The pot is calling the kettle black. The Arab League has denounced the United States for "crimes and inhumane and immoral practices" in Iraq.

The only thing that seem to arouse the humanity of Arab leaders, curiously, are the abuses at Abu Ghraib prison. Egypt, Pakistan, and Jordan, for instance, offer leniency to perpetrators of "honor killings." An independent press free from government meddling is illegal in nearly every Arab and Islamic country. Sudanese Muslims enslave about 100,000 non-Muslim Sudanese. Converting to Christianity is punishible by beheading in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. Anyone who follows the news could probably list numerous other offenses against the dignity of mankind that occur by force of law in Muslim nations.

Some only recognize human rights abuses when the oppressors come from one group and the oppressed from another. So, the mistreatment of Africans at the hands of white settlers in Rhodesia or South Africa sends such people into a fury, but their mistreatment by, say, Idi Amin or Mengistu Haile Mariam elicits yawns. Oppressors and oppressed come in all skin shades, and often times share the same ethnicity.

Human rights activist Paul Marshall finds the Arab world's horror at Abu Ghraib hypocritical, and notes in an article today that "members of the Arab League should be questioned, exposed, challenged, mocked, pilloried, castigated, shamed, and humiliated for their vile abdication of any real human responsibility."

Seriously guys, look in the mirror.