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THE PEACE AND JUSTICE FOUNDATION
4 Sha'ban 1426
Was Hurricane Katrina a Sign from Allah?
This is a preliminary [analytical] report for the Muslim community - directed primarily to Muslim leaders, teachers, activists and writers. Over the past few days we've received a number of requests for our opinion on the hurricane and its aftermath; and thus, we wanted to get something out before tomorrow's jumah, insha'Allah.
We emphasize, this is a preliminary report. Once this commentary is complete we will put it on our website, and, through a variety of other means, make it available to the community-at-large. This emanates from our recognition of the fact that we are all wedded together by the common thread of ONE shared humanity.
âIn the heavens and earth, and all in between, verily there are signs for those who reflect.â (Al-Qur'an)
These words, along with other passages from the Sacred Qur'an, come to mind when this writer reflects on the impact that Hurricane Katrina - along with an assortment of other recent ânatural disastersâ - has had on America. In one of the most often cited ahadith of the Prophet Mohammed (saw), the Messenger of Allah is reported to have said: âHelp your brother when he is right, and when he is wrong.â A companion responded, âO Messenger of Allah, we know how to support our brother when he is right; but how do we support him when he is wrong?â The Prophet responded, âHold back his hand from doing wrong.â
The Prophet is also reported to have said: âOne of the best jihads is to speak truth to a [governing authority] who has deviated from the right way.â
The Muslim community has been among those who have responded to the disaster that struck America's gulf region - Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana - with prayers, money, and other forms of relief. We must also assist our fellow citizens in this time of national crisis with words of sincere advice. (What we in Arabic call, nasiha.) With all of the ânatural disastersâ that have impacted America (and the rest of the world) over the past few years, the question that should arise in the mind of any sincere âbelieverâ (irrespective of religious creed) is the following: Is God angry with America (and the rest of this global community)?
There is a verse in the Qur'an that reads: âCorruption has appeared on the land and on the sea, on account of what men's hands have wrought; Allah will make them taste a part of what they have done, so that they might return.â
With ever increasing frequency America, the âleader of the free world,â is being hit with one natural disaster after another; earthquakes and fire storms in the western part of the United States that impact tens of thousands of acres of land, wildlife and personal property; hurricanes in the south and tornadoes in the midwest, which seem to grow in ferocity with each passing year; floods in different parts of America that are so severe, they unearth the dead from graves, and cause even the most cynical and secular journalists to invoke biblical allusions in their reports and commentaries! And then there are those disasters that have nothing to do with âMother Natureâ - such as the Columbia Disaster (which impacted America's highly touted space program).
(Insha'Allah, in the final report we will contrast, and share our perspective on, what we consider to be the relative aspects of the Columbia, Tsunami, and Hurricane Katrina disasters.) For now we will restrict this writing to the issues raised in the Hurricane Katrina disaster.
Katrina's Impact
In terms of lives and property lost, Hurricane Katrina may end up being the worst natural disaster in U.S. history. As many as 10,000 people may have lost their lives; a major city has been virtually destroyed; and close to a half a million people have become internally displaced refugees in their own land.
As it pertains to the economy, the gulf is considered to be the heart of America's energy production, supplying an estimated 35 percent of domestic oil production. It is also the central location for American refineries! Hurricane Katrina hit at a time when imports from Iraq have reportedly âall but dried up,â and Venezuela (a key oil producer for the U.S.) remains âtumultuous.â
Nigel Gault, U.S. economist at Global Insight, Inc., a forecasting and research firm, noted, âThe storm's effect on the nation's energy supply is really the key to the impact on the economy.â (Washington Post, 8/31/05) While Bernard Baumohl, executive director of the Economic Outlook Group LLC, a forecasting firm in New Jersey, reportedly said, âThis storm will be the most devastating ever for the U.S. oil and refining industries.â (Washington Post, 8/30/05)
Other Economic Indicators
Predictably, oil prices have sharply risen in the wake of Katrina.
The storm paralyzed the regional economy across a swath of coastal territory in the Gulf of Mexico, and caused a disruption of commodity shipments through critical ports at the mouth of the Mississippi.
In the immediate aftermath of the storm, nearly three million households and businesses were without power in Alabama, Florida, Louisiana and Mississippi.
Transportation of people, and manufactured products, was blocked by closed airports and seaports, flooded roads, and train tracks littered with debris.
Atlanta based BellSouth, Corp. has reported that an estimated 1.1 million lines were still out in the region (as of September 6th ); and further, that repairs would cost somewhere in the neighborhood of $400 million to $600 million, and it could take four to six months to restore service in the hardest hit areas of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast of Mississippi.
Hurricane Katrina could cost Insurers up to $25 Billion. (It should be noted that uninsured losses are often double the insured loss.) If predictions hold true, it would make Katrina the most costly storm on record. (Florida's Hurricane Andrew, in 1992, cost insurers nearly $21 billion in today's dollars.)
Katrina's impact has already been felt by citizens throughout the nation, in rising gas prices. It's been reported that at least a half-dozen major refineries â from St. Charles, La., to Pascagoula, Ms. - were evacuated in anticipation of the hurricane, reducing the flow of gasoline by 1.8 million barrels a day (roughly 10 percent of U.S. demand).
The Human Cost
In addition to the death, injury, illness, and displacement of hundreds of thousands of people, issues of race and class have once again (forcefully) come front and center in the land of âliberty and justice for all.â New Orleans - a city estimated to be 70 percent black, and primarily poor - has been destroyed; and a national debate has ensued over the question, to what extent did race and class factor into the death and destruction that now visits the city?!
One part of the argument suggests that President George W. Bush callously, and repeatedly, reduced revenue designated for infrastructure repair and enhancement in the city of New Orleans; repairs that could have significantly reduced the damage wrought by a major hurricane.
Numerous reports by independent sources (on the dangerous condition of the city's infrastructure) - coupled with FEMA's own past warnings of the type of catastrophe most likely to impact America: (1) a terrorist attack, (2) a major earthquake on the West Coast, or (3) a major hurricane in New Orleans, Louisiana â has made the disaster a potential liability for the administration and its political allies. Particularly, when the charge is also being made that the administration repeatedly reduced infrastructure allocations in order to free up more money for its war in Iraq!
The other factor concerns itself with the Government's response to the catastrophe itself (and this too has raised both race and class issues). One very important way to gauge the paucity of the U.S. government's response, is by juxtaposing the outcome of America's collision with a category 4 hurricane, with the relatively recent experience of one of its smaller neighbors.
In September 2004, a CATEGORY 5 HURRICANE battered the island of Cuba with 160 mile per hour winds. More than 1.5 million Cubans were evacuated to higher ground ahead of the storm; and although 20,000 houses were reportedly destroyed, not one person died!
What the World is Saying
People around the world have taken note of the inadequate response of U.S. Government agencies (local, state, and NATIONAL) to the crisis in the Gulf; and to how race and class (in the world's ârichestâ and âmost powerfulâ nation) may have factored into that woefully inadequate response. What follows are a few representative reactions (from America's "allies" in the West).
âPeople around the world cannot believe what they're seeing. From Argentina to Zimbabwe, front-page photos of the dead and desperate in New Orleans, almost all of them poor and black, have sickened them and shaken assumptions about American might. How can this be happening, they ask, in a nation whose wealth and power seem almost supernatural in so many struggling corners of the world? Pick the comparison: New Orleans looks like Haiti, or Baghdad, or Sudan, Bangladesh or Sri Lanka. The images of the rubble and corpses and empty-eyed survivors remind people of those places, not the United States.â - The New York Times (9/4/05)
âThird World America. Law and order is gone, gunmen roam at will, raping and looting, and as people die of heat and thirst, bodies lie rotting in the street. Until now, such a hellish vista could only be imagined in a Third World disaster zone. But this was America yesterday.â - The Daily Mail in London (9/3/05)
âWhere was the president in his country's hour of need? And why has it taken him five days to go to New Orleans? ... How can the US take Iraq, a country of 25 million people, in three weeks but fail to rescue 25,000 of its own citizens from a sports arena in a big American city? - The Independent, of London (9/3/05)
In France, the front page of the Saturday, Sept. 3, edition of Liberation newspaper featured a photo of a young woman on her knees screaming in anguish, next to a headline that read: âThe Rage of the Forgotten.â While the lead editorial in Le Figaro (on the same day) questioned how it could be that the US Military could respond so quickly to the Tsunami disaster in South Asia, yet fail âto do the same within its own borders.â
Preliminary Summary
We Muslims believe that not a leaf falls to the ground without Allah's knowledge and permission. In the final report we will address the POSSIBLE implications of Hurricane Katrina. (Surely Allah knows best.)
To be continued...
_______________________
Comment: Right now we have over two hundred people staying at the Islamic center of Baton Rouge. We are feeding them and housing them we have power so their is air conditioning running around the clock, a great deal of Baton Rouge has no power, if you would like to help in any way you can contact us at. Islamic Center of Baton Rouge 820 W. Chimes St. Baton Rouge, La. 70802 tel# 225-387-3617
"Strive as in a race to achieve the
goal of excellence in all that you do."
For real insights visit:
http://www.geocities.com/mewatch99/
Regards,
Nashid
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{Invite (mankind, O Muhammad ) to the Way of your Lord (i.e. Islam) with wisdom (i.e. with the Divine Inspiration and the Qur'an) and fair preaching, and argue with them in a way that is better. Truly, your Lord knows best who has gone astray from His Path, and He is the Best Aware of those who are guided.}
(Holy Quran-16:125)
{And who is better in speech than he who [says: "My Lord is Allah (believes in His Oneness)," and then stands straight (acts upon His Order), and] invites (men) to Allah's (Islamic Monotheism), and does righteous deeds, and says: "I am one of the Muslims."} (Holy Quran-41:33)
The prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: "By Allah, if Allah guides one person by you, it is better for you than the best types of camels." [al-Bukhaaree, Muslim]
The prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) also said, "Whoever calls to guidance will have a reward similar to the reward of the one who follows him, without the reward of either of them being lessened at all."
[Muslim, Ahmad, Aboo Daawood, an-Nasaa'ee, at-Tirmidhee, Ibn Maajah]
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