Everyone needs to be made aware of horrendous mortality in the Muslim world. As a senior biological scientist, I have been carefully researching global mortality throughout history.

In one approach, I have estimated 'excess mortality' for all countries using UN data - 'excess mortality' being the difference between actual deaths in a country and deaths expected in a decently-run, peaceful country with the same demographics.

The results are startling and horrifying. Thus the 'excess mortality' in preponderantly Muslim countries plus the Muslim proportional component of the 'excess mortality' of other significantly Muslim countries total about 550 million for the period between 1950 and 2004.

This death toll is about one hundred times that of the Jewish Holocaust (six million victims) and of the 'forgotten' World War II man-made famine in the British-ruled Bengal (four million Muslim and Hindu victims).

This Muslim mortality has many components - thus 'excess mortality' has totaled 5.2 million for Iraq since 1950 and 1.5 million between 1991 and 2004, 16.2 million for Afghanistan since 1950, 70 million for the Arab Middle East and North Africa since 1950 and 340,000 for the Palestinian Occupied Territories since 1967.

There are some notable exceptions - Malaysia and the Gulf States have high life expectancies and low infant mortalities and are fortunately very happy exceptions to this dreadful situation.

The prosperous First World should have been dealing with the Muslim world with honesty, goodwill and assistance � rather than with a mix of denial, neglect, hostility, malignant interference and sustained violence that has helped cause this horrendous and continuing Muslim mortality.

Of course, ignoring massive human disasters will simply yield more of the same. A humane future will require truth, peace, generosity and reconciliation.