@1R$M

re Haiti..was the Muslim world sympathetic.

Lets see

Donations from Muslim countries

Bahrain: The government has donated $1 million to relief efforts.

Jordan: A Jordanian air force plane carrying a military field hospital and 6 tons of food and supplies left Amman on January 14. A second plane carrying Jordanian medics left the following day.

Iran: Iran's Red Crescent society sent 30 tons of humanitarian aid, including food, tents and medicine, on January 16.

Kuwait: Kuwait donated $1 million to relief efforts; the Red Crescent is preparing 100 tons of food, medical supplies, tents and blankets to fly to Haiti.

Lebanon: Lebanon is loading a plane with 25 tons of tents and 3 tons of medical supplies; it leaves tomorrow.

Morocco: Two planes carrying 24 tons of aid left the city of Kenitra on January 16. The Moroccan government has pledged $1 million in aid to Haiti.

Qatar: A Qatari C-17 aircraft loaded with 50 tons of aid left for Port-au-Prince on January 14. The Qatari government also sent a rescue team to set up a field hospital; the Red Crescent will sent another $100,000.

Turkey: Three cargo planes -- carrying search-and-rescue teams, a mobile hospital and aid materials -- left for Haiti on January 16. Another two planes left yesterday. Turkey has also donated $1 million in cash.

United Arab Emirates: The UAE sent two planes loaded with tents, and a team from the UAE's Red Crescent will arrive in the Dominican Republic tomorrow to buy $500,000 worth of supplies and truck them to Haiti. Another 50 tons of emergency supplies will be air-lifted from Abu Dhabi tomorrow.

A GRAND TOTAL of $5 million not a huge sum.There may be more but I was unable to find it.

So @1R$M not so very generous?

The Pan American Health Organization now says that 200,000 died that would "seem to be the minimum."and had rendered at least 600000 people homeless.
Haiti's infra structure is totally destroyed.

The Pakistan flood death toll is now about 1100,20 million people are now homeless.
I would suggest that $10 million for the mosque be spent instead on aid for Pakistan,their plight is far more important.

@MA Kootage

Yes they are
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5jo0OYJZf-lIJz6aZMkgHr...

As they should. I'm no fan of religion but come on. This disaster is way beyond political/religious point scoring.

This blog was about the blood diamond trial

and suddenly ur all discussing the flood in Pakistan

and the way ur discussing it
makes me quite sick
millions of people have been affected and all u can do is come out with really disgusting and appalling comments

@ felix
"Its not the West's responsibility to save Pakistan,its Pakistan's or maybe its Muslim 'friend's'."

Right

but when Haiti was affected or when the Tsunami struck, then the world was sooo sympathetic
but because it's Pakistan, noone cares
because...it's a Muslim country...???

As of yesterday committed funding from the UAE has increased to $1.5 million. Lets hope some of the others wade in too.

@1R$M
There are some toxic comments on these boards, but if you take the trouble to look you will see that the west is already funding the appeal to the tune of over $200 million with much more to come from the public appeals.

'but when the Tsunami struck the world was soooo sympathetic'

Well.... weren't most of the countries affected predominantly Muslim? I don't see your point?

MAKootage @
"Even the Taliban say they can match the 20 million USD pledged." well good for them.
Spending money on your own country what a novel idea AND THEY SAY IT AS SOME KIND OF THREAT!.
I wonder how the poor old Taliban squirreled away 20 million USD in the first place.

The Taliban are barbarians the mujaheddin are barbarians afghanistan seems to have a barbarian problem.
Pakistan seems to have an incompetents and corruption problem.It must be all the west fault.
The partition of India into Pakistan and India in which millions died was all the West's fault and of course had nothing to with religion.

The U.S. funneled nearly $5.3 billion to Pakistan during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan in the 1980s.That money helped strike down a Cold War adversary.Since 9/11, the U.S. has turned on the spigot again, sending more than $15 billion in assistance to Pakistan. President Barack Obama just approved another $7.5 billion this month, which triples aid while committing to yet another five years of funding.
July 19, 2010, $500 million ETC ETC

With friends like these...I agree we should just leave the whole region alone and do as the Chinese do ,that is simply pay off which ever barbarian takes control,totally ignore any civil rights abuses its far cheaper.
Now that's a left wing solution!

Yet again I ask you were is OIC?
No answer.

I wasn't summoning Felix, just predicting it. Now I predict him informing you (because you ssem to be singularly misinformed) of the breakdown between military and civilian aid, and for good measure mentioning that if the the people on the street never see a cent of American money then they should take that up with THEIR Government.

Oh well. Here we go again.

Right, I'm just off to the post office to donate my hard earned twenty quid to the flood appeal.

@MAKootage

In the meantime for your edification, here is a list of the main soverign state committed funds and pledges as of yesterday.

UK $32.5 million

USA $62.2 million

Kuwait $5 million

Italy $5 million

Turkey $0.27 million

Luxembourg $1.4 million

Sweden £3 million

Germany $3 million

UAE $0.002 million

Funding by private organisations, other countries and EOHC bring the total to over $200 million to date.

Plus my 20 quid of course. Hopefully the total will continue to rise.

Sorry, got my decimal point wrong

UAE is $0.02 million.

Source: Guardian

My mistake.

Err, wasn't this an article about Blood Diamonds? touching on the venality of the fashion business, and the horrors of Taylors' regime? Have we lost the ability to stick to the actual point?

Have you lost the ability for articulate conversation and thought, or is your tunnel vision limited to “the Point” and not how the relative interwoven events and motivations may have influenced the outcome of the very point you wish to discuss.

No , I am just weary of the monomania that strikes every time that people respond to a piece by Mehdi.
After a while, some of us would like to discuss the article, or the merits (or otherwise) of Imran Khans politics, for example, rather than just seeing the same old people venting.

I know Clem Just when I thought I was out they sucked me back in! lol

However, the article?

I met Imran Khan.
I asked him what he knew about the blood diamonds.
He said 'nothing'

The End.

JC @
"What was doing Charles Taylor, a well known dictator, at a dinner at Mr. Mandelas´s (practicaly a saint) house???"
my original point

So asking someone their recollection of the events of an evening that's topped the headlines is a "white wash" now?

It's the obvious question any journalist would ask, be they Mehdi Hasan, Adam Boulton, or Michael Gove.

If Mehdi Hasan hadn't asked Imran Khan the question, methinks the same people would be criticising MH for giving IK an easy ride.

Its ridiculous how the floods are being used as a weapon against Pakistanis. They are victims of this disaster. What on earth do buzzwords like "sharia" or "kafir" have to do with it? Of course Pakistanis would welcome aid from non-Muslim nations.

But who's helping? American helicopters could be used to save thousands of lives- winning millions of hearts and minds- instead of fighting a lost cause of a war. Are they?

MA Kootage

Did you not see the loathesome Medhi Hassan calling us all kafirs on YouTube ? thats the readership of the News Statesman. The magazine should fire him unless they just arent bothered about muslim racists.

re

"Herein lies the secret of the strength of higher-tension religious groups"

see

listen and learn.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-UDl3j8WZQ

Campbell is a vacuous, selfish and violent thug. She would have quite happily accepted gifts from Mugabe, Hitler and Stalin!

Dave C @.
"If Mehdi Hasan hadn't asked Imran Khan the question, methinks the same people would be criticising MH for giving IK an easy ride."

A fair point, but what he does not ask is what he was doing having dinner with Nelson Mandela and the president of Liberia, Charles Taylor - in the first place,"I have no recollection of Charles Taylor" knowing Imran's political ambitions,highly implausible.
No questions on that subject?
"If there were any diamonds, I'd have been the last person to notice. I'm not really into jewels. But I didn't receive any diamonds and nor did my ex-wife."
hmmm after marrying Jemima Goldsmith, the 21-year-old daughter of Jewish billionaire Sir James Goldsmith.I suspect he would have been one of the first to take an interest in diamonds.A few bags of untraceable blood diamonds can work wonders in a political campaign in Pakistan.
Mehdi states as I mention yet again
"In fact, the story has dominated news bulletins across the world, despite the horrific floods in Pakistan."
Obviously indicating that the press should be more interested in Pakistan than what he describes as the 'so called' blood diamonds issue.
He then does exactly the same thing!

MAKootage @ "Its ridiculous how the floods are being used as a weapon against Pakistanis".
You get this back to front the American and other who are already sending aid are in fact being blackmailed by the Pakistanis who are using the floods as a weapon to extort more funds out of the west.
As I said where are all the OIC helicopters etc .
@Des Demona.
"This disaster is way beyond political/religious point scoring."

Personally I could not agree more.But the Pakistani are using it as political leverage against the USA.

@ Felix
'Personally I could not agree more.But the Pakistani are using it as political leverage against the USA.'

Perhaps you should concentrate more on the 'personally' in this instance?

In getting sucked in to religious debates it is all to easy to forget that most people don't actually give a crap about it.

The people in the Swat Valley I'm sure by and large don't care who the helicopter belongs to that rescues them.

In the west we have the resources to help. That's all that need be said. The rest is just political and religious bollocks.

'The Pakistani Taliban has urged the government to fund relief efforts itself and refuse to accept Western aid money.'

no comment.
from the NS