[vimto]

I have no intention of excusing Muslim countries about not quickly giving to the Indonesian relief effort, but I wondered if they have a very different attitude in the sense of disasters being the 'Will of Allah' and so somehow it is wrong to mitigate them?

I recall a disaster in a tunnel where the air con failed and many hundreds died, The official line was (something like "It was the will of Allah that they should die. If they had been anywhere else they would have died at that instant." A perspective we cannot understand.

Prayers to the Lord for the injured the bereaved.

[wgflyer]

"...I wondered if they have a very different attitude in the sense of disasters being the 'Will of Allah' and so somehow it is wrong to mitigate them?..."

My own experience of more than two years working directly with Saudis in the 1970s taught me that the will of allah is a personal thing. Allah completely agrees with and supports the desires of the individual. Don't want to do it? Allah agrees. Too lazy? Allah's will. Pissed off? Allah lets you take revenge. It is a wonderful way to justify just about anything at all. It's really pretty much that simple.