Osama, Islamicists Silent On Tsunami Disaster

by Marwaan Macan-Markar

(IPS) BANGKOK -- Muslims should listen to the silence pouring forth from the al-Qaeda leader's camp since the Dec. 26 Indian Ocean tsunami.

In the weeks following the tsunamis that flattened the coastlines of 12 countries in South and Southeast Asia, the only words attributed to bin Laden on al-Jazeera, the Arabic television station that broadcasts the champion of terror's views, have to do with his prevailing mission -- to remove Western power from the Arab world.

Bin Laden's silence has been matched by an equally heartless view about the victims of the tsunami from fellow Saudi Arabian Fawzan al-Fawzan, a cleric who delivers religious sermons on the satellite television channel al-Majid. Al-Fawzan is also a member of Saudi Arabia's highest religious body, the senior council of clerics.

"These great tragedies and collective punishments that are wiping out villages, towns, cities and even entire countries are Allah's punishments of the people of these countries, even if they are Muslims," al-Fawzan said during an interview on the Saudi television channel.

He went on to say, with vitriol, that the tsunamis were the result of "fornication and sexual perversions of all kinds" that are rampant in the Asian countries that were devastated by the killer waves.

These twin realities -- bin Laden's silence and al-Fawzan's ravings -- reflect just one of the many stark contradictions that have emerged in the Muslim world since the killer waves struck.

After all, the tsunamis have been a far greater tragedy for Muslims than its impact on other religious communities.

That is borne out by the death toll in Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim country. In the worst-hit area, the northern province of Aceh, known for its strong Islamic leanings, over 200,000 people died.

Similarly, thousands of Muslims who lived along Sri Lanka's east coast were also killed by the tsunamis. The death toll in Sri Lanka, estimated at close to 38,000, was the second highest of the 12 countries struck by the natural disaster.

Clearly, bin Laden and cleric al-Fawzan appear to be out of touch with reality. Aceh, after all, was no haven for tourists to indulge in sexual perversions.

Also exposed in this post-tsunami environment are the claims of the Islamic world being a monolithic entity and one where the bonds of unity are strong. They have been found wanting in the face of stronger attitudes towards nationalism.

Most obvious in this realm are the Indonesian government's policies towards Aceh.

Jakarta's approach to helping the Muslim victims has been patchy. It has brought forth suspicions the government of this Muslim country has towards its co-religionists who belong to the Acehnese ethnic community -- with top-down policies dictated by the Jakarta political elites of Javanese descent.

This bias is the product of the tough measures the Indonesian government has pursued to crack down on a separatist group -- the Free Aceh Movement (known by its Indonesian acronym as GAM) -- in the province. This conflict between a Muslim government and separatist rebels who are also Muslims spans over nearly three decades, resulting in nearly 10,000 deaths.

Concerned by this bias displayed by the Indonesian army, Human Rights Watch (HRW) appealed to Jakarta to bring down the obstacles being placed in the way of relief and aid getting to the Acehnese victims.

"Now more than ever, unhindered access to the province is critical," the New York-based rights lobby said in a letter to Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono in early January. "Concerns have been raized by credible non-governmental organizations that some in the army have not distributed humanitarian assistance in an impartial manner."

"(Relief agencies) should be allowed to deliver aid directly to populations in need, without military escort or presence," HRW added.

Neighboring Malaysia, the second largest Muslim country in Southeast Asia, is displaying another stripe, in its plans to evict nearly two million undocumented migrant workers by Jan. 31. And the majority of those to be expelled this way are Muslims from Indonesia.

Malaysian human rights groups are criticising Kuala Lumpur for implementing a policy that will add to the burdens already faced by Indonesia after the tsunami.

Others have questioned such a lack of compassion at a time when Malaysia, itself, is coming to grips with the devastation caused by the killer waves that lashed its own coast, killing nearly 70 people.

Even in the outpouring of aid to help the tsunami victims, Muslims have been forced to concede that the much-vaunted Islamic pillar of charity had failed to move the wealthiest section of the Muslim world -- the oil-rich Arabs.

The Saudi Arabian government, for instance, initially pledged $10 million for emergency relief, a sum that was subsequently increased to $30 million after the Saudis were admonished for their stinginess. Kuwait was pilloried likewise for its initial contribution of two million dollars, which was later increased to $10 million.

The shame of such a miserly Arab response to help victims from countries that supplied labor to build the oil-rich kingdoms over the past three decades has not been lost on some Muslim commentators.

"The contributions coming from countries like Saudi Arabia and Kuwait are not representative of the kind of responses that the Muslim World expected," writes Muhammad Ali Hasan in 'Muslim Wake Up,' an on-line magazine based in the United States.

"The Muslim world should, and will, come to the conclusion that many of these Arab governments are worthless, especially in their abilities to provide relief and love to the most grieving parts of the Muslim World," he adds.