Columnist John Farmer of the Newark Star-Ledger wonders why the Arab world isn’t contributing more relief to tsunami stricken Indonesia. He then accuses the Arabs of ingratitude for Western aid to the Palestinians and Muslims in other troubled areas. Says Farmer:
The plight of the Palestinians cries out for help. But most of the help they get comes not from their wealthy Arab neighbors, but from the West and from international agencies. What the Palestinians primarily get from their Arab neighbors are subsidies to the families of suicide bombers and a lot of hot-air hatred for Israelis and Americans. The Saudis, for example, have for decades poured millions of dollars into the funding of Wahhabi mosques and schools and clerics who preach jihad against infidels, a k a Westerners in general and Americans in particular.
Will that change now with the huge Western and, more particularly, American participation in the tsunami rescue effort? Not likely. It’s not in the Muslim mind-set to acknowledge Western good will or good intentions. The Serbian slaughter of Muslims in Bosnia and Kosovo, for example, was halted only by Western intervention, led by the American military; the Muslim Middle East was impotent to stop the genocide. But did that get the West or Washington any applause? We’re still waiting.
Meanwhile, the NY Times reports that Arab states are already debating whether or not their humanitarian assistance could have been more generous.
