"As Americans" Against "Genocide": The Crisis in Darfur and Interreligious Political Activism

In 2006, the Save Darfur Coalition held rallies in two major cities to call for U.S., and then U.N., military intervention in the Darfur region of Sudan. In this article, we analyze how participants in Washington, D.C., and New York City defined the ethnic and religious contours of "genocide" and chart the ways that calls for humanitarian intervention were intertwined with issues of representation and collective narratives of national identity. Specifically, we draw attention to how different participants enacted ideas about their own religions and ethnicities, their parameters for engaging with other ethno-religious groups, and their power to "save" as Americans.