Despite universal sympathy for the Iraqi people on both the official and public levels, these feelings have yet to be translated into practical reality. We have yet to see humanitarian assistance moving into Iraq to treat the wounded and alleviate the sufferings of the helpless Iraqi people because of the illegal invasion. Hospitals overflow with wounded civilians while medical supplies are being rapidly depleted; food stores have been bombed and water and electricity stations blown up. Still, our humanitarian organizations are inexplicably silent as if the matter is of no concern to them.

They have not even approached the authorities for permission to start collecting donations and seeking medical and food supplies.

Why are there no telethons or donation campaigns launched from our mosques? Where are the preachers, poets and orators calling on people to give to those in need? Muslims feel ashamed and humiliated for being treated with contempt by others and finding themselves helpless, unable to act while an Arab Muslim people are being slaughtered in broad daylight. But they feel only shame and humiliation; they do not act to alleviate the sufferings of their fellow Arab Muslims.

The least that could be done under these circumstances is to open the door for donations. This small step would go some way to cooling the boiling rage. It is an irony that Bush and Blair, the two men who are responsible for the tragedy, sensed the looming humanitarian disaster and allocated money to humanitarian assistance in Iraqi.

Our humanitarian organizations, on the other hand, are doing nothing; they have failed to react to a disaster next door. What are they waiting for? How long will they continue as mere spectators to what is happening in Iraq? The Jeddah-based International Islamic Relief Organization, (IIRO) has spoken of camps being built to shelter thousands of Iraqi refugees expected to flee the country and of readying food and medical supplies at the cost of SR10 million. Well, no Iraqi refugees are crossing borders to come to the camps so the statements are in effect irrelevant. IIRO failed to tell us of any alternate programs to help the Iraqis. While relief convoys are being sent to Iraq from non-Muslim states, including some poor ones, we continue to sit with the spectators as if the matter is of no concern to us.

Arab News From the Local Press 12 April 2003