KUALA LUMPUR: A prominent Indonesian Muslim leader has pilloried Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi for claiming that the Palu earthquake was God’s punishment for the immoral activities committed by the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) community there.
According to Free Malaysia Today (FMT), Ahmad Syafii Maarif, the former chief of the 30-million strong Muhammadiyah, the second largest Islamic organisation in Indonesia, said the quake-tsunami was a natural phenomenon.
Indonesia, he explained, was located within the Pacific Ring of Fire, an area stretching some 40,000km in the Pacific Ocean where many earthquakes and volcanic eruptions occur.
“There are geographical factors involved,” Syafii was quoted by FMT as saying.
Syafii also said he was surprised that an "important person" like Zahid could make such a statement.
“There are people in Indonesia too who argue that way, but these are insignificant individuals. Yet here we have an important person in Malaysia saying this,” Syafii told FMT.
The 83-year-old Syafii is a prolific writer on Islam who is a recipient of the prestigious Ramon Magsaysay Award, widely regarded as the Asian equivalent of the Nobel Prize.
Syafii told FMT that it was not right for Zahid to presume that the Palu earthquake-tsunami was a divine punishment.
“If we have sinned, we seek forgiveness from God. But never link it to the tsunami."
He said it was wrong for anyone to make presumptions about acts of God, even though Islam considers homosexuality a sin, and that the holy Quran tells of nations that were punished with natural disasters.
“No one can claim to know God’s intentions,” Syafii was quoted as saying.
Yesterday (Oct 23), while raising a supplementary question, Zahid said he heard claims that the calamity at Palu was due to the involvement of over 1,000 people in the immoral LGBT activities.
“The incident in Palu, it was said that over 1,000 people were involved in the (LGBT) activities and the area was hit (by the disaster). This is a punishment from God.
“I would like to ask, as part of Malaysian Islamic Development Department’s (Jakim) tasks to implement the Mukhayyam outreach programme to help the LGBT community, on steps taken by the government agencies and other states on this issue.
“How effective are such programmes, so that we can avoid similar punishment from God,” he said.
He was putting forward a supplementary question to Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Seri Dr Mujahid Yusof Rawa during Question and Answer at the Dewan Rakyat.
More than 2,000 bodies were recovered and 5,000 more are believed to be buried after a 7.5 magnitude earthquake struck the coastal Indonesian city of Palu on Sept 28, triggering 11m-high tsunami waves.
More than 220,000 people have been displaced and Indonesian authorities say the economic damage was expected to approach or exceed US$1 billion.