SAUDI ARABIA: Arab TV appeals for donations as Riyadh ups aid

Al-Jazeera plans telethon to help Saudi Arabia collect more donations for tsunami victims

The Straits Times
Friday, January 7, 2005

DUBAI - Arab satellite television channel Al-Jazeera said yesterday it is collecting donations for tsunami victims, as Saudi Arabia tripled its aid pledge to US$90 million (S$148 million) and announced a fund-raising telethon.
 
The news comes as wealthy Middle Eastern countries have come under fire, from their own media and commentators, for giving and caring too little.

They pointed out that combined pledges from the Middle East and the Gulf of around US$100 million came nowhere near contributions of many other countries and represented a mere fraction of the US$500 million offered by Japan alone.

The United Arab Emirates has pledged US$20 million, while Kuwait and Qatar have each pledged US$10 million for tsunami victims.
 
Al-Jazeera said its campaign is being run with the International Committee of the Red Cross and Red Crescent.

It is broadcasting an appeal for people to send money to a bank account whose number is displayed on the screen or by going to a local Red Cross or Red Crescent centre.

Oil-rich Gulf states have been increasing their pledges steadily as the scope of the disaster has become clearer, and amid accusations at home and abroad that they did not do enough, especially when worst hit Indonesia is a Muslim country too.

Some in the Gulf have questioned why Western governments and individuals have reacted more generously than Arabs.

The Arab News, a Saudi newspaper, reported yesterday that state television, at the orders of King Fahd and Crown Prince Abdullah, would broadcast a telethon to raise funds yesterday evening.

A similar telethon in 2003 to raise money for Iraqis affected by the United States-led war, and one in 2002 for Palestinians, each raised tens of millions of dollars.

Some Islamic preachers have said in Friday sermons that the tsunamis were divine retribution for the unIslamic or immoral lifestyles of vacationers, The Washington Times reported.

'We know that at these resorts, which unfortunately exist in Islamic and other countries in South Asia, and especially at Christmas, fornication and sexual perversion of all kinds are rampant,' one cleric, Sheik Fawzan Al-Fawzan, was quoted as saying.

'The fact that it happened at this particular time is a sign from Allah.'

There is also a reluctance in Arab culture to make charitable contributions public, as it is viewed as a form of boasting.

But Mr Abdul Bari Atwan, editor of the pan-Arab daily Al-Quds Al-Arabi, was scathing. He told Al-Jazeera:

'We Arabs failed in peace as we did in war. We failed in all tests of democracy and human rights. Here we are, registering a new failure on the humanitarian front.'

In Malaysia, opposition leader Lim Kit Siang urged the government to convene an emergency meeting of the Organisation of Islamic Conference and push members to contribute more towards tsunami relief efforts.

'It has not escaped notice of the world...that oil-rich Gulf Arab states, home to millions of Asian workers, have so far pledged less than US$93 million to victims of the Asian tsunami disaster, despite reaping six times as much in crude revenues daily,' he said.

'This is not even 2 per cent of the global pledges of tsunami aid which is now nearly US$4 billion.'

Date Posted: 1/7/2005