NYPost

REV. AL HAS NO BRAVERY ON SLAVERY

By ANDREA PEYSER

April 24, 2001 -- SO, Al Sharpton endured physical discomfort, intense heat and the risk of a run-in with the tsetse fly to travel to Sudan, where he determined that, in fact, there is slavery going on.

Well, what the heck took him so long?

From the self-congratulations emanating from Sharpton's corner, you'd think the longtime preacher and sometime candidate was a savior. A hero. A righteous guy.

In some political and human-rights circles, he is considered something quite different.

Sharpton is viewed as a crass opportunist who for more than a decade ignored the suffering of thousands of African slaves, whose plight has been well-documented.

Sharpton was on a long list of American black leaders who were terrified of criticizing black Africans - black African Muslims, to be precise - for the kidnapping of children, raping of women, and human bondage that is rampant in Sudan.

What changed?

Four words: Jesse Jackson's love child.

Several leaders I spoke with yesterday see Sharpton's newfound conscience as his ticket to national respectability, now that Jackson has been toppled from his perch.

The reinvention of Sharpton includes the Hollywood treatment: He is planning another trip to Sudan, this time accompanied by Clinton pal Michael Jackson and TV-friendly Rabbi Shmuely Boteach.

"They're trying to sanitize Sharpton, shape him up and dress him up because the Democrats are going to need to have another Jesse Jackson in their corner - particularly if they want to run Hillary," said one local political leader, who asked for anonymity.

It helps that Sharpton has found a way to blame the United States for slavery, which has been practiced in Sudan for thousands of years. Sharpton has seized on American corporations' investment in Sudan as an enabler of the slave trade.

So, where was Sharpton before?

Modern slavery in Sudan was first documented 14 years ago, when two researchers at the University of Khartoum reported that Sudanese Christians were being enslaved by forces loyal to the ruling Muslim government. This was verified by the London-based Anti-Slavery Society for the Protection of Human Rights.

Incredibly, it was up to white Christian and Jewish groups in this country to beat the anti-slavery drum. No black leader would touch the issue.

Beth Gilinsky, president of the Jewish Action Alliance in New York, has spoken out against slavery for a decade, staging protests in front of the Sudanese consulate.

"Sharpton has failed to come on board the Sudan slavery issue for a decade," Gilinsky said. "Clearly, now that Jesse Jackson has been thoroughly discredited, there is an attempt to sanitize Al Sharpton."

WABC Radio talk-show host Steve Malzberg, who is Jewish, has been using his program to talk against slavery for more than four years, since he learned of the situation from Pastor Jim Geist, a white Christian anti-slavery leader.

"It floored me," said Malzberg.

"A lot of Jewish people have brought this story to the attention of the American public, and we've been blamed for trying to knock blacks. It's crazy.

"Why has Sharpton waited until now? Is he just trying to capitalize on Jackson's problems?"

So, Al Sharpton is being credited with putting slavery on the map, turning it into the year's chic cause.

I would like to applaud him for seeing the light, even belatedly. But he has let the cries of African slaves fall on deaf ears for too long, in a pique of stubbornness against Christian whites and Jews.

We know Sharpton too well. There has to be something in this for him.

-- Anonymous, April 24, 2001