In an article in Egyptian government weekly Akhbar Al-Yawm, editor Ibrahim Sa'dah criticized the double standard of the Arab Doctors' Association, which is aiding Jihad warriors in Chechnya, Afghanistan, Iraq, and Bosnia, but refrains from helping victims of the recent tsunami in Asia because the tsunami is "punishment from Allah." The following are excerpts from the article: [1]
The Arab Doctors' Association Urges Doctors to Participate in Jihad and Blow Up 'Infidels,' Not Help the Wounded
"The Emergency Relief Committee of the Arab Doctors' Association published, in one of the Egyptian papers, a communiqué showing a picture of an infant. Underneath, it said: 'Iraq will never surrender. The occupation is destroying homes and hospitals. The bodies of the martyrs [lie] in the streets, and there is no one to bury them. The world observes these crimes in complete silence. Iraq's citizens say that they [will attain] one of two good things: victory or martyrdom. [And you:] What is your contribution? What will you say to your sovereign? Solidarity alone is not enough!'
"The communiqué did not, of course, neglect to mention a bank account number for donations, at the Islamic Faysal Bank at its central branch in Cairo.
"This communiqué is not new to us. It has been published many times in the past, whether by the Arab Doctors' Association or the Egyptian Doctors' Union. I still recall these communiqués published in our Egyptian papers or in the Arab papers calling on Muslims to help their brothers in Afghanistan, Chechnya, Bosnia, and other places…
"At the time, we welcomed the initiative of the Arab Doctors' Association, on the understanding that its aim was to support the Jihad warriors and those struggling for the sake of liberating their homeland from the hands of the occupiers who hold many [different] citizenships. [We understood that this support was to have been provided] through capabilities that only doctors have – that is, caring for the sick and saving the lives of the injured.
"But we were surprised later by the fact that the enthusiasm of the Arab Doctors' Association in sending 'volunteer' doctors to those blood-drenched regions was not for carrying out this sublime mission that only doctors [could carry out], but rather, to urge [those volunteer doctors] to fight, [to participate] in the Jihad war, and to manufacture explosives and to blow up places in which there were a number of 'infidels' and scores of innocent civilians…
"They could not care less that hundreds and thousands of innocent people were killed [in these operations], as long as one or two soldiers from among the invaders and occupiers were killed or injured.
"It suffices to mention in this respect the Egyptian doctor [and bin Laden's deputy] Ayman Al-Zawahiri, who, it must be assumed, took an oath to care for the sick and to save the injured, [but] became the No. 2 terrorist after the No. 1 terrorist Osama bin Laden…"
'I Don't Oppose the Iraqis' Resistance … but It Does Not Need Non-Iraqis'
"I do not oppose the resistance that the Iraqis are waging against the continued occupation of their land… It is clear that the resistance there does not need the participation of those who are not Iraqis…
"I understand that the Egyptian Doctors' Union and the Arab Doctors' Association are calling to establish convoys of doctors and brothers to go to the ruins of Iraq and to work in so-called hospitals … but what I do not understand at all is how the Arab Doctors' Association, which is controlled by the two Egyptian doctors Dr. Abd Al-Mun'im Abu Al-Futuh, the association's director-general, and Dr. Ahmad Omar, the chairman of the Emergency Relief Committee, have published a communiqué similar to the declarations of Jihad, emphasizing that there is no solution but 'victory or martyrdom'…"
'How I Hoped that the Egyptian and Arab Doctors Would Act Like Doctors Throughout the World, Helping Victims of the Asian Earthquake'
"Several days ago, a destructive earthquake struck a great many countries in Asia. The number of killed was about 100,000, and the number of injured was double that, and many times more was the number of those who became refugees, losing their homes and property and most of their relatives and acquaintances in this most terrifying of disasters, which we are following from moment to moment.
"How I hoped that the Egyptian Doctors' Union, which belongs to the Arab Doctors' Association, would act like the doctors' associations in most of the countries of the world, particularly like the [French] Medicins Sans Frontières. Everyone rushed to organize humanitarian medical convoys that hastened, one after the other, to the regions of the terrifying earthquake, in order to provide aid, as best they could, to treat the injured and to save those at death's door, without distinguishing between Muslim, Christian, Jew, Buddhist, and those not belonging to any religion or ethnic group…
"The television channels worldwide constantly showed us the donations from the angels of mercy from all countries of the world, who had volunteered to participate in taking care of the victims of the destructive earthquake in many countries in Asia despite the harsh living conditions there…"
Arab Doctors' Sec.-Gen.: This Was a Divine Punishment For the Muslims' Oppression by Infidels and the U.S.
"[Yet] there was no mention of any role played by the Egyptian Doctors' Union, or by the Arab Doctors' Association, in collecting donations, gathering the doctors waging the Jihad war and transferring them to the regions hit by the disaster and by epidemic, in order to participate in treating the injured and sick, as they did and are still doing in Afghanistan, Chechnya, Bosnia, and Iraq.
"The Arab Doctors' Association secretary-general, Dr. Abd Al-Mun'im Abu Al-Futuh, justified this by saying that this earthquake was divine punishment because of the Muslims' oppression by the infidels, invaders and occupiers, headed by the U.S., and that therefore we have no interest in what had happened! Chairman of the Emergency Relief Committee of the Arab Doctors' Association Dr. Ahmad Omar emphasized that aid to the Asia earthquake victims did not top the agenda of the committee – which was currently engaged in resisting the American invaders and occupiers in Iraq.
"Although I do not respect the reasoning of the Jihad warriors Dr. Abd Al-Mun'im Abu Al-Futuh and his colleague, the 'warrior' Dr. Ahmad Omar, I would like to draw their attention to the fact that the number of victims of the destructive earthquake in the state of Indonesia is no less than 80,000 killed, and that the number of injured is double that – and Indonesia is considered the largest Islamic country on the world's five continents!"
[1] Akhbar Al-Yawm (Egypt), January 1, 2005.
