 The "anaemic" financial effort made by Muslim countries towards tsunami relief has been criticised in a hard-hitting critique published on Saturday. Peter Bergen of the New America Foundation, who is CNN's expert of terrorism, and who also visited Pakistan recently points out in a New York Times column that "this anemic effort on the part of the richest countries is emblematic of a wider political problem in the Islamic world. For all of the invocations by Muslim leaders of the ummah, or the global community of believers, they typically do little to help their fellow Muslims in times of crisis. Arab leaders and their toothless talking shops like the Arab League and the Organisation of the Islamic Conference are excellent at denouncing problems in Palestine and Iraq, but most stood silent as a million died in the war between Iraq and Iran during the 1980s.
| That could be because they were rooting for both sides... |
Bergen writes that it is "common currency" in the Islamic world that Muslims are perpetual victims of Western and Zionist conspiracies. Yet when Muslims are suffering, it is usually the West, and often the United States, that takes the lead in helping, he notes, recalling that it was the US that came to the aid of Afghans after the Soviet invasion and it was the US that overthrew the Taliban regime. Washington again it was that sent 25,000 troops to help relief efforts in Somalia and came to the aid of the Bosnians being massacred by Serbs. He points out that other than Turkey, no Muslim nation has sent troops to Afghanistan to help stabilise the poorest country in the Islamic world.
| And a year after the tsunami, they'll be rioting in the streets and burning American flags again. There's no surprise there. There's no word for "gratitude" in Arabic... |
According to Bergen, "Now the same pattern - action by Western countries and inertia from Muslim states - can be seen in the efforts to provide relief for those hardest hit by the Indian Ocean tsunami. While 100,000 of the victims are from Aceh, the most Islamic of Indonesia's provinces, Muslim countries are contributing a relative pittance. Oil-rich Saudi Arabia is contributing the most: a paltry $30 million, about the same as what Netherlands is giving and less than one-tenth of the United States contribution. And no Arab governments participated in the conference in Jakarta on Thursday where major donors and aid organisations conferred over reconstruction efforts." He hopes that the generosity of Western countries will spur Islamic states to recognise that invocations of religious Muslim solidarity will do little to feed the millions of Muslims who remain acutely vulnerable to disease and starvation in the aftermath of this enormous natural catastrophe.
| The fact that they're starving and their children are being sold into sexual slavery doesn't matter. What matters is that they have mosques and at least one Koran for every household. And shariah. Lots of shariah. |
He adds that there have been a few positive signs in recent days that things may be changing. Spurred by criticism, Saudi state-run television organised a telethon this week that raised private pledges of more than $75 million, and the Islamic Development Bank has pledged $500 million. "Much remains to be done, however. The Persian Gulf countries that are reaping a bonanza from record oil prices should send a meaningful percentage of those windfall profits to their fellow Muslims devastated by the tsunami, rather than lining the pockets of their ruling families. After all, zakat, the giving of charity, is one of the five pillars of Islam," Bergen adds ironically.
| You can't use zakat! That would take the bread out of the mouths of millions of holy men! |
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