Posted on 09/14/2005 3:12:00 PM PDT by WestTexasWend
BEIRUT: Leading Shiite cleric Sayyed Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah called on Muslims inside and outside the U.S. to help the victims of Hurricane Katrina. Usually a harsh critic of U.S. policies in the region, Fadlallah said that Islam rejected the spirit of gloating and revenge in time of a natural disaster.
"We refuse to look at disasters as a godly punishment or a godly wrath. It is not necessary [for disasters] to be separated from nature. They can hit oppressed regions as they hit arrogant regions," he said.
"Islam, which exhorted Muslims to befriend the world, to reach understanding with others and to turn their enemies into friends ... does not allow us to follow the others' pattern in injustice or even in dealing with a spirit of gloating or revenge," Fadlallah said.
He added that he backed extending aid to Katrina's victims, particularly the poor who were "left by their administration to die and drown."
He added the U.S. administration was not responsible enough when coping or anticipating the disaster. This has unveiled the presence of terrible class discrimination in the U.S., he said, where it "turned out that the poor, and especially the colored, were not of Bush's interest."
"This is not technological impotence but that of the U.S. administration," he added, explaining that the U.S. failed to pass this natural test after failing other political and security tests inside and outside its borders.
"This America cannot portray itself as a sponsor of justice in the world or as a leading power," he said, since leadership needs wisdom, not only power.
Katrina victims are "victims of the mentality that controls the U.S. administration, the mentality of the rich who work to crash the poor." - With AP
Must be a Democrat!
All I can say is it takes a damn big gullet to swallow that load of codswallop.Anyone buying this I want to talk to about some beach front property in Tuscon.
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