Tsunami aid-where are the Arabs? - Page 2

1) The Saudi aid is $30M.

2) The Saudis are a bunch of westernized fascists in the pay (literally) of Bush and his corrupt posse. Any criticism of Saudi is by definition a criticism of the US because the two are in bed together.

That's why OBL, Zarqawi and other 'Islamists' are fighting them. In fact, that's how the whole thing started.

Without Saudi/US symbiosis there would be no 911 and no WOT.

You should try thinking this stuff through. But yes, I agree - the Saudis are fascists and have to go.

3) You equate Saudi with Islam. As usual you are wrong. They are minority Wahabi and universally hated in the Islamic world. In fact, the greatest criticism of their aid comes from Muslims.

Muslims know what you do not - that Saudis are not Muslims at all.

4) The Saudi government is corrupt and propped up by the US to carve up oil profits - it is therefore no surprise that they give little.

Far be it from me to defend them as I wish to see them extinct in the shortest time but there are some facts to consider. In Islam a tax is paid to the Mosque by all Muslims - this is called zakat. It is 2.5% and goes exclusively to the poorest and most disadvantaged Muslims. Usually it goes to provide food and housing but in the present circumstances I believe that it is going to tsunami victims.

My point is that this is a fund specifically to help people in bad circumstances and it always exists and is constantly distributed. You are talking about Government aid which is a different thing. All Muslims give 2.5% of their annual assets - not only income -for this purpose every year.

You are confusing the government with the people and a lot of other things besides. In fact I have no doubt that you know nothing about this subject whatsoever.

I rather think the whole charity donation-as-penis length contest is unseemly.

Charity is charity. Give a penny or a billion dollars, it's still giving.

This is why anonymous donation is the most noble thing you can do.

But this isn't about doing the right thing is it? It's about your religion/country being "better" than x other religion/counties.

America si teh win!!1111

Yep - this was a dodgy thread from the start....

Murder is murder and Bin Laden and his extremist are murderers. You can Blame the U.S for everything under the sun but isnt it ironic that the terrible and bad U.S is Allways there to help anyone who needs it even those that hate us. This is what makes the U.S. and most of our Allies so great.
As far as donations go year round most Bible pushing churches try to get 10% from their followers and in turn use some these funds to help the disadvantage year round.
I agree with you about people vs govt thing and sometimes think that this world would be better off without govt(special interest) meddling in peoples lives and into other govts.
Saudi's have a problem and that is a ruling elite with no participation by its people.That wont last forever.
I also agree that the U.s Govt(special interest again)have a bad habit of getting in bed with the likes of the Shaw,Saddam,Saudi's and many other bad individuals instead of getting in bed with the people of those countries.This seems to repeat iteself through history and again can you say special interest. We in the U.S. do have problems and the biggest is special interest running our govt.

The sad part is you're not far from the truth...

Read a short story once where Jesus came back in his original body, and none of the white American 'Christians' would believe he was who he said he was because he looked Arabic. (which he would have, of course) He even got kicked out of some churches in the story....

yes, well let's not confuse the tiny percentage of extremists with all muslims. bin laden is as good a muslim as hitler was a christian. the KKK considered themselves to be christians too, but we don't judge all christians by their actions or beliefs. but those are the guys who get all the media publicity, not the peaceful people.

you missed the entire point that others have made about the donations. this is not a "which religion is better?" contest or whose church sells the most candy bars. i strongly urge you to get some accurate information about the islamic religion. you might be surprised at much in common it has with christianity, both historically and canonically. as for jesus, he is a very special and highly revered prophet is islam.

i disagree that the US helps everyone. the US only helps when it has some sort of interest in the region (namely OIL) or the situation has gotten so bad that the US has to finally step in in order not to look bad. yes, we americans are much better off than many people in the world and our government, despite its flaws, is still preferable to most others. but to think that the US government is a purely altruistic and unbiased crusader of the world is naive at best.

Wow !

Hear, hear - or is it here, here ? Never know.

You should listen to mac's girl.

This debate sort of reminds me of when I was young and forced to go to church. They would pass around the collection plate, and the guy next to you would put in more then you to prove he was more holy than you. That mentality sort of misses the point of given in the first place. I donated what I could because I felt it was right, but I don't care what everyone else does.

Just my opinion,
Tim