Article Added On: January 12, 2005 - over 3 years ago
Title: Were waves the fault of 'infidels'?
Author: Salim Mansur
Publication: The Toronto Sun
Publication Date: January 01, 2005 - over 3 years ago
Faith Groups: Muslim
Themes: religion in the media

Abstract: In the midst of an outpouring of support for tsunami victims, words from the Middle East seen in the regional media sound a strikingly discordant note. The Saudi justice minister was seen on the Saudi Arabian/United Arab Emirates Al-Majd television channel, saying "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." A Palestinian prayer leader announced just days after the tsunami that the waves were sent by a vengeful God against "corrupt oppressors." A Saudi professor said the tsunami was a divine punishment for homosexuality and fornication: "It happened at Christmas, when fornicators and corrupt people from all over the world come to commit fornication and sexual perversion," while another Saudi cleric said, "Those celebrating spent (the holiday) in vacation resorts, pubs, and hotels. Allah struck them with an earthquake." The West must protect itself from the medievalism of the Middle East, Salim Mansur, Toronto Sun columnist, urges.

January 12, 2005

Canadians observed, at the initiative of Prime Minister Paul Martin, an official day of mourning for the Asian tsunami victims. There have been similar observations, ecumenical prayers, expressions of grief and solidarity from peoples and governments across the world.

More important, words have been matched and exceeded with the generosity of people in Canada and elsewhere to help alleviate the sufferings of the living and contribute to rebuilding the devastated areas of the countries affected.

In the midst of such an outpouring of support for tsunami victims, words from the Middle East, reported in the regional media, sound a strikingly contrary and discordant note.

The Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), based in Washington, has been providing since 1998, as its Web site notes, "timely translations of Arabic, Farsi, and Hebrew media."

This service of reporting -- unedited and uncensored -- what is said by those who shape public opinion in the region provides a window to the thinking of the people there.

A review of MEMRI's recent translations of statements relating to the Asian tsunami in the Arab media is at once shocking and revealing of the mindset of many religious, academic and political leaders of the Arab-Muslim world.

The Saudi justice minister, Ibrahim Al-Bashar, went on the Saudi Arabian/United Arab Emirates Al-Majd television channel to state: "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."

In the same vein, Sheik Ibrahim Mudeiris, a Palestinian prayer leader, announced just days after the tsunami that the waves were sent by a vengeful God against "corrupt oppressors."

A Saudi professor, Sheikh Fawzan Al-Fawzan, at the Al-Imam University in Beirut, Lebanon, observed on television that the tsunami was a divine punishment for homosexuality and fornication: "It happened at Christmas, when fornicators and corrupt people from all over the world come to commit fornication and sexual perversion."

Another Saudi cleric, Muhammad Al-Munajjid, expanded this idea: "Those celebrating spent (the holiday) in vacation resorts, pubs, and hotels. Allah struck them with an earthquake. He finished off the Richter scale. All nine levels gone. Tens of thousands dead."

An Egyptian correspondent, Mahmoud Bakri, writing for Egypt's weekly magazine Al-Usbu', developed an ingenious, conspiracy-laden theory for the disaster. Bakri posed the question "Was (it) caused by American, Israeli, and Indian nuclear testing on the day of horror?"

Then he answered: "... although so far it has not been proven that secret Indian-Israeli nuclear testing is what caused the destructive earthquake, there is evidence that the recent nuclear tests, the exchange of nuclear experts between India and Israel, and the American pressure on Pakistan regarding its nuclear cooperation with Asian and Islamic countries -- all these pose a big question mark regarding the causes of the severe earthquake in Asia."

These words illuminate the minds of the people who utter them and of those who accept.

Moreover, these are opinions of several members of the educated elite of a part of the world deliberately locked into a medieval mindset.

This medievalism, often in the guise of Islam, rages in fury at the world beyond itself. It extols the virtues of suicide bombers, blames Jews and infidels for the ills of the world, and declares war on the West.

There is a lesson in this. It took Europe centuries to escape the fanaticism and impoverishment of the medieval age.

Today, the West must protect itself from the medievalism of the Middle East.