■"As Crises Mount, Global Aid Groups Tap Islamic Money: Post 9/11, Western Charities Find a Better Reception In Oil-Rich Arab Nations," by Roger Thurow, Wall Street Journal, 3 December 2004, p. A1.
Interesting change since 9/11: Islamic countries now a lot more willing to give to global charities for work in their own region:
Last year, the World Food Program, a United Nations agency that's the world's largest humanitarian organization, fed 104 million people. A full 57 million of those were in Organization of the Islamic Conference, or OIC, countries. Yet less than 2% of the WFP's $2.6 billion in donations came from these countries.
But today the WFP and similar global charities are getting much stronger flows of money from Islamic countries. Why? Three reasons: 1) Muslims want to give to more reputable charities after investigations showed that some local ones did funnel money to terrorist groups; 2) Islamic states are trying to improve their international image; and 3) people in these countries are beginning to realize that their local charities just can't do as much as the bigger ones can.
As one young man said:
"After 9/11, people are scared to give because they don't know where the money goes. I heard it from my own father. But if you give to the WFP, you're protected. You know where the money went. I saw it for myself."
And so a little more connectivity grows between the Middle East and the outside world, thanks to the evil genius of Bin Laden.
Take that Osama!
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