Dhaka, Aug. 1 -- In 1963, from the confines of a Birmingham jail cell, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. wrote one of the most searing indictments of moral cowardice in modern history. Responding to a letter from eight white clergymen who urged him to call off civil disobedience and trust the courts, Dr. King wrote, "We will have to repent in this generation not merely for the hateful words and violent actions of the bad people, but for the appalling silence of the good people."

That silence, he warned, was not just disappointing-it was tragic.

Over the years, King returned to this theme again and again. During the Selma-to-Montgomery march in 1965, during the Vietnam War, even in his final writings before his assassination in 1968, he lamente...