Is the Arab World Stingy?

Two days later, Saudi authorities launched a 14-hour-long tsunami aid telethon, according to the Gulf Times .

"King Fahd, Crown Prince Abdullah and other key royals kicked off the telethon by donating a total of $10 million," the Qatar-based news site reported. "Religious scholars, academics and even sports stars took part in the live television broadcast which saw donations of gold jewellery, clothes, medicines and even shares in companies."

A total of $83 million was raised.

The editors of the Yemen Times expressed "disgust and even anger at the very poor and inexcusable showing made by Moslem countries, especially those that have been fortunate to be entrusted with considerable material wealth."

The oil producers have "closed their eyes while their fellow Moslems are forced to rely on the petty crumbs of non-Moslem nations that have shown more humanitarian sensitivities than these selfish wealthy Moslems. . . . How can we claim pride in being Moslems when these so called guardians of Islamic doctrine have elected to be stingy with what is not really theirs in the first place?"

The reasons for the penny-pinching, said Le Quotidien d'Oran (in French), a leading daily in Algeria, run deep in Arab societies.

"One could always say that the media conditioning that pushed Westerners to this generosity is calculated. . . . One could also say that in Arab societies one does not have the same kind of reliable, credible, and efficient networks of NGOs able to channel assistance," the editors said.

"But the difference [between Westerners and us] is also of a moral and ethical nature... The Western world is superior to us not only for its machines, armies, and technology but also for its morality. And we are not underdeveloped because of poverty, a lack of money, a scarcity of men, and a large number of historical catastrophes but also because our values are still not a living and thoughtful culture[.]"