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.
November 27, 2014 @ 3:50 pm
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.