Professor to give insight on Sudan

Elnour Hamad remains puzzled by U.S. foreign policy.

While the United States was willing to invade Iraq, even if weapons of mass destruction were never found, it chose to ignore what he sees as a larger catastrophe: the rape, torture and murder of tens of thousands of people in the Darfur region of Sudan.

“The magnitude of the crisis in Sudan is far greater than the one in Iraq,” said Hamad, a Sudanese native who now teaches art education at Eastern Washington University. “This is genocide. … The need for intervention in Sudan is more compelling.”

Hamad will explore the inconsistencies of U.S. foreign policy during a lecture Thursday about Darfur – an area in western Sudan where nearly 2 million people have been displaced as a result of the atrocities committed by the Janjaweed, the government-supported Arab militia. His presentation will launch Whitworth College’s 48th annual Great Decisions Lecture Series, which focuses on current political, cultural and economic issues that affect the international community.

Earlier this month, a United Nations-appointed commission didn’t use the word “genocide” to describe the crisis in Darfur, but it did acknowledge that mass killings of civilians had occurred. The U.N. also has described the conflict there as one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.

According to the Associated Press and other news agencies, the Darfur disaster began in February 2003, when the rebel Sudan Liberation Army and allied Justice and Equality Movement took up arms against what they saw as years of state neglect and discrimination against Sudanese of African origin. The government struck back with a counterinsurgency campaign in which the Janjaweed has committed wide-scale abuses against the African population. More than 70,000 people have died.

While the problems of Darfur may seem like a world away for many in the Inland Northwest, it’s an issue that the international community cannot continue to ignore, said Hamad. The “hatred” displayed by the Arab militia against the African Sudanese exists everywhere, even the United States, he said. “The U.S. is not immune to extremism.”

Several people in the Inland Northwest – especially those working with Sudanese refugees who have resettled in Spokane – have long been concerned about the crisis. In fact, Spokane’s Interfaith Council has been involved in an international effort to raise awareness about the killings in Darfur.

Last month, about 40 people attended a workshop on the issue during the Eastern Washington Legislative Conference, an event sponsored by religious and social justice organizations including the Washington Association of Churches and the Peace and Justice Action League of Spokane.

“If the world has permission to massacre a group of people, then none of us are safe,” said Kateri Caron of the Interfaith Council. “The health of our planet, the health of our city is diminished because of the genocide in Sudan.”

During his lecture, Hamad will provide a brief history of Sudan and the Darfur region before explaining why he believes the United States should intervene. He will make a case against the current Sudanese government, a regime he describes as “radical” and one that has harbored terrorists including Osama bin Laden.

Hamad has an intimate knowledge of the issues plaguing Africa’s largest country – not just because he’s a native of Sudan, but also because of his experience as a political refugee.

Born to cotton farmers in Hillat Hamad, a village about 50 miles south of the capital Khartoum, Hamad was the first in his family and among the first in the village to graduate from college. His parents opposed his decision to study fine arts, but from an early age, he knew his talents lay in oils, watercolors and pastels, and in his ability to teach others what he knew about art.

Living and working in a university setting, Hamad became part of a group of intellectuals – artists, writers, musicians and academics – who spoke against the Sudanese government by standing up for the rights of those who had been marginalized by the regime’s policies.

In 1985, his father-in-law was identified as an enemy of the state for writing and speaking against the government’s “fanatic interpretation of Islam.” The 76-year-old grandfather was hanged in a public square. Soon after, Hamad and his wife, Asma, also became targets.

Hamad fled to Oman, where he worked as an art teacher. Asma and their two children, who were only 3 years old and 3 months old at the time, were granted asylum in Texas. Two years later, Hamad was able to join them. In 1997, he became a U.S. citizen.

Before he came to EWU in 2003, Hamad worked for the U.S. Air Force as a cultural adviser at bases in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. Besides working as an assistant professor in Cheney, Hamad also covers politics and world affairs in a weekly column for Al-Adwaa, a newspaper in Sudan.

While he cherishes his new life in the United States, a part of him still mourns the loss of his homeland. He worries about the fate of his two brothers in Sudan and others who continue to live in persecution, he said. The government in Sudan “gives a bad name to Islam,” said Hamad, who is a Muslim in the Sufi tradition. Their “fanatic interpretation” of the religion has brought only oppression and allowed the genocide to continue.

“We must stand up for injustice everywhere in the world,” he said. “Standing up against hatred benefits everyone.”