VirtueOnline sat down with Baroness Cox when she spoke at the Episcopal Church of the Good Samaritan in Paoli, Pennsylvania recently.

VOL: You have been called a voice for the voiceless. You have made secret expeditions to buy freedom for slaves captured by Arab traders in Sudan's war against black Africans. But you are best known for your humanitarian work in securing medicine and supplies for war-torn regions, and campaigning for justice for victims of the Armenian genocide. Some consider you a menace, others consider you a saint. How do you see yourself?

COX: To be a "Voice for the Voiceless" one must first meet them, touch them, look into their eyes and hear them say their name and speak on their own behalf.

VOL: The UN calls the crisis in Darfur, Sudan the world's greatest humanitarian crisis? Do you agree with that assessment?

COX: Yes. And that's in the face of a lot of competition.

VOL: You founded and head as CEO something called HART - Humanitarian Aid Relief Trust - what is this organization all about? The website for HART says you support the forgotten people of Europe, Africa and Asia: the oppressed and the persecuted individuals who are often neglected by other organizations and are out of sight of the international media.

COX: Our aim is to help communities become self-sufficient by enabling them to redevelop in ways that are sensitive to both their cultural and religious values. HART's aid is designed to relieve suffering and sow the seeds of longer-term solutions; it's advocacy is designed to raise awareness of problems - and solutions - at home and abroad.

VOL: Can you be more specific? What projects are you engaged in?

COX: HART'S distinctive niche is its focus on forgotten peoples in forgotten lands. For example we endeavor to work predominantly in those areas where major aid organizations cannot operate. That situation occurs because big and famous organizations like the UN, UNICEF and ICRC can only go to places with the permission of a sovereign government. If the Soviet Government is victimizing a minority in its own borders and does not get permission for the big boys to access those victims then they cannot go, and those who suffer are left unreached and unheard. It is therefore one of our primary aspects mission and made to reach such people where a relatively small organization can make a difference. We are always amazed and humbled how people in such circumstances add value with relatively small amounts and amplify anything we can give beyond what we imagine through resourcefulness and resilience and deductions. Other area locations where risks are so great, and other aid organizations have pulled out or refused to work there, and or posed conflict situations where aid organizations have ceased to operate but where needs are still very great.

VOL: According to a website www.SaveDarfur.org some 4000,000 people are dead and 2.5 million have been displaced in the Sudan. Untold thousands have been raped, tortured and terrorized. Men. Women. Children. 2500 die each week. Ending the horror will take a strong UN peacekeeping force and a no-fly zone. And that will take leadership from world leaders, including President Bush. Do you agree with that assessment?

COX: Yes, 100 per cent. I raised those very issues in the House of Lords.

VOL: Do you think the U.S. should get involved militarily in the Sudan? If so how?

COX: I think there is an obligation from the international community, a duty to protect the poor, downtrodden and oppressed. If the Soviet Government is failing to provide adequate protection for its citizens, the international community has a duty to intervene over the concept of national sovereignty. The time is long past when the international community should have either put so much pressure on the regime in Khartoum (I refer to it as a legitimate government) the National Islamic Front main ruling party. It will allow adequate provision for its people or, in the face of continuing intransigence from Khartoum, take the necessary intervention to stop the killing in Darfur which has reached the proportions of genocide.

VOL: Has the U.S. failed in its moral obligations to act in Darfur?

COX: The U.S. administration along with the rest of the international community have failed the people of Darfur. Most have failed to respond adequately to the continuing genocide in Darfur. However, the U.S. administration has a more honorable record, together with Canada than, say, the British Government, in that it has recognized that situation in Darfur as genocide, whereas the British government has consistently refused to use that word.

VOL: Are Christians being singled out for persecution in Darfur or is it more widespread than that?

COX: More widespread. The history of Sudan since 1989 the regime in Khartoum has been manifestly culpable in inflicting death on a vast scale on its own people, before Darfur hit the headlines, the regime was responsible for military jihad in which over two million perished and four million were displaced. Having visited Khartoum and met the leadership in 1993/1994 it was very clear that the objectives of that Jihad were the forced Islamization of those not already Muslims and the forced Arabization of African peoples. Since the signing of the comprehensive peace agreement, the theater of operation moved to Darfur where the majority population is Muslim and African. Therefore we must infer that this part of the agenda relates more to arabization than to religious persecution. However, of course, the very significant factor of oil, which has doubtless been another part of the NBIF's agenda throughout all these horrendous conflicts.

VOL: You have written several books, your latest is "Cox's Book of Modern Saints and Martyrs." What is this about?

COX: It is about slavery. There are 27 million men, women and children still enslaved in the world. I wrote this book because next year is the bicentenary of William Wilberforce and his parliamentary achievement in the British parliament and his endeavor to end the slave trade. It is our conviction that this time of commemoration should not be used primarily to look back to historical eras of slavery, but to challenge us to a commitment to complete Wilberforce's unfinished mission and to eradicate slavery from the face of the earth. It is to our shame that there are still 27 million people in the world today suffering from some form of slavery. In this book, we offer not only a brief overview of Wilberforce's endeavors but the scale of different forms of enslavement in our time. We also wish to put a human face on to the concept of slavery. At the heart of the book are three chapters in which modern day slaves are given a voice and describe their own experiences of the horror and humiliation of contemporary slavery. These chapters contain first hand accounts from men women and children who have endured the horrors of enslavement in the Sudan, the hell of being abducted as children by the LRA in Uganda, and the various forms of anguish experienced by the peoples of Burma subjected to forced labor, sexual slavery and the nightmares of 70,000 child soldiers. It is our passionate hope in writing this book that the year of celebration of Wilberforce's magnificent parliamentary achievement will not be a year of condemnation of our failures.

VOL: Do you see and militant Islam on the rise and what happened in England recently as significant in the war on terror.

COX: What happened in England was a smaller version of your 9/11. On July 7 that was undertaken by home grown British suicide bombers. The seeds of militant Islam have taken root and produced a harvest of terrorism and the continuation of that trend is seen in the recent alleged attempts to blow up a significant number of civilian aircraft which would have cause the deaths of many hundreds of people.

VOL: Your new book "Modern Saints" includes as number of Anglican figures. Why?

COX: Yes it does. It includes Anglican martyrs who have died or been tortured for their faith in Uganda and Nigeria.

VOL: Is the blood of the martyrs still the seed of the church, in your mind?

COX : Absolutely. I have authored two other books on this subject and last year I enlarged on Islam as a religion hostile to Christianity. Nigeria, for example has a number of Shari'a states, making it a hostile place for Christians to live. The Anglican Bishop of Jos, the Rt. Revd. Benjamin Kwashi is a very dear friend. He once said to me, 'if they kill us, in two years time there will be 200 new Christians because the blood of the martyrs is still the seed of the church.

VOL: It has been said the 20th century was the century of martyrs, how do you see the 21st century?

COX: It may exceed that. In general terms it is because there are so many modern martyrs, and we must not let these stories be consigned to the dustbin of history; instead we musty remember, affirm and celebrate the price they have paid for our faith.

VOL: Your definition of 'saints' might be questioned in some quarters?

COX: Being inherently "unorthodox", I wanted to include the concept of saints as defined in an unorthodox way, that is, those people living on the front line of faith that could endure martyrdom any time, any day for which our faith is the pearl of such great price that they are willing to sacrifice everything for it. I particularly wanted to include these men and women as role models for our young Christians in the West for whom our churches seem too often to fail to provide adequate, vibrant compelling role models and thereby fail to inspire our young people with a deep commitment to our Faith. As the bible says, 'if the trumpet gives an uncertain sound' it is not compelling. The churches in the West, too often are distracted and divided, and too often giving uncertain sounds. Therefore young people are not convinced and many are turning to other faith traditions including Islam which is the fastest growing religion in the UK. However, if our young people, who travel more widely now than ever before, would only spend one week with one of these modern saints, they would find it a life changing experience, because they would experience Christianity in its most inspirational and convincing manifestation. The book is not a morbid read, it also contains many exciting examples of contemporary miracles. Perhaps we should not be surprised as we have a God of miracles and there is no reason why he should not perform these in our days as much as in biblical times. However, perhaps there are more clearly evident on the frontiers of faith than in the comfort zones of the West.

VOL: What is your view of Islam, and how followers of Mohammed are functioning in the modern world?

COX. They are thinking strategically. The vast majority of the world's Islamic peoples are peaceful, are law abiding, and culturally very hospitable people. And it is very important in our relationships that we build bridges not wars. However, there is a very small proportion but growing proportion of those who adhere to much more militant interpretations of Islam who constitute a very serious threat to out spiritual, cultural and political heritage. It is therefore an urgent imperative that we wake up and look out beyond our own internal distractions to the wide world to where our brothers and sisters are suffering at the hands of militant Islam and also look out in the sense of wake up, inform ourselves, educate ourselves about the complex aspects of the nature of Islam and pray for an appropriate Christian, spiritual and strategic response.

Baroness Cox's website can be accessed here: http://www.hart-uk.org/ You can support this ministry with a tax deductible donation at this website.

Her books can be obtained at Amazon.com or by following this link: http://tinyurl.com/ybb3vn

END