MUSLIM AND
ANGRY….AT MUSLIMS – Opeyemi Oduwole
As a
British-African Muslim that has worshiped at Friday Jumah services in
a number of mosques in almost 2 dozens countries, I have encountered
several appeal for donations for many charitable courses.
Since 9/11,
there had been upsurge in the number of appeal funds to
help Muslims that are victims of the wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, Lebanon and more recently Syria. There are also many charity organisations that
request for funds for the poor, needy and internally displaced people in the
Middle East. Requests for aid to the people of Gaza has been perennial for as
long as I could remember.
There are
several verses in the Holy Quran that point to the importance of charity and
alms-giving as one of the 5 main pillars of Islam but Chapter 2 verse 215 summarizes it by saying “Say, "Whatever you spend of good is [to be] for
parents and relatives and orphans and the needy and the traveler. And whatever
you do of good - indeed, Allah is Knowing of it."
I have pondered
on this verse so many times and tried to see if there is any insinuation of any
sort that gives the impression that ‘needy’ means ‘Arab needy’. And the reason
for my pondering is the disturbing snobbery of
the Islamic charity organisations towards the Ebola epidemic ravaging
and savaging countries in West Africa. This outbreak of the Ebola virus has
killed almost 8,000 people in such a short time and has been described by the
WHO as the most disastrous natural disaster know to humanity since records began.
I
personally believe that this number of about 8,000 deaths recorded may not be
anywhere near accurate as it is a known fact that there is no reliable record
keeping in this part of the world, coupled with the fact that it is reported
that families of many victims of ebola kept the ailing and dead away from
government and health authorities – hence there are many unrecorded cases and
deaths. In my opinion, it wont be far fetched to put the the fatalities from
the ebola epidemic at more than 15,000.
What
amazes, annoys and infuriates me as a Briton, an African and ultimately a Muslim is that since this savaging outbreak, I have not come across one major
Islamic charity organisation that has established or prioritised an appeal fund
for the victims of the virus in West Africa. Since the outbreak of this
epidemic about 8 months ago, I have had the opportunity of visiting 9 countries
and worshiped in mosques for Friday Jumah services and not even on one occasion was I approached to give to the Ebola cause. More annoyingly, 4
of these countries were fellow African countries!!! I however saw posters and volunteers for the ‘usual suspects’ like Syria Appeal Fund, Palestine Appeal
Fund etc.
The quran
did not make any assertion whatsoever that Islamic aid should only go to
the Arabs, nor did it say Muslims in the Middle
East are above Muslims from other regions. In fact, the act of
alms giving, according to the Quran, is devoid of colour, race, ethnicity and
religion. Q2:215 clearly says ‘the needy’ and not ‘the middle-east needy’, nor
the ‘muslim needy’. This brings me to the belief I have always held dear to my
heart that we, as human, as muslims, as xtians, even as
obatala/orunmila/ogun/sango followers have a common duty to give to the needy
irrespective of where they hail from, what they look like or the faith they
choose to follow.
I do hope
that the very popular Islamic charity organisations like The Islamic Aid UK,
The Red Crescent, Da’wah Foundation etc can, as a matter of urgency, make
their presence felt in the global effort to curb this EVD that
threatens our common existence. As this virus do not choose it victims based
on colour, race or faith!!
The anger
in me has made me resolved not to give a dime to the more 'popular'
Islamic funds indefinitely, an action I have dutifully and regularly
performed for years and this resolution of mine genuinely hurts me. However,
I cant deny the fact that the Islamic world has snobbed the people of
West Africa when we need them the most.
For those
that would love to give their widow's mite to the cause of Ebola eradication, I
have added the following links for the UN's Global Ebola Response and Disasters
Emergency Committee DEC's Ebola Crisis Appeal.
Good piece, Ope. Methinks this however cuts across all organised religions, at least the ones we know. We have prioritised religion above anything else including humanity. We only give to 'our kind, for our cause'. I'm trying hard to recollect if and when I have been asked to give towards EVD. In our homes, at places of worship, we need to change the way we think about giving. It's not just to promulgate of religions, beliefs or biases. We are all human after all.
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