Wajahat Ali is a Muslim-American of Pakistani descent who is neither a terrorist nor a saint.
He is a playwrite, journalist, humorist, writer and attorney at law.
Haiti is experiencing unimaginable suffering from its devastating
earthquake, with more than 150,000 dead and one to three million
individuals displaced. Individuals, groups and governments from around
the world have stepped in to do what they can. United by their
religious tradition of charity, Muslims have emerged as effective
partners in aid and relief work.
The international effort to aid Haiti by individuals, Islamic relief
organizations and the governments of Muslim-majority countries reflects
a proactive generosity and empathy espoused by the Prophet Muhammad and
the teachings of the Qur'an. Charity, in fact, is one of the five
obligations for Muslims, and Muslim organizations have been working
alongside other faith-based groups to fulfill this duty.
Islamic Relief,
one of the most respected and successful disaster relief charities in
the world, has used technology, new media and social networking sites
to mobilize people. Along with "Seekers Digest", a popular Muslim
community blog run out of Canada, Islamic Relief hosted the "
Muslim Online Haiti Fundraiser"
and raised over $100,000 in two hours. The organization also used its
existing partnership with the Mormon Church to send hygiene kits and
temporary shelters to Haiti, in addition to pledging a total of $2.5
million.
Islamic Relief also sent an emergency response team to directly assist
victims in Haiti. These Muslim aid workers have been updating a
daily blog with sobering first-hand accounts of the tragedy.
Assisting Islamic Relief, Muslim-American artists and community
activists convened to put on a concert in New York City, hosted by the
Inner-City Muslim Action Network
(IMAN), and used the opportunity to raise donations for Haiti. In
Chicago, IMAN partnered with a local synagogue and church to raise aid
money.
Governments and non-governmental organizations (NGO) of countries that
are more often known as recipients of aid have also reached out. Two
Pakistani NGOs,
Al-Khidmat Foundation and
Edhi Foundation,
are mobilizing relief efforts to help Haitians despite the country's
own political and economic volatility. Both organizations have
considerable expertise in this area due to the massive 2005 earthquake
that killed nearly 80,000 in northern Pakistan. The Edhi Foundation has
already pledged $500,000 to assist Haiti.
Speaking on Haiti's catastrophe, the president of Al-Khidmat
Foundation, Niamatullah Khan, said, "Islam exhorts us to help those who
are in trouble.... Humanity comes first."
In the Middle East, Dubai Cares, a non-profit dedicated to ensuring
education for young children, is providing immediate assistance to
200,000 children in Haiti through its international partners who are
already on the ground. And the governments of Bahrain, Kuwait, Morocco
and Turkey have each pledged $1 million in aid, in addition to sending
cargo planes filled with medical supplies, food, tents and blankets.
Iran donated 30 tons of humanitarian aid, including food, tents and
medicine through its Red Crescent Society. And Palestinians, through
the Red Cross, have begun an effort to send donations.
Furthermore, Lebanon sent a plane with 25 tons of tents and three tons
of medical supplies. And Indonesia, the most populous Muslim nation,
sent $2.1 million in aid. "As a country that has been itself devastated
by a similar situation, we are absolutely saddened by what's happening
in Haiti," Indonesian Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa said at an
Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) meeting in Vietnam. "We
call on the ASEAN community, including ourselves, of course, to do what
we can do to assist them."
According to Habiba Hamid, a Fellow of the Centre for the Study of
Global Governance at the London School of Economics, this pattern of
charity is not an aberration but the norm for Muslim communities. She
says, "Without [Muslim countries], we would not have the United Nations
World Food Program (WFP) today, which is proving critical in Haiti
currently." In 2008, when the WFP issued an urgent call for funds in
light of increased food and fuel prices that raised global hunger and
poverty levels, Saudi Arabia pledged $500 million, leading the WFP to
recognize King Abdullah as a "Champion in the Battle Against Hunger."
Although the journey to rebuilding Haiti is long and painstaking,
Muslim relief efforts worldwide prove that sometimes our most reliable
and effective partners in humanitarian endeavors are not always the
ones we expect.
This article was written for the Common Ground News Service (CGNews).
