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January 14, 2004
Special multi-religious interfaith service for Tsunami victims
By Abdus Sattar Ghazali
An interfaith prayer vigil for victims and survivors of the South Asian tsunami and earthquake was held on January 6 at the St. Julie Billiart Parish in San Jose, CA. 
Muslim, Christians, Jews, Catholic, Hindu, Sikh and other traditions joined together in mutual concern and prayer for victims and survivors. Prayers, chants and readings were offered in a spirit of solidarity and concern for the victims and survivors
American Muslim Voice Executive Director Samina Faheem Sundas and Dr. Khalid Siddiqi, an Islamic scholar represented the Muslim community at the multi-religious and multi-ethnic special Inter-faith service. AMV Executive Director was honored to be co-mc of the service.
Dr. Khalid Siddiqi, who is also President of the Islamic Education & Information Center, Newark CA, offered prayers with the recitation of Holy Quran. He later translated the verses in English. (Dr. Siddiqi offering prayers at the interfaith service.)
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) was one of the co-sponsors of the special Interfaith service that was telecast on local TV networks which asked the service participants’ how do they feel about all faiths coming together to help the victims of Tsunami?
Samina Faheem Sundas told the NBC Channel 11 News that she was very proud that all the religious and ethnic groups are coming together to help the tsunami victims. “But we do not need to wait for a natural disaster of this magnitude to unite us in the spirit that we are seeing today, I hope we can remember these feelings of compassion, concern, kindness and unity everyday” she added.
She went on to say that “we are all human beings and we need to care about only one race, the human race. That is the goal of the American Muslim voice to make the most beautiful diverse human wall of support and strength for each other, one that cannot be shaken.”
The AMV’s goal is to bridge the gap between all communities, she concluded.
The special interfaith service was hosted by St. Julie Billiart Parish and sponsored by members of various religious communities.
Others who participated in the Interfaith prayers were:
Fr. Saju Joseph from South India whose home town neighboring areas were also affected in the Tsunami.
Babaji Mohinder Singh Bajwa, head of the Gurdwara Sahib, Evergreen valley, San Jose.
Fr. Dominic Joseph, Pastor for the Syro-Malabar Christians of the SF Bay Area.
Padit Balu Shastri, a religious leader and teacher to the Hindu community in the Bay Area.
Msgr. Eugene Boyle, a founding member of the Interfaith Council of Santa Clara County.
Ms. Diane Fisher, the director of Jewish Relations Community Council and a member of Congregation Shir Hadash, in Los Gatos.
Rev. Carol Been of the Interfaith Council of Santa Clara County.
The service was followed by a fund raiser to support recovery efforts in affected areas.
American Muslim relief organizations and mosques
raise funds for tsunami victims
The San Jose interfaith service for the victims of tsunami disaster coincides with the intensive efforts of American Muslim relief and charity organizations - often criticized for not doing enough to promote peace and goodwill - to raise donations for the relief work in the South Asian disaster hit areas.
On December 31, following the disaster on December 26, special prayers for the tsunami dead were performed in hundreds of mosques across the United States. Cash donations for the survivors were collected.
American Muslim organizations sent out appeals, collecting donations in cash and supplies -- not only from Muslims, but also from Christians, Jews, Hindus and Buddhists eager to help.
And 1,500 people of all faiths attended a fund-raiser sponsored by Islamic Relief USA in Anaheim on Jan. 8 to help buy emergency supplies for the tsunami victims.
Others are donating their expertise. Four Muslim doctors from Southern California, including Rancho Cucamonga physician Rahmi Mowjood, left for Sri Lanka to provide whatever medical assistance they can. They're working on behalf of a Jewish charity called VeAhavta, which isHebrew for "You Shall Love..."
The Council on American-Islamic Relations has announced that South Florida mosques have raised more than $102,000 for tsunami victims in Asia.
Thirteen mosques from Palm Beach, Broward and Miami-Dade counties collected the donations from many of the estimated 50,000 Muslims who live in South Florida. The money is being given to a number of agencies providing tsunami relief, including the American Red Cross, CARE Australia, Islamic Circle of North America and Islamic Relief Worldwide.
Some organizations mix missionary work with aid
Some evangelical groups are mixing Christian missionary work with humanitarian aid in countries ravaged by the tsunamis and earthquake, a provocative approach shunned by the majority of faith-based relief organizations, according to a Jan. 8, 2005 report of Balitmore Sun.
Spreading faith this way can antagonize the people they're trying to help, and there's evidence of concern among Muslims, Hindus and others. But evangelical leaders say they define humanitarian aid as having a spiritual component.
Aid should "share the love of Christ," said the Rev. Franklin Graham, son of the Rev. Billy Graham and the outspoken leader of Samaritan's Purse, which is shipping shelter materials and other emergency donations to Indonesia and Sri Lanka. Of the victims and their families, he said
in an interview, "I would hope that they would come to know the God I know."
The notion of sharing "the love of Christ" can take many forms: adoptionsof orphaned children, religious pamphlets tucked into relief kits.
Missionary group backs off plan for tsunami Muslim
children to Christian home
The Virginia-based missionary group WorldHelp has dropped its plans to place 300 Muslim "tsunami orphans" in a Christian children's home, the group's president, the Rev. Vernon Brewer, told news agencies on Jan 12, 2005.
The children were still in the Muslim province of Aceh and had not been airlifted to Jakarta, Indonesia's capital, according to an e-mail under Brewer's name circulating among his supporters.
In an interview Tuesday for an article published in Washington Post on Jan. 12, Brewer said that the children already had been airlifted to Jakarta and that the Indonesian government had given permission for them to be placed in a Christian children's home.
In statements given to Reuters and Agence France-Presse, Brewer said WorldHelp had raised $70,000 to place 50 of the children in a Christian orphanage but had halted its efforts when it learned that the Indonesian government would not allow it.
"Once we became aware that the government had refused to let these children be placed in a Christian home, we immediately stopped all fundraising efforts for the remaining 250 Indonesian orphaned children and appeals were removed from our website," the e-mail said.
The group's plan to raise children from Muslim families in a Christian home struck a nerve in Indonesia, which had regulations in place even before the tsunami requiring orphans to be raised by people of their own religion. This rule was adopted in large part to ensure that Muslim children were not converted.
In response to fears that Acehnese tsunami orphans would be trafficked, the Indonesian Department of Social Affairs adopted a further prohibition on people taking children out of the province. Officials said the only exemptions were for relatives.
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