Haiti in Need

It has been a week since the nation of Haiti was hit with its worst earthquake in 200 years. The massive quake (7.3 in scale) destroyed the buildings and roads. The death toll so far is 200,000 people with another 250,000 injured. More than 1.5 million people are left homeless, struggling for survival. A medical officer who is pouring his/her heart and soul in helping the victims made a startling claim. He/she said that 20,000 people will die every day because of lack of medical supplies. These victims need surgery to treat their injuries and complications that arose due to the devastating quake. Infections are spreading at a pandemic level and the prospects are looking gloomy.

I do not think I have to explain much further. The whole world must have understood the situation by now. It is covered in mass media and humanity seems to be responding well to the catastrophe that has befallen the people of Haiti. Millions of dollars are donated by many countries throughout the world. Aids are promised by many organizations and people are being generous about it.

However, as I scroll through the news using my laptop and read the various articles concerning the Haiti tragedy, I realized a common pattern. Many articles covered the numerous aids and donations given by countries throughout the world, as well as organizations. Nevertheless, I could not see any Muslim countries listed or Muslim organizations. I kept on reading and still could not find any. Feeling adamant that this must not be a fact, I continued searching. Finally, I came across an article. Alhamdulillah.

The article was from www.themajlis.org and even though I do not know the validity of this article, it provided me solace and surety. The link is provided at the end of this post. The article was in fact written to prove that Muslim countries are indeed helping the country of Haiti even though it seems difficult to find that information in other mainstream sources. I do not know the reason behind such blatant omission of information from other sources. One can only speculate but that will not do any good. However, I do not find it hard to believe if people start speculating the reason behind Muslim countries’ ‘lack of support’ for the Haiti cause.

You see, Haiti is country largely populated by Christians. According to my research, 80% of the population are Roman Catholics, 16% are Protestants, 1% Atheists and 3% Others. Where are Muslims? Less than 0.04% of them are Muslims. Clearly, I have no idea how to truly substantiate this information but in the end, it is suffice to say that Muslims are a small minority in the area. Thus, some people might argue that Muslims countries ‘lack of support’ might be due to the lack of Muslims in Haiti. Evidently, that is without a doubt, a false belief.

I do not deny the possibility that there might Muslims who felt some degree of reluctance to help the people of Haiti because of the large population of Christians. After all, humans are enormously varied and we are not angels. Nevertheless, I firmly hold true that Islam teaches its believers to spread good to everyone as narrated in verse 2 of surah Al-Maidah:

And help each other in righteousness and piety, and do not help each other in sin and aggression. And fear Allah. Surely, Allah is severe at punishment.

Thus, regardless of our differences, if we have the means to assist and help, why not? Why deprive ourselves from the bounties promised to us by Allah Himself?

Additionally, a good friend of mine forwarded a letter that struck a chord. It was poignant and sad. I felt a sense of responsibility after reading it and I thought I might share it here. The letter was taken from the website www.muslimmatters.org and the link is provided below. An excerpt of the letter is as follows:

Ya Ikhwani! We are in need of your assistance. Our country has been hit by an act of nature that has left our people with countless deaths, homeless, without water, food, blood and medication.

All of our hospitals have crumbled, we have piles of people in the streets dead. Some people have had to have their limbs removed without aesthetics. Makeshift hospitals are being made with tents but there are not enough doctors or medication for the amount of injured.

The smell of dead bodies has risen in the entire city, the people have become desperate of the situation.

Houses have been destroyed, stores, buildings, it is a complete nightmare. A children hospital was destroyed and thousands of children have died.

All the masjids are still standing and the brothers and sisters are using them as shelters for those in need. The little available is being shared.

Unfortunately all the churches have been destroyed and over 100 priest have died.

We ask you please for your du’as to Allah, subhanahu wa ta ala, to alleviate us from this tragedy. And if you can help us in any way, with food, water, medication or whatever it may be. Please, please, please do so.

May Allah keep you all under His shade and move your hearts to extend your hands to your brothers and sisters and our people who are in need.

From: Brother Ahmed bin Ambroise, a Muslim based in Haiti.

Subhannallah!

The question that still remains, are we going to act upon this? Lets!

Link 1: http://www.themajlis.org/2010/01/18/muslim-countries-are-in-fact-helping-haiti

Link 2: http://muslimmatters.org/2010/01/16/letter-from-haiti-a-haitian-muslims-request-for-help/