Why we should care about


Pakistan A Q&A with Charles Amjad-Ali By Elizabeth Hunter


M


ore than 20 million people in Paki- stan were affected by devastating floods in August 2010. Four million


were left homeless and more than 2,000 died. Secular media coverage focused in large part on a lukewarm aid response from Western countries and on fears that terrorist groups would win followers through outreach to survivors. Lutherans gave millions to appeals after the Haitian earthquake and Asian tsunami. But images of those disasters were constantly in the media—bolstering church and other appeal efforts in the U.S.


By the end of 2010, ELCA members had given $160,000 and the ELCA had spent $250,000 on relief efforts in Pakistan. Funds went to Lutheran World Relief, in partnership with Muslim Aid, for immedi- ate relief including food, temporary shelter and other emergency needs. Funding also went to Church World Service-Pakistan, primarily for mobile health clinics, emer- gency food and other material aid. The Lutheran asked Charles Amjad-Ali for his perspective on the Pakistan situa- tion. He is the Martin Luther King Jr. Pro- fessor of Justice and Christian Community at Luther Seminary, St. Paul, Minn., and a pastor of the Church of Pakistan.


Hunter is an associate editor of The Lutheran. 32 The Lutheran • www.thelutheran.org


With ELCA help, CWS provided food, temporary shelter and medical attention to more than 100,000 survivors after monsoon rains flooded the Indus River Basin.


The Lutheran: How seri- ous is the crisis? Do politics impede relief appeals? Amjad-Ali: Water-carried infectious diseases such as cholera, typhoid and malaria may affect Pakistan for years to come, and access to clean drinking water will be a long- term challenge. Flooding col- lapsed much of the country’s infrastructure, including roads, bridges, gas supplies and the hydroelectric system. It’s the most dreadful natural disaster in the country’s history, and all of this deeply impacts Pakistan’s economy. When a natural disaster or something else untoward happens in the


A health worker for Church World Ser- vice, an ELCA partner in Pakistan, treats a flood survivor with a serious skin lesion.


CHRIS HERLINGER/CWS


Islamic world, it’s immediately perceived by our contemporary Western society as potentially advantageous for Muslim extremists. That’s dis- tressing because such issues aren’t usually raised when raising funds to help victims of a natural disaster in other places. But Pakistan sits geo- graphically in a place of great importance to us. It’s on the Persian Gulf, which is crucial for the flow of oil, and it borders Iran, Afghanistan, China and India. Perhaps the fact that Pakistan is not only a Muslim country but the locus of our expanding struggle with the jihadists in Afghanistan allowed us to raise such questions, even if they are inappropriate. But is philanthropy intended to serve our pragmatic needs and politics? Or is it an act of caritas? I’m purposefully avoiding the word charity.


ALLAN CALMA/CWS


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