YOGYAKARTA, Indonesia — Muslims, especially
relief groups, usually draw fierce international criticism for not
rushing to help when natural disasters, including in their own
backyard, strike.
But the seemingly duck-slow response is not always
an indication of lack of interest to give a hand of assistance, many
believe.
Life for Relief and Development, an international
Muslim charity, has just arrived in Indonesia over three weeks after
the disaster.
"If we want to transfer money we have to go
through several different parties to have it legitimate," Fateh
Turkmen, one of the relief group's representatives who just arrived in
Indonesia, told IslamOnline.net.
The organization came with $30,000 USD in emergency
supplies such as food and provisions.
The 6.3-magnitude temblor killed 5,800 people,
injured up to 40,000 people and destroyed or damaged almost 600,000
houses in the heavily-populated Yogyakarta and Central Java provinces
on Java island.
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of
Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said Saturday, 24 June, that money was
running out for essential food, water and education projects to reach
the people worst hit by the disaster.
Without funding extensions for food aid, the most
vulnerable – mostly women and children – could go hungry as early
as the end of July.
Not even half of the one million people made
homeless by the earthquake will have received emergency shelter by
that time.
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The UN warns that without funding extensions for food aid quake survivors could go hungry as early as the end of July. (IOL picture)
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Life is working with two very well-recognized and
high-rated charities out of the United States, Brothers Brother and
Americares.
Even with this partnership and passing US
government audits and investigations on a continual basis, the
Indonesian government still puts stops on aid because of fear of
support for terrorism.
Fateh asserted that his organization had similar
problems while trying to help Kashmiris hit b y a recent quake.
"When we were doing work in Kashmir after the
earthquake it took us nearly six months to deliver aid because of the
Pakistani government," he recalled.
"Non-Muslim organizations do not have this
problem," insists the Muslim activist.
Life for Relief and Development (formally
International relief Organization) is a nonprofit organization founded
in 1993.
It is dedicated to alleviate human suffering around
the world regardless of race, color or cultural background.
The group strives to offer humanitarian, health,
educational, social and economic services to victims of natural
disasters, wars and hunger.
War on Terror
Washington's so-called war on terror is seen by
many as preventing Muslim charities from doing work in some countries.
If there is access granted, it’s limited and any
legal technicality is cumbersome and tedious.
This has placed unbelievable stress upon local and
international Muslim aid groups to respond and respond as fast as
possible.
In 2005, US Muslims formed the National Council of
American Muslims Non-Profits in an effort to develop a comprehensive
oversight mechanism ensuring transparency and protection for the
Muslim institutions in the country.
The council, a response to the shutdown and
restrictions on the Islamic charities and non-profit groups in the US,
was spearheaded by the Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC) and the
Islamic Society of North America (ISNA).
Since the 9-11 attacks, the US has been putting
pressures on Muslim countries to clamp down on Islamic charities under
the pretext that they were channeling funds to terrorists and
extremists, a charge vehemently dismissed by many charities.
In August, 2003, thousands of Palestinian orphans
and destitute families took
to the streets of Palestinian cities to protest freezing the bank
accounts of 18 charities suspected of having links with the
Palestinian resistance movement Hamas.
Saudi Arabia has also begun to close all charities
and relief organizations outside the kingdom and place their funds and
properties under the control of a newly established governmental body.
Worth It
Despite the headache, Fateh knows this work is
worth it.
He visited some sites upon arriving and noticed
that wherever he went people were very accepting of the fate dealt to
them by Allah with patience.
He said that he never saw this in his career and
gave the example of Ethiopia on a recent visit to help relieve the
drought crisis there.
"The people were crying and cursing and were
out of control, but here in Yogyakarta, the people accepted their
situation and were willing to work with it."
Thousands of Muslims flocked into mosques across
Indonesia on Friday, June 2, for the first Friday prayers after the
powerful quake that rattled the world's most populous Muslim nation.
Before the imams delivered his sermons, a special
prayer leaflet was distributed entitled "Disaster and How to Face
It."
Indonesia, the world most populous country, is in a
zone known as the Pacific "ring of fire", which is prone to
earthquakes and volcanic activity.
In December 2004, a huge earthquake off Indonesia's
coast killed hundreds of thousands of people across the Indian Ocean
by triggering a tsunami.
