The West Can't Afford to Have Compassion Fatigue

Continued from page 1

The Israelis immediately offered aid, and after initial confusion, Pakistan welcomed it. This is happening for the first time. So here is America, primarily a Christian country, Israel, primarily a Jewish country, and then comes a Muslim country, Turkey, which is a relatively poor country, offering $150 million. The Turkish prime minister not only went to Pakistan, but he went to the affected areas and he brought with him doctors and medical tents as if he were part of the relief effort himself, not just as a token, and that made a huge impact on Pakistanis.

The Pakistanis nationwide are responding emotionally because of the nature of the disaster. Hundreds of Pakistanis are driving up from Karachi and Lahore, bringing aid and food and medical supplies. While that is creating some administrative problems in the area itself, it is also fostering a sense of nationalism and a sense of involvement with the people on the ground. In that context, any response internationally becomes an indicator of how people are responding to Pakistan with affection, with love, or with indifference.

Have the Arab states--the Muslim states of the Middle East--also contributed?

They have contributed, but there has been commentary [in the Pakistani press] pointing out that they have not been as generous as Pakistanis expected. The Turks get absolutely first marks because of their magnificent response, and the Americans get really high marks, which is a positive change, because America had been getting really bad press for its involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan, often interpreted as a war against Islam.

How is the earthquake interpreted from a Muslim theological perspective? Is it seen as a sign from God?

As an anthropologist, I find this question fascinating because it tells us so much about society. I watched Katrina and the interpretations of Katrina. Now, you know when Katrina struck, there were many religious figures-including, by the way, a chief rabbi from Israel-who said that this is God being unhappy with people. Some Muslims said the same thing.

So now we have a situation where a Muslim area has been hit. And Muslim religious figures are saying that this is God's way of showing his anger; God is not happy at all with the fact that the government is so closely allied with the Americans and therefore fighting against Muslim causes and this is a sign that Muslims are moving away from their ideals and their own character and their own traditions and therefore, God is angry.

There's another religious issue here, which is how societies rely on their own spiritual strength to respond to catastrophes of this scale. When I was looking at what was happening with Katrina, I noted, as an anthropologist, how easily a society implodes. It was like society really collapsing on itself and this was America, the superpower, the most advanced nation in the world. Now we have this happening in Pakistan and, on the administrative level, there is a similar collapse taking place.

There are some terrible stories being reported about little girls or widows who have lost everything being kidnapped. The people of that part of Pakistan are very good-looking, very fair. People in the rest of the subcontinent consider the Kashmiris a good-looking race. If someone is kidnapped from there, they will obviously bring a good price. Stories like these tell us that human nature has a streak prepared to exploit any catastrophe.

At the same time, how does the larger Muslim society respond? In Islam, the quality of sabr (patience) is very highly regarded, because God tells us in the Qur'an that it presupposes confidence in God.

So if you're sitting on a mountaintop, your family is wiped out, if you're a modern young man, you're going to say, "Why me, what sort of God is this, why did God fail me?" If you are a man who believes in Islam very deeply and you have sabr, then you're going to say, "Ah, God is testing me. This is a terrible thing, it can never be made up or repaired but it is yet another test in this life that we have and because I have faith in God, I will be patient. And therefore this is a kind of cushion against the blows that we are all subjected to in our lives.

Can Muslim values survive the quake?
Read more on page 3 >>

_Related Features

Prayers for Earthquake Victims Muslims and the Wrath of God Moral Stamina and Sustained Compassion

Continued on page 3: »