Muslims and the tsunami

[igloo]

Muslims and the tsunami

Mona Charen (archive)

January 14, 2005 | printer friendly version Print | email to a friend Send

Prince Felix Schwartenberg of Austria was asked in 1848 how his country would respond to Russia's help putting down a Hungarian insurrection. "Austria," he replied, "will astound the world with the magnitude of her ingratitude."

Well stand aside, Prince, because Indonesia can now assume first place in the pantheon of ingrates. The world's most populous Muslim nation, horribly battered by the tsunami, announced that it wished to see American and other foreign troops who are providing disaster relief out by March 31. "The sooner the better," said Vice President Yusuf Kalla. The U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln was reportedly asked to withdraw from Indonesian territorial waters off Banda Aceh due to Indonesian "sensitivity" about U.S. training flights.

Our diplomats are doing what they always do, attempting to portray a knife in the back as a friendly pat. Thus U.S. Ambassador to Indonesia B. Lynn Pascoe was quick to assure the world that the deadline was just dandy. "We don't intend to be there a minute afterward. ... As I understand, the vice president was referring to a plan they have internally for the length of time it is going to take them to be set up and have transportation sufficient that they will not need helicopters. That's a perfectly reasonable position to me."

Really? It makes many Americans want to spit. Should we be leaning over backward to assure Indonesia that we won't overstay our welcome -- enduring heat, accidents, disease, expense and other hardships in order to help her people?

Here's an alternate theory: The Indonesian government's hatred for the United States overpowers even the most dire needs of its suffering people. That is a mighty hatred. Even Turkey gratefully accepted aid from Greece when the former suffered an earthquake in 1999.

Certainly the Indonesian government does not speak for everyone in the country. Many Indonesians have expressed their thanks to the United States and the rest of the world. But neither is it deniable that Islamic extremists have poisoned many minds in the Muslim world. As Paul Marshall reported in The Weekly Standard, a "prominent Islamist Website Jihad Unspun maintains the tsunami struck Thailand for supporting 'the Christian crusaders in the war on terror.'" The other nations on the Indian Ocean that suffered death and destruction were similarly deserving -- India for its "polytheism" and Sri Lanka for supposedly "giving its full backing to the Christian Crusaders inside the White House."

In Egypt, as the Middle East Media Research Institute reports, an editorial in the government weekly Akhbar Al-Yawn noted that the Arab Doctors Association is aiding jihad warriors in Chechnya, Afghanistan, Iraq and Bosnia, but it declined to assist tsunami victims because the disaster is seen as "punishment from Allah." It does not apparently pause to consider that Banda Aceh, the hardest-hit province in the hardest-hit nation, is the most Islamist.

Ibrahim Al-Bashar, an advisor to Saudi Arabia's justice minister, explained on Saudi television:

Whoever reads the Koran, given by the Maker of the World, can see how these nations were destroyed. There is one reason: They lied, they sinned, and (they) were infidels. Whoever studies the Koran can see this is the result. ... These countries, in which these things occurred -- don't they refrain from adopting Allah's law, which is a form of heresy? Whoever does not act according to Allah's law is a heretic, that's what Allah said in the Koran. Don't these countries have witchcraft, sorcery, deceitfulness and abomination?

Sheik Ibrahim Mudeiris, a Palestinian cleric, pronounced the following in his televised Friday sermon:

Don't you think that the wrath of the earth and the wrath of the sea should make us reflect? Tens of thousands dead, and many predict that the number will be in the hundreds of thousands. We ask God for forgiveness. When oppression and corruption increase, the law of equilibrium applies. I can see in your eyes that you are wondering what the 'universal law of equilibrium' is. This law is a divine law. If people are remiss in implementing God's law and in being zealous and vengeful for His sake, Allah sets his soldiers in action to take revenge.

It would be reassuring to hear from the Muslim faithful that those who urge "vengefulness" on God's behalf and who shrug off the greatest natural disaster in years as Allah's punishment are themselves heretics. But such reassurance is hard to find.

[kramadas]

I heard about this. I'm speechless - no way to defend this at all! Truly disgusting. The sad thing is, many of the actual people welcomed the soldiers as heros.

[bigpoppanils]

Here's an alternate theory: The Indonesian government's hatred for the United States overpowers even the most dire needs of its suffering people.

Erm...not necessarily hatred of the US. I think Indonesia wants the foreigners out so it can take out the rebels in Aceh without the potential interference of foreign troops. Already Indonesian soldiers have began attacking the rebels despite the cease fire.

[fresinha12]

Jeez...I thought, igloo was going to say in this thread that his rabbi talked to god, and god told him the moslems started the tsunami...I mean god was saying "how can i be so mean?"...it must be alqaeda they are only ones capapble of doing bad and mean things.......

Erm...not necessarily hatred of the US. I think Indonesia wants the foreigners out so it can take out the rebels in Aceh without the potential interference of foreign troops. Already Indonesian soldiers have began attacking the rebels despite the cease fire.

[tres-b]

Sad...unfortuately it is not surprising.

[kramadas]

Sad...unfortuately it is not surprising.

Alright, one should never believe in op-eds off the bat. From CNN:

In Indonesia, authorities have said aid workers in some parts of Aceh province must be protected by troops, in a bid, they say, to protect relief teams from rebel attacks.

Aceh, which has been the scene of about 30 years of civil strife between government troops and separatist rebels, was the hardest hit of all the regions, with 113,000 people killed and thousands missing after the world's worst earthquake in 40 years hit off the coast.

Rebels say they are honoring a cease-fire, and relief groups have reported no security problems in the devastated province, where roads were washed out and villages erased.

Indonesia's vice president told reporters this week that "foreign military and aid groups can leave" his country by March 26, but U.S. State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said the comment "was intended as an estimate about how long the military part of the operation might be necessary."

Military operations were the best way to get aid to hard-to-reach areas, and "nobody is asking us to go home," Boucher added.

But, he said, should Indonesia ask U.S. troops to depart, "we would. It's pretty simple."

"We're going to stay there as long as we are needed to help out," he said.

U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell echoed Boucher's comments, telling PBS "Newshour" that American and Indonesian officials were working well together and "rules have not been imposed on our operation."

Speaking in Washington, Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz said the Indonesians welcomed U.S. forces with open arms.

"All the concern about sovereignty and mistrust of foreign militaries have been put aside in the wake of this disaster."

Wolfowitz said he expects the United States to end military assistance in Indonesia within weeks.

"It would certainly be our expectation, our hope, that we wouldn't be needed ... long before that (end of March)."

U.S. President George W. Bush said the American military was making a significant difference that was greatly appreciated.

"There's a lot of talk about how some in the world don't appreciate America," Bush said. "I can assure you that those that our military has helped appreciate America." (Full story)

The U.N.'s chief humanitarian coordinator Jan Egeland said they would wind down military operations in Aceh "in the next few weeks," but the withdrawal will be based solely on need.

The group has urged Jakarta not to issue deadlines for outside militaries to leave.

In Aceh province, Egeland said, "we still have huge problems," but added that neither the government nor the rebels have put any restrictions on the humanitarian work -- "yet."

"We hope and pray it will not happen," he said.

rest of article here:

http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/asiapcf/01/14/asia.tsunami/index.html

[kramadas]

Funny how people love to jump on Indonesia and talk shit about them but not a peep about India or Thailand who have refused aid. Is it because Indonesia is primarily muslim?

[jtk4]

I am sure they just look at us a little funny when one of our charities wants to take a 50 or so orphan muslim babies and put them in christian houses.

But they will get our help whether they like it or not.

[g420]

just another example why that religion is demented.