Survey shows Muslim support for indictment of Sudan president
A WorldPublicOpinion.org poll of residents in seven Muslim countries found a surprising degree of public sentiment in favor of the International Criminal Court's indictment of Sudanese President Ahmad al-Bashir for war crimes and crimes against humanity for his actions in Darfur.
While the African Union, the Arab League and the Organization of the Islamic Conference rejected the indictment and refused to arrest the president if he ever visited one of their countries (part of the condition of the indictment was that Bashir be arrested if he left Sudan), the leaders of such organizations may not reflect the view at the grass roots, said Stephen Kull, director of WorldPublicOpinion.org:
In the countries where a plurality of those surveyed approved of the indictment, the support wasn't necessarily overwhelming. Only in Kenya and Nigeria was the approval rate more than 70 percent. In Turkey the result was 51 percent in favor and 22 percent against, and in Pakistan it was 39 percent to 32 percent. Meanwhile, respondents in Egypt and Iraq disapproved by a narrow margin. Only in the Palestinian Territories did respondents overwhelmingly oppose the ICC's action
After the ICC announced the indictment of Bashir in March 2009, the African Union opened fire against the court, saying that it seeks punishment only against the African continent. African leaders also asked why their countries were so often in the ICC's cross-hairs. Bashir argued that the indictment was purely political, and pushed out foreign aid groups after the March announcement. In fact, at this month's African Union summit, the leaders again rejected ICC's call for Bashir's arrest and Libyan President Moammar Gadhafi said the ICC represented "new world terrorism."
Such harsh reaction makes this poll's results all the more surprising, as residents of the African nations were found to be the ones most in favor of the indictment. Surveys like this make me doubt the representativeness and multilateral nature of such organizations as the African Union and the Arab League, whose purpose is to accurately represent the needs and sentiments of their people.
Read the poll here.
--Catherine Lyons
Photo: Sudanese President Omar el-Bashir arrives at an African Union summit in Sirte, Libya on July 2. Credit: AP Photo / Abdel Magid al Fergany.
I'm in Sudan. Arrest of the president is seen by some here as an affront to our national pride and this has been played up by the government. This does not mean that the majority of people condone the actions of, or support the government...far from it.
Posted by: Haitham | July 20, 2009 at 01:25 AM
I very much suspect the Nigerian poll was carried out in Lagos, which is in the south, mainly Christian many of whom had witnessed the Muslim barbarity in the Biafran campaign. Kenya too has seen its fair share of that in the NFD, they also remember the 40 year civil war against the Africans in nearby Southern Sudan. Had they taken a poll in Uganda, which still bears the scars of their own Muslim dictator the poll would have hit 100%.
Posted by: ciccio | July 19, 2009 at 08:29 AM
The ICC prosecutes so-called powerful people who commit war crimes and crimes against humanity, like genocide. This Bashir needs to be jailed, no matter what religion he is. This isn't even a question of religion. It's about accountability. The cover-up of crimes like this is all part of the crime. Why hasn't the U.S. joined the ICC? Is it because Bush might be indicted for what he did in Iraq?
Posted by: Christine | July 17, 2009 at 07:12 PM
A sample size of 6000 people is laughable and it's astounding that the Los Angles times believes that this is representative of the Muslim world which amounts to 1.3 Billion people.
Secondly Kenya and Nigeria cannot be considered part of the Muslim world, Kenya has a minimal Muslim population and Nigeria's Muslims amount to 50% of the population.
What's important is the opinion of Sudanese most of all the Northern Sudanese as President Bashir power base derives from that region. The ICC has made this man a national hero.
Posted by: Daniel | July 17, 2009 at 05:32 PM