Sacred Discrimination: Defining the Crime by the Religion of the Criminal

(U.S. allies in the Islamic world are embarrassed by the perception that U.S. support for U.N. sanctions depends upon whether the violator is Muslim, Christian or Jewish. Here are excerpts on the subject from U.S. press reports.)

''America's Arab allies in the Middle East, who solidly backed the United States in its move two years ago to force Saddam Hussain's forces out of Kuwait, are becoming increasingly estranged because of perceptions that Washington is pursuing adouble-standard policy at the expense of the world's Muslims. Faced with rising popular anger over allied air strikes against Iraq, while the West has failed to take any decisive action against the killing of Muslims in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Israel's deportation of Palestinians, key coalition allies such as Egypt and Syria have made it clear that their continued support of U.S. policy in the region is in doubt. Even Saudi Arabia, whose airstrips have been used as bases for U.S. aircraft flying bombing missions to Iraq, has issued statements in recent days criticizing an apparent 'double standard' that seems to many officials in the region to be applied at the expense of the Arabs. Privately, America's former coalition allies say that the failure of the Mideast peace talks to make any progress, combined with controversy over the new allied air strikes, Bosnia and the Palestinian deportees, has left America's friends in the region increasingly unable to defend U.S. policy."

—Correspondent Kim Murphy, Los Angeles Times, Feb. 1, 1993

"'We are not deciding our own fate, and those who have taken it upon themselves to decide it are biased against us,' Sheikh Mustafa Ceric, the top Islamic official in Sarajevo, said. 'If Christians were getting massacred in any Islamic country like the Muslims are being killed here,' Sheikh Ceric said, 'the world community would have quickly found the means to condemn the Muslims as fundamentalists and fighters of a holy war, and things would be taken care of overnight.”

"'Bosnia's Muslims are the new Jews of Europe,' Mr. Spahic, [another] Muslim cleric said. 'But we have no America to lean on. . . This is the first genocide to be committed under the protection of the United Nations. . . This is the first world class crime to be carried out like a foot ball game before the eyes of the entire world on television. And it has not helped at all. The Serbs are doing the dirty work of dealing with Bosnia's Muslims for all of Europe,' he said."

—Correspondent Chuck Sudetic, New York Times, June 25, 1993

"Many Arab governments yesterday criticized the United States strike on Baghdad, with some saying it was typical of Western double standards. The Egyptian foreign minister, Amr Moussa, said he hoped that United States policy would be 'as firm toward the crimes the Serbs of Bosnia and HeQegovina are committing in violation of legitimacy and all international charters. "'

—Correspondent Craig R. Whitney, New York Times, June 28, 1993

"Today's scheduled U.N. vote presents a particular problem for the United States. The Bosnia government has based its call for armed help on U.N. Charter Article 51, which authorizes self-defense against attack. The United States used the same article to justify its cruise missile attack against Baghdad last weekend. Muslim countries have complained that the West employs a double standard, robbing the Bosnians of their means of defense while permitting the United States to use its own power to hit a Muslim capital."

—Correspondent Daniel Williams, Washington Post, June 29, 1993

"Many diplomats and United Nations officials contrast the ineffectiveness of the Security Council's ultimatums to the Serbs with the speed and effectiveness with which an international coalition was mobilized against Iraq after the invasion of Kuwait in 1990. 'What's happening here and what's happening on the ground are totally different,' a diplomat said of the resolutions on Bosnia. 'And it needn't be,' the diplomat added. 'There is a dual standard at work, and the whole world has taken note."'

—Correspondent Richard Bernstein, New York Times, July 25, 1993

"Bosnia must now be discussed in the context of the Muslim world. For the U.S. to say, in the middle of a genocide against Muslims, that it will protect only U.N. lives will further anger ordinary Muslims and offer fuel for radicals. Of course, since the West does not protect the safe havens, enforce the no-fly zone, or deliver the aid it promised in Bosnia, the West is wide open for such criticism."

—New York Times editorial, July 30, 1993