People in UK regardless of faith supporting earthquake victims, says British Muslim aid group

LONDON (AA) – Many humanitarian organizations have launched aid campaigns for quake-hit people regardless of faith, because “it is an issue of humanity,” said a UK-based Muslim charity group.

When two powerful earthquakes hit southern Türkiye on February 6, many international rescue and relief groups, as well as dozens of countries, responded to help victims.

Some of them are still on the ground to relieve the suffering of earthquake victims and make their life easier, including the UK-based aid group Islamic Relief that has been working in both Türkiye and Syria with 160 staff.

Islamic Relief is the largest charitable Muslim organization and the only Muslim group of the 15-member Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) in the UK.

In an interview, Zia Salik, Islamic Relief’s head of fundraising, talked about the group’s efforts through a fundraising campaign both across the UK and on the ground.

He said they have been working in the region with an emergency response since the Syrian crisis started in 2011, especially in northwestern Syria.

Since then, they have been providing shelter, warm materials, blankets, mattresses, as well as education and health support, said Salik, adding that when the earthquakes hit the region, they completely shifted their work.

“Since the earthquake itself, our entire focus has shifted and has been on the earthquake response both on the Turkish side and on the Syrian side,” he noted.

Salik stressed that as they had already teams and ongoing humanitarian operation in Syria, they were able to respond to the disaster immediately.

Touching on fundraising across the UK, he said many communities have taken part in various campaigns to extend help to Türkiye and Syria.

“Muslim community has really rallied behind this.”

Salik noted that the Muslim community in the UK is only one part of the responders as many non-Muslim communities have also donated to their fundraising pages.

“They are actually organizing fundraisers themselves even though they’re not of the Muslim faith because this is not an issue of Muslims or non Muslims. It’s an issue of humanity.”