CAIRO, December 29 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – Muslims in the four corners of the world joined the rest of humanity in the world’s biggest ever relief campaign to help the survivors of Asia’s worst earthquake in decades and the resulting tsunami amid warnings that epidemics could multiply the final death toll to over 100,000.

Leading US and UK Muslim organizations have launched online donations and appeals to people worldwide to immediately send contributions.

The Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) and the UK-based Islamic Relief took the initiative, asking “all people of conscience” to offer humanitarian assistance to the survivors and pray for the victims.

“We extend our sincerest condolences to the families of those killed and pray for the speedy recovery of those injured as a result of the earthquake,” CAIR Chairman Omar Ahmad said in a press release, a copy of which was sent to IslamOnline.net Tuesday, December 28.

Chief among US online donators are Maryland-based Asia Relief and the Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA).

More than 68,000 people have been confirmed killed and thousands displaced in walls of tidal waves triggered by a 9.0 magnitude underwater earthquake – the world’s biggest earthquake in 40 years – which struck deep in the Indian Ocean off the west coast of Indonesia’s Sumatra Island, according to a Reuters count.

Many coastal villages and resorts, now nothing more than mud-covered rubble blanketed with the stench of rotting corpses, remained inaccessible to heavy earth-moving equipment needed to clear debris and dispose of bodies.

Areas effectively cut off included eastern Sri Lanka, India's remote Andaman and Nicobar Islands and Indonesia's northern Aceh province, near the epicenter of the killer quake.

British Islamic Relief has launched an appeal to raise €1,000,000 for the affected population, according to a press release e-mailed to IOL Tuesday.

An initial €200,000 has been allocated for relief intervention in the region and to help rehabilitate victims of the disaster.

A further €20,000 of emergency aid will be sent to affected people in worst-hit Sri Lanka.

IR representatives in Sri Lanka are performing needs assessments, and IR staff will fly out within the next 48 hours to form an Emergency Response Team, the missive added.

IR staff from Indonesia will further leave for Aceh to assess the situation, and IR’s partners in India are on their way to Chennai.

The Muslim Association of Britain (MAB) has further called on British Muslims and non-Muslims alike to help with the massive relief effort needed.

“We are profoundly distressed by the massive loss of life and our prayers are with all those who have been afflicted. It would require an unprecedented international effort to coordinate and fund relief efforts to those who need it most and we appeal to the British public to donate generously in this regard,” MAB’s President Ahmad Sheikh said in a press release e-mailed to IOL Tuesday.

Canadian Muslim and non-Muslim charities also found their phones ringing off the hook over the last few days as people call to make donations of money and supplies.

“We have been fielding calls all day at our office from concerned Canadians, particularly those with roots and family and loved ones in the affected countries,” Raza Khan, Vice Chairman of the Canadian Relief Foundation (CRF), told IOL.

“Many are requesting personal financial assistance for their families and businesses which have literally been washed away. They are fearful and saddened by the calamitous events, which have occurred out of a bright blue sky, out of nowhere, and without warning,” he added.

In Toronto, which has the largest Sri Lankan community outside of Sri Lanka, cultural associations are sending hundreds of youth canvassers door to door, and a Tamil-language radio station has launched a telethon to take in donations from its listeners.

The CRF is coordinating its efforts with the Sri Lankan community leaders.

“We’ve connected with local Sri Lankan community leaders and are coordinating efforts to fundraise together and work out logistics to get relief reliably to the people who need it most.” Khan said.

“We are planning to hold a major fund-raising event in Hamilton. It will be a multi-faith effort with several Muslim, Christian and Hindu groups working together,” he said.

Other Canadian charities and NGOs included International Development and Relief Foundation, UNICEF Canada and the Canadian Red Cross.

Indian people cross by boat after a bridge was destroyed by tidal waves. (AFP)

Several Arab countries were also quick to dispatch relief materials to the Asian countries, which took the brunt of the killer quake.

The United Arab Emirates Red Crescent dispatched relief materials and transferred money to Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India and Bangladesh plus a team of 25 trained officers and four police dogs for rescue missions to Indonesia, Reuters said.

Qatar has further offered immediate humanitarian assistance to the displaced in Indonesia, Qatar’s English-language The Peninsula newspaper reported.

“The Qatar government asked Indonesia to send a list of the material that was required to provide relief to survivors of the tragedy. We conveyed this gesture to Jakarta, which in turn, has forwarded a list of items that are urgently required in the disaster zone,” Gulfam Afero, labor attaché at the Indonesian embassy in Doha, told the daily.

Qatar Airways has also joined forces by ferrying stranded passengers affected by the devastating tidal waves that have swept across South and Southeast Asia Sunday, December 26.

A special Qatar Airways charter aircraft flew to the Maldives in the Indian Ocean Tuesday morning to pick up 130 stranded guests in the Maldives before returning to Doha in the evening.

Kuwait has also said it was sending one million dollars in aid to the governments of the affected countries.

International aid teams further landed in Asia's tsunami-devastated villages Wednesday, December 29, in a desperate race to prevent the spread of diseases in one of the biggest catastrophe relief operations in history.

As grief-stricken survivors buried their dead in mass graves, aid teams from Japan, India, Russia, France, Germany and Taiwan worked to restore drinking water and sanitation.