First of all, I am VERY disturbed by this treatment of women, especially the public rapes and the stigma that raped women must then suffer. Second of all, I clearly haven't been following this issue very closely, since I thought that the Sudanese govt was attacking Sudanese Christians in Darfur; however, they're attacking Sudanese Muslims, solely because they're black and not Arab! What a bunch of racists. I don't think you can find support for that behavior toward fellow Muslims in the Koran...

The other aspect is that Khatoum is imposing Sharia on the typically agrarian Sufi blacks who have much differant interpretations of the man/woman relationship as women are needed to work side by side with men in the fields.

Gabrielle - Not to stereotype, Arabs are not racists as a rule, but scholars do find a basis for Arab racism in the historical fact that the Islamic conquest was a conquest of non-Arabs by Arabs. After the conquest, power was limited to the Arabs and was not readily relinquished by them. As well, the Koran teaches that Muslims are equal, but also lauds the Arab people and the Arabic language. The Islam of the Koran and the Hadiths is bigoted and hostile toward non-Muslims. Arab racism followed from this because most Arabs were Muslim and most non-Muslims were not Arab

Jane - Yours is a good point. The African Muslims practice a different, more tolerant Islam than that of the Arab Muslims who seek to murder them. What is happening in Sudan is unconscionable.