Efforts continue in morocco and libya, we hope to discuss what islam says about Natural Disasters and how as muslims we can respond when nature lashes out. The muslim world has of dealt with its fair share of Natural Disasters over the years, but few would have expected to see the sheer scope of devastation caused by a week of horror across north africa. In early september. Maroco was hit by huge earthquake which destroyed a huge area and killed thousands of people in mere moments. Its gods will. I was in the kitchen with my daughterinlaw, while both my husband and my son were sleeping. When the roof fell on them, they were killed, trapped under the rubble, and nobody could save them. It was gods will. Almost straight after, violent storms battered libya. The heavy rains caused severe floods, which aided in the collapse of two dams. An entire city, derna was overrun. Thousands again died in the raging waters, with some claiming the death doll could reach as high as 20,000. My entire neighborhoods houses had collapsed, we couldnt find anyone alive. God predetermines and he did what he wanted. This is very great misfortune. Shortly after wildfires burned their way through a region in algeria, creating new fears of another costly disaster in the area. Despite these hardships and the immense trauma caused to the victims, muslims understand that these are tests of faith and endurance, natural part of life in the dunya. Its during these times of desperation that muslims turn to allah for guidance and salvation. The question of. Why such uncontrollable Natural Disasters happen has been asked many times by scholars and philosophers over the centuries. Islam provides answers to these questions providing a source of comfort to the muslims who are tested in this unfortunate way. Joining us today to talk about islam and Natural Disasters. We have two esteemed guests. With me in the studio is brother Ahmed Hossain from the Muslim Advocacy Group mpac. Which proactively campaigns against islamophobia in the west, and joining us on skype, im honored to have dr. Shamila islamzulfiqar, lady of many talents, but joining us today in her capacity as humanitarian activist who will be deployed to libya with action for Humanity International to you both, um dr. Shamila, if i can actually start with your experience first, you know weve seen the Media Coverage of the recent disasters, but what is it like for those affected on the ground . I know that youve just come back from algeria. Whats the latest . Waalaikumsalam and thank you for having me. Um, you know, i was three hours away from where the fires in algeria were raging, and in reality, um, everywhere else in algeria is functioning as normal, the government is trying to um deal with it as Natural Disaster, and they have contingency plans for these things. there was a series of fires back in july in algeria where i think im around 30 odd people died um and so theyre learning from whats happened there um when you see it in the media i suppose um the Media Coverage gives you very sanitized version of uh what the reality is on the ground um you know for those that are affected their whole life their very exist of has changed, so if we take for example the libya floods, as your report rightly said, whole neighborhoods have been washed away, and theyve and and we we the estimates coming for you, around 20,000 people that have died, um, pole neighborhoods are are buried that under the the homes of their owners, you know, its the mass graveyards um that that now stand where once there were bustling communities, hustling bustling communities, um, and so aside from you, the initial Emergency Needs of food and water to survive, those left behind are going to need massive amounts of. Psychosocial support um with the pts that is inevitably going to come from a tragedy of this magnitude um the the personal trauma the collective trauma of the community um and as as First Response teams when we go out to these places we we also have to sound board up what the reality is like on the ground that um many of the many a time we sat with our right holders and weve ride with them because youre dealing with raw grief, yes, and and you cant send the cyborg into these cases, at the end of the day, they needs to be people that have empathy, that can validate the raw grief that survivers are going through. Thank you for that, um, i was actually talking to brother ahmed about algeria, and um, weve said that theres very little uh coverage on it, brother, ahmad, does politics have an impact on how much attention is actually given to one disaster over another . We youve been. With images of morocco and libya, what about algeria . Yeah, without a doubt, i mean the short answer that to that is narrative control, what is being said, why is it being said . So for example, were be, we are being told that these floods that raged through darna, um, the the nearby wody that was flooded, uh, were told that a couple of dams collapsed, weve been told that bridges have been swept away, roads are blocked. What were not told is, all the question which isnt really being asked is, why isnt there a central Civil Authority in libya that is capable of maintaining dams, that is capable of looking out for bridges and clearing away roads, they dont even have the capacity at the moment for a central weather warning system, which would have obviously put uh these maintenance orders uh out in the first place, thats the question that needs to be asked, what has happened in libya in recent years, which would have undermined their capacity, and then with Natural Disasters as doctor mentioned, um, empathy is needed, sympathy is needed, people need to understand that these are human beings who are being affected, and its very easy to do that for Natural Disasters, but what about manmade disasters, what about the manmade disaster that destroyed libya in the first place, why isnt empathy, sympathy and so on asked for in that situation, and i would argue further, the man made disaster that we call israel, that destroys many lives uh every single day, why arent we allow . To show sympathy and empathy in those times, its about narrative control. Thank you so much for that. Um, dr. If i can actually ask you the same question, in your numerous emergency humanitarian missions, including convoys to countries, often on opposition to nato members at one time or another, like syria, ghaza, palestine, pakistan, yemen, afghanistan, bosnia, lebanon, and bangladesh, amongst others, you know, over the years has politics had a real life impact on the relief available to families on the ground . Look, theres no doubt that um policies in Different Countries affect the infrastructure and the capacity to deal with humanitarian crisis on these kinds of scales, this time last year in september we were um i was head of mission for the the the Emergency Response team that went out to pakistan and that was very a very similar situation. A damburst and i mean it was a massive percentage of the country that was underwater, many lives were lost, and the impact, the Lasting Impact of that was actually because of the amount of crops that failed that year, this is a disaster that is going to continue um, not just from the initial insult injury, but for for many years to come, um, and were still dealing that from sustainability point of view as a charity thats gone in not just for the initial phase, but to um be there for the rehabilitation and reconstruction of country, um, and and yes, you know, these these are things that politics will always be there, these things will always um have people to deal with, as humanitarian aid workers, politics any of um, any of the countries that we deploy to, because we are there to provide humanitarian assistance, needs it, regardless their background. So um in to your question, yes, theres no doubt that policies affect those on the ground in the infrastructure, that country to rebuild itself, earlier this week we spoke to Sheikh Jaafar ladak, an islamic scholar who explained exactly what the quran says on Natural Disasters and how islamic thinkers explain the issue of pain and challenges for believers in this duniya. Bismillahirrahmanirrahim. The quran lays out um various Different Reasons for the divine purposes of the signs of god of which include Natural Disasters, be they earthquakes or tsunamis or tornados or whatever that may be. We have to remember that every air, every sign of god is ultimately for the purpose of proving god, reminding us of gods existence, helping us to understand our place within the universe itself. The ultimate reason here is that when these earthquakes occur or any Natural Disaster occurs, we remember god almighty, and we submit to god almighty whatever stage of our life. Or thinking we may be in, so for example, one of the reasons, the quran mentions that the earthquake is for the purpose of reminding us the extent of the quake that will occur with the day of judgment, for example, the quran in chapter 22, verse one says, the quaking of the hour of judgment is truly a grievious thing, so this purposes or points us back towards the day of judgment, or for example, another reason, the quran mentions for the purpose of these natural events is to remember that all of these actually are belonging to god and are part of the forces of god, so for example again within the quran, chapter number 48, verse number seven, god says, to allah, to god alone belongs. Forces of the heavens and the earth, so this is counted as amongst them, or for example to help us remind us our place within the system, that we are not secure with these Natural Disasters, that death could take us any one moment, again in the quran chapter 67, verse 16, god says, do you feel secure that the one is in the heaven will not cause the earth to shake violently and swallow you up, so there these are the reasons, all of them is to help us to understand our relationship between us and god and to keep us aware of god and our our vulnerability to the system that god has created, so this is the divine arc or the divine purpose behind the ayat of god, which include Natural Disasters or natural occurrences, it would be unwise and unjust of us to be able to assume the mind of god. Briefly, god in the quran sets out that these events predate human existence, and we also realize that there is not only the will of god involved, there is the system that god has created or his sunn, his divine laws, so when god sets up a system of creation that includes natural events, then we cannot necessarily say that. An event has been uh triggered by god as revenge for something, any less or any more than we can say that this is part of the system of god in terms of the way he sets out his creation. We also have a third reason as to why these events occur in that the entirety of the universe is conscious of god thinking and responding to our own behaviors. So if we harm the planet, its very possible for the planet to defend itself. And respond back to us, these things are also mentioned within the quran. Well, brother, ahmad, if i can actually ask you to to build on what the doctor was saying, you know, about the building of infrastructures, we know in the past that when people have actually tried to send resources abroad, you know to build schools and and hospitals and such, they have been suspected of financially supporting and aiding extremism, why this justification, why block this type of work . So never take a label at face value when people are being labeled. Extremists, islamists, etc. Etc. You got to ask whos putting these labels on and whos benefiting from labeling muslims who are helping other muslims, whos benefiting from that, and also whos benefiting from allowing these, you know, these muslims who need help the most, whos benefiting uh from blocking them from getting help, and the most clear example, um, the most clear individual recent example, if you want to look is for example our brother muazen who wanted to do something very simple straightforward to help out few households in syria and he ran his his visit and his aid past a officials first, and yet when he came back, he was hassled, he was detained, um, he was denied his day in court, and so on, and if we look at deeper examples like iraq, or even going as far back as vietnam, we see situations where aid is controlled, manipulated, diverted and so on by hostile governments, you know, the the sanctions on iraq, the the sanctions on vietnam, these were put in place, again, it was about narrative control, it was about manipulating entire. So dont take these labels at face value um because theres someone benefits from that narrative control. Elaborate more though for me on the who does benefit, how do they benefit . You know financially is it like the war machine thats being fueled, are peoples pockets getting lined with you know that kind of hate narrative thats being promoted in the media . Yeah for sure, there are war profiteering is an ageold phenomena that that has been recognized since uh since even before you know modern wars um Smedly Butler wrote about the uh war is racket um and this is coming from someone who was a highly decorated soldier um he then wrote after his lifes work was done uh he said that why was i bleeding my life away on these fields across the world it was for the world prophet is so its you know its not not a conspiracy or anything um and thats its not just you know the profit from itself, again as i was saying, there are those who benefit from the narrative, politicians, journalists, media, conglomerates and so on, they benefit from manipulating Public Opinion and benefiting it when it comes to election times, when it comes to uh winning government contract or the ears of government officials and so on, yes, absolutely, well said, um, and sister shamila, the media only seems to cover big events, you know, how frequently is the help of . Like yours needed you, what kind of work do Disaster Relief charities conduct in these situations . Um, so action for humanity, we um utilize the expertise that weve built over the last 12 years in dealing with the syrian war, and we apply the knowledge and skills to the emergency that unfolds before us, any one time, millions of people on the planet are in die need of support, and thats simply to survive. Let alone to thrive. Um, i work with this charity in particular because of the longterm sustainability of humanitarian intervention and the impact of supporting communities to help themselves up, because often, its its like the concept of giving a man fish, um, hell eat for a day, but whereas um teaching him to fish ensures that his community um, the communitys longevity and the ability eat for life, um, so in our. To your question is always going to be need and we always try to um answer the call in the best way that we can, and that has to be with excellence in every setting, you know, rasulullah said, the most beloved of people to allah are those that are most beneficial to the people, and i found that this charity is vehicle where we are able to reach as many people as possible, i mean even as a medical doctor in my career, as a medic, i will reach. 20, 30, 40 people a day, in the work that were doing currently, we were supporting millions and its something that um, that im very, very passionate about, and i think the donor has to be very careful about how and what is happening with their donation . You know, there are scientific studies that im sure youre also aware of that um, talk about the effect of prayer physically on peoples bodies. You know, the power of prayer. We know as muslim has a massive effect not only on ourselves but on others, do you find that thats the same when you are um deployed out into disaster zones . Oh, absolutely, um, i think if we are aiming, i suppose give out humanitarian aid, it must be with ehsan and with excellence, and that starts with the right intention right the beginning, um, and and ill just give you insight of. What um organizations like um action for humanity will do, so those that are um quite established and have dealt with, they have expertise of over 12 years, over decade of dealing with conflict and disaster areas, um, theres three, usually three phases to any emergency, the very first phase phase will be the emergency, the rescue um and making sure that people have the immediate needs, so water, food, shelter. Depending on um you know the the environment that they theyre now left with, and then the second phase is sadly one of the saddest phases is when it moves from an emergency phase to. Recovery phase, so retrieval of bodies, setting up and strengthening camp facilities, and the third stage is usually longterm solutions, so reconstruction, rehabilitation, and this is the longest phase that Many Charities dont stick around for, and thats for one or two reasons, either they have dont have the capacity to do so, they only had the capacity to um, be there for the emergency phase, give out food, water, food packs, shelter, etc. Or they dont have the will to do. So and thats sadly more worrying because they feel that this is not a visually Important Campaign anymore for the public high. Now i as i said, we should always do things with ansan and with excellence, with the right intention in the first place that youre going to support a impoverished group of people, and you want to be there for the long run, not just there for the initial phase where youve racked up the money for an emergency campaign. At the beginning, yes, but youre not there to see it through to real people, long term. Thank you so much for that, dr. Shamila, actually brother, ahmad, if i could ask you the same question, um, do you have any advice for you know muslim brothers and sisters who would like to help those affected, you know, how do they differentiate which campaigns to put their money towards and which not to . So um, i agree with everything that the doctor said, but i would also add a sort of another layer to it. Which is that prevention is better than cure, um, we shouldnt be just thinking about helping the orphaned