of the journal Genocide Studies and Prevention. Contact 479-575-6677, stotten@uark.edu.
• Alex de Waal is a fellow of the Global Equity Initiative at Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass. He studies the social, political and health dimensions of war, famine and genocide. He is the author of Famine That Kills: Darfur, Sudan, 1984-1985 (Oxford University Press, 1989) and Facing Genocide: The Nuba of Sudan (African Rights, 1995) and editor of Islamism and Its Enemies in the Horn of Africa (Indiana University Press, 2004). Contact 617-998-0162, dewaal@fas.harvard.edu.
• Morton Abramowitz is a senior fellow at the Century Foundation, a former president of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and a former employee of the U.S. State Department. His Oct. 23, 2006, commentary suggests that advocates may be increasing the agony in Darfur rather than pushing for action that will alleviate it. Contact 202-745-5468, Abramowitz@tcf.org.  

OTHER
• John C. Danforth, an Episcopal priest and a former U.S. senator, has served as special envoy to Sudan under President Bush and also as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations from 2004-2005. Contact 314-259-2980, jcdanforth@bryancave.com.

RELIGIOUS ORGANIZATIONS
• American Jewish World Service founded the Save Darfur Coalition, an alliance of more than 170 faith-based, advocacy and humanitarian organizations. Contact the director of international programs, Julia Greenberg, 212-273-1640.
• The nation’s major Jewish organizations all support the Save Darfur Coalition, including American Jewish World Service, Jewish Council for Public Affairs, American Jewish Committee, Anti-Defamation League, Central Conference of American Rabbis, Conference of Presidents of Major Jewish Organizations and others.
• Bishop Thomas G. Wenski of Orlando, Fla., heads the U.S. Catholic Bishops’ International Policy Committee, which has pressed for more action to stop the killings in Darfur. Read a Sept. 19, 2006, Catholic News Service story. Contact 850-222-3803.
• Evangelicals for Darfur is a campaign by 20 prominent progressive and conservative evangelical leaders to bring an end to the killing in Darfur. It is organized by Sojourners/Call to Renewal, led by the Rev. Jim Wallis, in partnership with the Save Darfur Coalition. Contact 202-328-8842.
• World Vision, a Christian relief and development organization, is sending aid to Darfur and keeps its Web page updated. Contact Rachel Wolff, 253-815-2072 or 253-394-2214 (cell), RWolff@WorldVision.org.
• The National Council of Churches USA, representing mainline Protestant, Orthodox, African-American and peace churches, posts resources about its advocacy for Darfur. Contact the Rev. Tony Kireopoulos, associate general secretary for international affairs and peace, at 212-870-3422, tkireopoulos@ncccusa.org.
• Church World Service sends aid to Sudan and advocates for a resolution to the conflict. See its press releases. Contact Lesley Crosson in New York at 212-870-2676, lcrosson@churchworldservice.org.
• The Africa Faith and Justice Network advocates for responsible U.S. relations with Africa from a Catholic perspective. Contact executive director the Rev. Rocco Puopolo, 202-884-9780.
• The Council on American-Islamic Relations is a member of the Save Darfur Coalition. Contact 202-488-8787.
• Islamic Relief provides aid to Darfur. Its U.S. branch is based in Buena Vista, Calif. Contact 714-676-1300.

Background

• The BBC posts a timeline of events in Darfur from the 1800s to the present day.
• Read the United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, adopted in 1948.
• The Institute for the Study of Genocide has a page linking to organizations that research genocide.

POLLS
• PollingReport.com posts public opinion polls about Sudan.

ARTICLES
• The New York Times posts its archive of stories on Sudan. It also archives columns by Nicholas D. Kristof, who won a 2006 Pulitzer Prize for commentary, which included his columns on Darfur.

Regional sources

IN THE NORTHEAST
• Eric Reeves, an English professor at Smith College in Northampton, Mass., has a Web site recording his six years of advocacy and analysis of the events in Sudan. He is a frequent op-ed writer and commentator on the subject. Read an April 24, 2005, Boston Globe article and a spring 2005 Smith Alumnae Quarterly article about his advocacy. Contact 413-585-3326, ereeves@smith.edu.
• Omer Bartov is professor of European history at Brown University in Providence, R.I., and author of In God’s Name: Genocide and Religion in the Twentieth Century (Berghahn Books, 2001). In fall 2005, 200 students took his class, Modern Genocide and Other Crimes Against Humanity. Contact 401-863-1375, Omer_Bartov@brown.edu.
• Richard Lobban is professor and chair of anthropology at Rhode Island College. As a journalist he covered wars in Sudan. He is executive director and first president of the Sudan Studies Association. Contact 401-456-8784, rlobban@ric.edu.
• Debórah Dwork is director of the Strassler Family Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies at Clark University in Worcester, Mass. She is also professor of Holocaust studies and modern Jewish history and culture. Contact 508-793-7450, ddwork@clarku.edu.
• Ronan Farrow is a student at Yale Law School and a UNICEF Spokesperson for Youth who works to end the killing in Darfur. Contact through the Genocide Intervention Network, for which he is a spokesman, 202-481-8220.  

IN THE EAST
• Stephanie Nyombayire is a Rwandan student at Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania who works to end the crisis in Darfur. Dozens of her family members died in the Rwandan genocide of 1994. Contact through the Genocide Intervention Network, for which she is a representative, 202-481-8220.
• Michael N. Dobkowski is professor of religious studies at Hobart and William Smith Colleges in Geneva, N.Y., and co-editor of The Coming Age of Scarcity: Preventing Mass Death and Genocide in the 21st Century (Syracuse University Press, 1998). Contact 315-781-3369, DOBKOWSKI@hws.edu.
• Timothy Longman is assistant professor of political science at Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., and author of Commanded by the Devil: Christianity and Genocide in Rwanda (forthcoming from Cambridge University Press). Contact 845-437-5563, tilongman@vassar.edu.
• Randolph L. Braham is director of the Rosenthal Institute for Holocaust Studies at the City University of New York. He is author of The Politics of Genocide: The Holocaust in Hungary (Wayne State University Press, 2000) and The Vatican and the Holocaust (East European Monographs, 2000). Contact 212-642-2183, rbraham@gc.cuny.edu.
• Donna E. Arzt is a law professor at Syracuse University in New York. She is director of the school’s Center for Global Law and Practice and co-director of the Sierra Leone Project, which prepares legal papers for the Office of the Prosecutor of the international war crimes tribunal in that West African country. She teaches courses on international law and human rights and has written on religion, human rights and the United Nations’ Genocide Convention. Contact 315-443-2401, dearzt@law.syr.edu.  

IN THE SOUTHEAST
• Gerald Shenk is professor of church and society at Eastern Mennonite University in Harrisonburg, Va. He has written on religious and ethnic conflict in the Bosnian war. Contact 540-432-4264, shenkng@emu.edu.
• The Hillel chapter at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill sponsored a “Dimes for Darfur” campaign this year. The object was to collect 150,000 dimes, representing the 150,000 children who died during the Holocaust and raising money to help Darfur. Read a January 2006 Hillel story. Contact 919-942-4057.  

IN THE SOUTH
• Helmut Walser Smith is Martha Rivers Ingram Professor of History at Vanderbilt University and director of the Robert Penn Warren Center for the Humanities. He is author of The Holocaust and Other Genocides: History, Representation, Ethics (Vanderbilt University Press, 2002). Contact 615-322-5950, Helmut.W.Smith@Vanderbilt.edu.
• Margaret Vandiver, a professor of criminology and criminal justice at the University of Memphis, researches contemporary genocides. Contact 901-678-3401, vandiver@memphis.edu.  

IN THE MIDWEST
• Robert Melson is political professor at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Ind., and current president of the current president of the International Association of Genocide Scholars, which he co-founded in 1995. His primary area of research is ethnic conflict and genocide, and he has written widely on the topic. Contact 765-494-4187, melson@polsci.purdue.edu.
• Rabbi Peter J. Haas is a Jewish studies professor and director of the Rosenthal Center for Judaic Studies at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland. He wrote Human Rights and the World’s Major Religions: The Jewish Tradition (Greenwood Press, 2005) Contact 216-368-2741, pjh7@case.edu.
• Michael A. Sells is professor of Islamic history and literature at the University of Chicago. He has written on genocide in Bosnia in the context of Islamic belief. Contact 773-702-8238, msells@uchicago.edu.
• Eric D. Weitz is a history professor at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis-St. Paul and author of A Century of Genocide: Utopias of Race and Nation (Princeton University Press, 2005). Contact 612-624-7506, weitz004@umn.edu.
• Lawrence J. LeBlanc is professor of political science at Marquette University in Milwaukee and author of The United States and the Genocide Convention (Duke University Press, 1991). He specializes in international politics, international law and organizations, and U.S. foreign policy. Contact 414-288-3422, lawrence.leblanc@marquette.edu.
• Stephen Feinstein is director of the Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies at the University of Minnesota. The center researches contemporary genocides, including Darfur. Contact 612-624-0256, feins001@umn.edu.
• Bettina Arnold is associate professor of anthropology at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and author of “Justifying Genocide: The Supporting Role of Archaeology in ‘Ethnic Cleansing’” for the book Annihilating Difference: The Anthropology of Genocide (University of California Press, 2002). Contact 414-229-4583, barnold@uwm.edu.  

IN THE SOUTHWEST
• Elias Wakoson is an English professor at Grayson County College in Denison, Texas, and president-elect of the Sudan Studies Association. Contact 903-463-8697, wakosonel@grayson.edu.
• Alan Kuperman is assistant professor of public affairs at the University of Texas at Austin. He is author of The Limits of Humanitarian Intervention: Genocide in Rwanda (Brookings Institution Press, 2001) and co-editor of Gambling on Humanitarian Intervention: Moral Hazard, Rebellion, and Civil War (Routledge, 2006). His op-eds on Sudan are posted on his home page. Contact 512-471-8245, akuperman@mail.utexas.edu.
• George E. Tinker is professor of American Indian cultures and religious traditions at Iliff School of Theology in Denver. He is author of Missionary Conquest: The Gospel and Native American Cultural Genocide (Augsburg Fortress, 1993). Contact 303-777-0164, ttinker@iliff.edu.  

IN THE WEST/NORTHWEST
• James E. Waller is a psychology professor at Whitworth College in Spokane, Wash., and author of Becoming Evil: How Ordinary People Commit Genocide and Mass Killing (Oxford University Press, 2002). Contact 509-777-4424, jwaller@whitworth.edu.
• John K. Roth is director of the Center for the Study of the Holocaust, Genocide and Human Rights and a professor of philosophy and religious studies at Claremont McKenna College in Claremont, Calif. He is editor of Genocide and Human Rights: A Philosophical Guide (Palgrave Macmillan, 2005). He has written on the Holocaust and genocide in Rwanda. Contact 909-607-2891, john.roth@claremontmckenna.edu.
• Eliz Sanasarian is political science professor at the University of Southern California at Los Angeles and has written on gender distinction in genocide in the context of Armenia. Contact 213-740-3624, sanasari@usc.edu.
• Rabbi Marvin Hier is the dean and founder of the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles and its Museum of Tolerance. The center has co-sponsored a rally for Darfur. Contact 310-553-9036.