EID IN PAKISTAN - 2010

1. not to have “extravagant” celebrations this week for one of the biggest events of the
Islamic calendar, in order to send more cash and aid to flood-stricken Pakistan.
2. The core message of Ramadan is to show compassion to those less fortunate than
ourselves,
3. “That extra money that we are able to save and send will make the difference between
life and death.”
4. Appealing for the Eid festivities to be scaled down, given the devastation caused by the
floods.
5. I have told my own children that they will have to give a part of their budget for gifts to
flood victims, so children in Pakistan can have something to eat on Eid.
6. It will make virtually no difference to us in the UK if we spend a little less on our own
families and more on those affected by the floods.
7. The 43-year-old said: “In the month of Ramadan, Muslims must give 2.5% of their
wealth to charity. Normally this is spread across local and international projects.
However on this occasion we are seeing people giving their entire share to Pakistan.”
8. “Despite such concerns they have given so much. They have seen those who are
suffering, not as Muslims or Pakistanis but first and foremost as human beings.”
9. People have the choice to give how much they want to whoever they want.
10. ‘I plead with you to give from your heart’
11. I plead with you all to give with your heart, through any means possible to reputable
charities, to neighbors or colleagues who are sending money straight to the heart of the
disaster-torn regions.
12. Although our fasting will be over, our brothers and sisters are without food and clean
water after the catastrophic floods.
13. The intention of many I know is to donate the money they would have spent on new
clothes and a large feast to those who are still in desperate need.
14. I have flown back to Pakistan to see for myself the work being done to relieve the pain
of my brothers and sisters. Please, please donate generously to those in dire need of
help. Aid has yet to reach thousands of people and we cannot do this without public
support.
15. Make no mistake, this is a global disaster,
16. Pakistan is facing a slow-motion tsunami. Its destructive powers will accumulate and
grow with time
17. The enormity of this crisis is hard to fathom, the rain continues to fall and the extent of
the devastation is still difficult to gauge
18. . The recent floods in Pakistan are of particular interest, for they are occurring in a
region where the two worlds, the West and Islam clash.
19. In a normal year Pakistanis would have been scurrying home last night for a weekend of
gluttony-tinged indulgence marking Eid al-Fitr, the end of the fasting month of Ramadan
and Islam's near equivalent of Christmas. But this is no normal year.
20. With 21 million people - almost one-eighth of the population - affected by the worst
floods in memory, and broad swathes of the country still under water, many have no
homes to go to, and no mosques to attend.
21. ''There's a feeling of helplessness; people want to reach out,'' said a filmmaker, Samar
Minallah.
22. ''I have a message for the nation: mark Eid in a very plain manner,'' Dr Qadri said
23. His family will be wearing old clothes this holiday. ''When you see these people on the
television, you can't celebrate anything,'' Mr Liaqat said.
24. Irfan Nawaz Raja, a Punjabi businessman, drove a truck filled with secondhand clothes
and food donated by family and friends into a camp filled with white tents. He had been
motivated to act by the images of human suffering on television. ''It made us cry,'' he
said.
25. Muhammad Iqbal, a 25-year-old rickshaw driver, wept as he described how he would
spend Eid: sitting in his mound-covered tent, eating food handouts. His wife, who is
eight months' pregnant, stood quietly by as he wiped tears from his eyes; his five-year-
old daughter chewed on a sweet, wearing a donated orange dress.
26. People across Pakistan are forgoing their traditional Eid gifts this year and donating to
needy flood victims instead, international children's organization Plan has learned.
27. Weeks after fleeing the worst flooding in living memory, millions of people will be
forced to mark the end of Ramadan homeless and hungry - many in makeshift camps
and by roadsides far from home.
28. A moment, when we can bring a smile on their faces
Habib Malik is the head of Islamic Relief Scotland and winner of the Robert Burns
Humanitarian Award.
Islamic Relief Scotland is part of the Disasters Emergency Committee.