Posted on 01/08/2005 2:14:26 AM PST by naturalman1975
A high-profile Australian charity headed by a Catholic priest has backed away from plans to set up an orphanage in tsunami-shattered Aceh after the plan enraged hardline Muslim groups.
Youth Off The Streets founder Father Chris Riley arrived in the provincial capital Banda Aceh with plans to set up a tent orphanage to house some of the estimated 35,000 Acehnese children with dead or missing parents.
The plan was backed with a $100,000 donation from NSW clubs and media mogul Kerry Packer's Nine Network funded Riley's trip.
But after the chief of the radical Islamic Defenders Front (FPI), Hilmy Bakar Almascaty warned Youth of the Streets to stick purely to humanitarian work, Riley said the orphanage plan had only ever been a last resort.
If there were too many sensitivities involved, he was happy to drop the plan or funnel support into an Indonesian organisation, he said.
"Youth of the Streets has no religious basis at all," he said.
"It is Christian I guess, but we've got Muslims in our services in Sydney. There is never any conflict there.
"I'm not going to force myself into a community like this and if they've got things in hand, so be it.
"We are going to look. If it means we look elsewhere or go back to Australia, I don't have any problem with that at all. It's predominantly Muslim so you accept that. We're not going to fight that."
The issue is sensitive in Aceh, which is the only Indonesian province to have fully implemented Islamic sharia law and said to be the veranda of the holy city Mecca.
Radical and mainstream Muslim organisations have warned against encroachment by other religions in the province and the Indonesian government last week barred orphan children from leaving the region to preserve Aceh's culture and future.
Jakarta said it would set up its own 1,000 place orphanage in Banda Aceh.
Riley said he had come to Aceh with NSW Labor MP Tony Stewart because there had been a worldwide "cry of help".
But if there no need for an orphanage or too many sensitivities involved, he would funnel assistance into an Indonesian organisation, he said.
"It doesn't really worry me which way we really go to be honest. I've got enough work in Sydney to do, but the cry was out there and the whole world has responded," Riley said.
Stewart said the Australian government had been aware of Riley's plan and neither the Indonesian embassy nor Australian foreign affairs officials had mentioned any concerns.
"I know that what occurs here over the next few weeks with Youth off the Streets involvement will be done in a complementary fashion with existing services and the charities that are working here," he said.
After visiting a refugee camp, Riley said the destruction in Banda Aceh had not been as extensive as he had initially feared.
"It hasn't been wiped off the face of the earth. Parts of it have," he said.
"If every kid in this place, even three orphans, are cared for here, the last thing I would want to do is take them out of here.
"If they can actually network it and bring a kid into an extended family or an alternative family, it's a much better alternative than an orphanage."
Hilmy's organisation, known as FPI, is known for smashing up bars and nightclubs in Jakarta and elsewhere deemed to be un-Islamic.
Australian travel warnings for Indonesia warn travellers about the "sweeping operations" the group conducts.
FPI is presently bringing thousands of volunteers to help in the reconstruction of Aceh and to guard against foreign influence brought in by the thousands of foreign military and aid workers now delivering humanitarian assistance to the region.
Savages
The feeding frenzy is only just beginning.
Agreed, God knows what these Allah-fearing Sharia-ists will do to any children they get their blood stained hands on.
Who knows where this tsunami will lead, nothing could surprise me these days.
It's such a mistake for naive charities to go in and throw money around.
I'm sure this 1 000 bed orphanage will only be set up to feed and house these children and not to radicalise them or anything(yeah right) and what about the rest of the tens of thousands of children that the satanic cult cant take care of because they dont have any room to house them? But not to worry the UN is taking over everything so its going to be allright with kofi and the cultist working together.Im going to go throw up now
The Islamists will find room in terrorist training camps (also known as Madrases) for the orphans.
Psycho Muslims at their finest
Muslim extremism takes priority over saving lives....what else is new from the religion of the dark ages???.....
Why I'm not giving a dime to "tsunami relief".
This is why not a single penny of my money is going to these people. I will give my money to the families of our soldiers who have died in the cause of freedom!
Roger that! Where is all the Islamic money? What a bunch of hypocitical, dark-age savages.
HEAR HEAR
The best thing for these poor benighted people and the best thing for the entire world is their conversion from Islam, a religion of murder, suicide, war, untruth, oppression, coercion, slavery, torture, death, and destruction and which has nothing else to offer, to Christianity, which is the religion of peace, truth, and universal love.
Not only is Christianity the basis of Western Civilization, but it has evolved through the centuries into an enlightened religion that accepts the constant revelation of God's truth--which is the only truth--to all people and through all means, including, though not limited to, scientific investigation.
The semingly miraculous discoveries of Western Civilization during the past few centuries are exactly that--miracles--God's revelations to mankind.
The entire cosmos is God's holy scripture, and His truth is there for all to find--all who will and all who desire to know His truth and to follow His will.
Islam, on the other hand, holds that God revealed all that he had to say 1,400 years ago in one tome. This ignores and denies God's constant revelation of His truth and His will.
The West has much to offer and much to proselytize.
The people of the West should abandon their defensive position and become aggressive in spreading God's truth to a much benighted world--a benightedness that has blinded much of the West itself, notably the Leftist, agnostic, atheistic, and decadent enclaves of Europe and North America--where a renaissance is needed as much as anywhere.
The people of these decadent Western enclaves are desperate for something in which to believe. The enlightened and sophisticated people of the world owe it to them--and to the rest of the world as well--to bring elightenment and renaissance to them.
It would be the best thing for them, and for any person, as you say. BUT, even Jesus couldn't convince everyone, and he was the best Teacher and Communicator there ever was. We shouldn't be surprised that there are many who ignore the truth.
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