peace be upon you and welcome i on islam, the show where we look at current affairs through an islamic lens. each week we consider trending new story and we break it down from an islamic perspective. unfortunately, we begin this show with the sad developments which have come out of the north african region over the past few weeks, horrific natural disasters which have cost the lives of thousands and left huge. areas totally

destroyed, as rescue and recovery efforts continue in morocco and libya, we hope to discuss what islam says about natural disasters and how as muslims can respond when nature lashes out? the muslim world has dealt with its fair share of natural disasters over the years, but few would have expected to see the sheer scope of devastation caused by a week of horror across north africa. in early september, morocco was hit by huge earthquake which destroyed a huge area and killed thousands of people in mere moments. it's god's will, i was in the kitchen with my daughter-in-law while both my husband and my son were sleeping. when the roof fell on them, they were killed, trapped under the rubble, and nobody could save them. it was god's will. almost straight after, violent storms back. libya, the heavy rains caused

severe floods, which aided in the collapse of two dams. an entire city, derna was overrun. thousands again died into raging waters, with some claiming the death doll could reach as high as 2000. my entire neighborhood's houses had collapsed, we couldn't find anyone alive. god predetermines and he did what he wanted. this is very great. fortune. shortly after, wildfires burned their way through a region in algeria, creating new fears of another costly disaster in the area. despite these hardships and the immense trauma caused to the victims, muslims understand that these are tests of faith and endurance, natural part of life in the dunya. it's during these times of desperation that muslims turn to allah for guidance and salvation. the question. why such uncontrollable natural

disasters happen has asked many times by scholars and philosophers over the centuries. islam provides answers to these questions providing a source of comfort to the muslims who are tested in this unfortunate way. joining us today to talk about islam and natural disasters, we have two estets. me in the studio is brother ahmed hossain from the muslim advocacy group mpac uk actively campaigns against islamophobia in the west and joining us on skype, i'm honored to have dr. shamila islamzulfiqar, lady of many talents, but joining us today in her capacity as humanitarian activist who will be deployed to libya with action for humanity international. salam alaykum to you both. um, dr. shamila, if i can actually start with your experience first, you know, we've seen the media coverage of the recent disasters, but what is it like for those affected on the ground? i know that you've just come back from algeria, what's the... and thanks for

having me, um, you know, i was uh three hours away from where the fires in algeria were raging, and in reality, um, everywhere else in algeria is functioning as normal, the government is trying to um deal with it as natural disaster, and they have contingency plans for these things, there was a series of fires back in july in algeria where i think um around 30 odd people died um and so they're learning from what's happened there um when you see it in the media suppose um the media coverage gives you very sanitized version of uh what the reality is on the ground um you know for those that are affected their whole life their very exis changed so if we take for example and they've

and we we the estimates are coming for you around 20. people that have died, poll neighborhoods are buried that under the the homes of their owners, you know, it's the mass graveyards, that that now stand where once there were bustling communities, hustling bustling communities, and so aside from the initial emergency needs of food and water to survive, those left behind are going to need massive amounts of psychosocial support um with the... that is inevitably going to come from a tragedy of this magnitude, um, the the personal trauma, the collective trauma of the community, and as as first response teams when we go out to these places, we we also have to sound b, but what

the reality is like on the ground that um, many, many a time we rightholders and we've cried with them because you with raw grief, yes. um and and you can't send a cyborg into these paces at the end of the day there needs to be people that have empathy that can validate the raw grief that survivers are going through. thank you for that. um, i was actually talking to brother ahmed about algeria and um we've said that there's very little uh coverage on it. brother ahmed, does politics have an impact on how much attention is actually given to one disaster over another? we you've been flooded with images of morocco and libya. what about algeria? yeah. without doubt, mean the short answer that to that is narrative control, what is being said, why is it being said? so for example, we're we are being told that these floods that raged through derna, um, the the nearby body that was flooded, we're told that a couple of dams collapsed, we've been told

that bridges have been swept away, roads are blocked. what we're not told is all the question which isn't really being asked is, you know, why isn't there a central civil authority in libya that is capable of maintaining dams, that is capable of looking out for bridges and clearing away roads, they don't even have the capacity at the moment for a central weather warning system, which would have obviously put uh these maintenance orders uh out in the first place, that's the question that needs to be asked, what has happened in libya in recent years, which would have undermined their capacity, and then with natural disasters, as doctor mentioned, um, empathy is needed, sympathy is needed, people need to understand. these are human beings who are being affected, and it's very easy to do that for natural disasters, but what about man-made disasters? what about the man-made disaster that destroyed libya in the first place? why isn't empathy, sympathy and so on, asked for in that situation, and i

would argue further, the man-made disaster that we call israel that destroys many lives uh every single day. why aren't we allowed to show sympathy and empathy in those times? it's about... narrative control. ahsant. thank you so much for that. um, dr. shamile, if i can actually ask you the same question, in your numerous emergency humanitarian missions including convoys to countries, often on opposition to nato members at one time or another, like syria, gazza, palestine, pakistan, yemen, afghanistan, bosnia, lebanon, and bangladesh amongst others. you know, over the years has politics had a real-life impact on the relief available to families on the ground. look, there's no doubt that um policies in different countries affect the infrastructure and the capacity to deal with humanitarian crisis on these kinds of scales. um, this time last year in september, we were um, i was head of mission for the uh, the the the

emergency response team that went out to pakistan, and that was very a very similar situation, a damburst and i mean it was a... massive percentage of the country that was underwater, many lives were lost, and the impact, the lasting impact of that was actually because of the amount of crops that failed that year, this is a disaster that is going to continue um, not just from the initial insult injury, but for for many years to come, um, and we're still dealing with that from sustainability point of view as a charity that's gone in not just for the initial phase, but to um be there for the rehabilitation and reconstruction of country, um, and and yes, you know, these these are things that politics will always be there, these things will always um have people to deal with, as humanitarian aid workers, not in politic any of um, any of the countries

that we deploy to, because we are there to provide humanitarian assistant needs it, regardless of their background, so um, in your question, yes, "there's no doubt that policies affect those on the ground in the infrastructure that that country to rebuild itself. earlier this week we spoke to sheikh jaafar ladak, an islamic scholar who explained exactly. what the quran says on natural disasters and how islamic thinkers explain the issue of pain and challenges for believers in this dunia. bismillahirrahmanirrahim, the quran lays out um various different reasons for the divine purposes of the signs of god, of which include natural disasters, be they earthquakes or tsunamis or tornados or whatever that may be. we have to remember that every air, every sign of god. is ultimately for the purpose of proving god, reminding us of god's existence, helping us

to understand our place within the universe itself. the ultimate reason here is that when these earthquakes occur or any natural disaster occurs, we remember god almighty and we submit to god almighty whatever stage of our life or thinking we may be in, so for example, one of the reasons the quran. that the earthquake is for the purpose of reminding us of the extent of the quake that will occur with the day of judgment, for example the quran in chapter 22 verse one says, the quaking of the hour of judgement is truly a grievous thing, so this purposes points us back towards the day of judgment, or for example another reason the quran mentions for the purpose of these natural events is to remember that all of these

actually are belonging to god and are part of the forces of god so for example again within the quran chapter number 48 verse number seven god says to allah to god alone belongs the forces of the heavens and the earth so this is counted as amongst them. or for example to help us remind us our place within the system that we are not secure with these natural disasters that death could take us any one moment again in the quran chapter 67 verse 16 god says do you feel secure that the one who is in the heaven will not cause the earth to shake violently and swallow you up so these are the reasons, all of them is to help us to understand our relationship between us and god and to keep us aware of

god and our our vulnerability to the system that god has created, so this is the divine arc or the divine purpose behind the ayat of god, which include natural disasters or natural occurrences. it would be unwise and unjust of us to be able to assume the mind of god. briefly, god in the... quran sets out that these events predate human existence, and we also realize that there is not only the will of god involved, there is the system that god has created or his son and his divine laws, so when god sets up a system of creation that includes natural events, then we cannot necessarily say that an event has been triggered by god as revenge for something, any less or any more. then we can say that this is part of the system of god in terms of the way he sets out his creation. we

also have a third reason as to why these events occur in that the entirety of the universe is conscious of god thinking and responding to our own behaviors. so if we harm the planet, it is very possible for the planet to defend itself and respond back to us. these things are also mentioned within the quran. well, brother, ahmad, if i can actually ask you. to to build on what the doctor was saying you know about the building of infrastructures, we know in the past that when people have actually tried to send resources abroad, you know to build schools and and hospitals and such, they have been suspected of financially supporting and aiding extremism, why this justification, why block this type of work? so never take a label at face value when people are being labeled, extremists, islamists, etc. etc. you got to ask who's putting these labels on and who's... benefiting from labeling muslims who are helping other muslims who's benefiting from that and also who's benefiting from uh

allowing these you know these muslims who need help the most benefiting uh from blocking them from getting help and the most clear example um the most clear individual recent example if you want to look is for example our brother muazenberg um who wanted to do something very simple straightforward to help out few households in syria and he ran his uh his visit and his aid past officials first and yet when he came back he was hassled he was detained um he was denied his day in court - and so on, and if we look at deeper examples like iraq or even going as far back as vietnam, we see situations where aid is controlled, manipulated, diverted and so on by hostile governments, you know, the the sanctions on iraq, the the sanctions on vietnam, these were put in place, again, it was about narrative control, it was about manipulating entire governments, so don't

take these labels at face value, um, because there's someone who benefits from that narrative. of control. elaborate more though for me on the who does benefit, how do they benefit? you know, financially, is it like the war machine that's being fueled, are - our people's pockets getting lined with you that kind of hate narrative that's being promoted in the media? yeah, for sure, there are war profiteering is an age old uh phenomena that that has been recognized since uh, since even before you know modern wars, um, smedly. wrote about the uh war is racket, and this is coming from someone who was a highly decorated soldier, um, he then wrote after his life's work was done, he said that why was i bleeding my life away on these fields across the world, it was for the what it is, so it's you know it's not not a conspiracy or anything, and that's not just you know the profit from war itself, again as

i was saying there are those who benefit from the narrative, politicians, journalists, media and so on, they benefit from manipulating public opinion and benefiting it when it comes to election times, when it comes to uh winning government contract or the is of government officials and so on. yes, absolutely, well said, and sister shamila, the media only seems to cover big events. how frequently is the help of charity like yours needed? you know, what kind of work do dis the relief charities conduct in these situations? um, so action for humanity. we um utilize the equities that we've built over the last 12 years in dealing with the syrian war, and we apply the knowledge and skills to the emergency that unfolds before us, any one time, millions of people on the planet are in die need of support, um, and that's simply to survive, let alone to thrive, um, i work with this charity in

particular because of the long-term sustainability of humanitarian intervention and the impact of supporting... communities to help themselves up, because often, it's it's like the concept of giving a man fish, um, he'll eat for a day, but whereas um teaching him to fish ensures that his community, the community's longevity and the ability eat for life, um, so in answer to your question, there's always going to be need, and we always try to um answer the call in the best way that we can, and that has to be excellence in everything, you know, said the most beloved of people to allah are those that are most beneficial the people, and i found that this charity is vehicle where we are able to reach as many people as possible, i mean even as a medical doctor in my career, as a medic, i will reach 20, 30, 40 people a day, in the work that we're doing currently, we we're supporting lions and it's something

that um that i'm very, very passionate about and i think the donor. has to be very careful about how and what is happening with their donation. you know, there are scientific studies that i'm sure you're also aware of that um talk about the effect of prayer physically on people's bodies. the power of prayer we know as muslimine has a massive effect not only on ourselves but on others. do you find that that's the same when you are um deployed out into disaster zones? oh absolutely um i think um if we are aiming give out humanitarian aid, it must be with san and with the excellence and that starts with the right intention right the beginning um and and i'll just give you insight of what organizations like um action humanity will do so those that are um quite established and have dealt with they have expertise of over

12 years over decade of dealing with conflict and disaster. areas um, there's three, usually three phases to any emergency, the first phase phase will be the emergency, the rescue and you know making sure that people have the immediate needs, so water, food, shelter, depending on um, you know, the the environment that they they're now left with, and then second phase is sadly, one of the saddest phases is that is when it moves from emergency phase to a recov phase, so retrieval of bodies, setting up and strengthening camp facilities. the third stage is usually long-term solutions, so reconstruction, rehabilitation, and this is the longest phase that many charities don't stick around for, and that's one of two reasons, either they have... don't have the capacity to do so, they only had the capacity to um, be there for the emergency phase, give out food, water, food packs, shelter, etc. or they don't have the will do so, and that's

sadly more worrying, because they feel that this is not a visually important campaign anymore for the public eye. now, as i said, we should always do things with san and with excellence, with the right intention in the first place that you're going to support a... group of people and you want to be there for the long run, not just there for the initial phase where you um rack up the money for an emergency campaign at the beginning, yes, but you're not there to see it through to people long term, thank you so much for that, dr. shamila, actually brother, ahmad, if i could ask you the same question, um, do you have any advice for you know muslim brothers and sisters who would like to help those affected, how do they differentiate which campaigns to put their money towards and which not to? so um, i agree with everything that the doctor said, but i would also add a sort of another layer to it, which is that prevention is better than cure, um, we

shouldn't be just thinking about helping the orphaned child, the desperate mother, etc. etc. after they've lost everything. we should also be ask asking the institutions, the individuals, those in power, etc., why are they not protecting or offering their own assistant? at that time as well, and that is the much harder thing to do, because this means uh, you know, reform a fundamental level, and it also means long-term thinking, long-term campaigning and so on, but this is what islam is for, islam here to just make us feel better about doing a good deed today, you know, when we're told in hadid to lend allah beautiful loan, where we are not told that we're going to be, we're we're condition. thing in terms of the, in terms of life after death, we're not looking for instant gratification, instant sense of self-rightteousness, when we're told in a in a hadith that's collected in both sahih

bukhari and sahih muslim that the muslim owes charity uh every single day that the sun is up, whether it's helping a man onto his horse or removing an obstacle from the road, we are being conditioned day by day to serve, that is the state of being for a muslim, we exist as muslims to serve and we need to manifest that to the highest level, not just in terms of here's something terrible that someone's told me about, i'm going to react and help, no, we have to as a community fundamentally be a community that serves, and that means addressing the problems at the root, and that is leadership, that is, those leaders who are not serving the community, they're not serving the muslim community, and those who try to damage a community's capability, like you, looking at libya, there were those who destroyed a... capacity to serve, they are the ones that you know we we should be opposing, that's the long and short of it, i'd say, thank you, thank you so much brother, ahmad, okay, well that's all that we

have time for today, thank you to all of our guests and thank you at home for watching, join us again next week for another edition of eye on islam, together, we have shown that when europe is bold and united, it gets things done, à l'appel de l'histoire, come down from the ivory tower.

95 million people in the eu are threaten by poverty. there is a broken energy market while the energy and arms industries are making record profit. last year it seem that italy was better performing as compared to other industrial economies in in europe, this year and this quarter it seems the the opposite. in this week's episode of iran tech we've come to lurestan province to check out a pharmaceuticals company that specializes in making drugs for lifestock, pultry and

various types of fish uh in all those are different categories, so liquid solutions, ointments and so on and so forth. so we're going to take a look at some of the exclusive drugs that they make here and only here in iran and talk about the science behind it and get to know the process that goes behind the manufacturing of different types of drugs. stay tuned. from the environment to business and economy, to civil and human rights, to treaties and agreements, to war and conflicts, we bring you the overlooked aspects of world events and news from the farflunged corners of the globe. 10 minutes only on press tv,

israeli forces shoot and kill a palestinian youth near the city of albeera in the occupied west bank, regime forces also clash with palestinan resistance fighters intoulcare. russia and ukraine intensify

their cross-border attacks, both countries reporting the downing of the number of missiles and drones over each other's territory, and heavy rains recav in the northeastern united states, leaving parts of new york city underwater, but motorists stranded in flooded streets.