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 Indonesian Mosques Stand through Earthquake and Tsunami 

Date: December 26, 2004 Place: Indonesia

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Source: AP Photo/Dudi Anung (Yahoo News)

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AFP/Choo Youn-Kong

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AP Photo.Andy Eames

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AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko

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REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon

‘God's invisible hand’ saved Indonesia’s mosques

By Victor Tjahjadi - BANDA ACEH, Indonesia

In Indonesia's tsunami wastelands on the northern tip of Sumatra island, little remains of whole towns

lost to the colossal forces that came thundering in from the ocean.

But across these battered shores, dozens of mosques still stand, their minarets glinting defiantly in the

sun - a phenomenon survivors in the deeply Islamic region credit as much to divine intervention as

robust architecture.

"God's invisible hands prevents the mosque's destruction," said Mukhlis Khaeran, who saw the sea

sweep away his home village of Baet outside the north Sumatran city of Banda Aceh, but leave theneighbourhood mosque relatively intact.

"He punishes us for our greed and arrogance but He will protect his house," Khaeran said, his arms

covered with injuries sustained in the disaster that killed at least 100,000 people around the north

Sumatran province of Aceh.

Mosques are an everyday sight in most of Indonesia, but especially in Aceh, credited with the being one

of Islam's main gateways into the archipelago of islands which now forms the world's largest Muslim-

 populated country.

Despite a long-lasting independence struggle, Aceh, parts of which are under traditional Islamic sharia

law, has remained a Muslim heartland for Indonesia, which mostly practices a very relaxed

interpretation of the faith.

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Spiritual beliefs in Aceh and around the Indian Ocean were tested to the limit on December 26 when an

epic earthquake sent towers of water crashing ashore, obliterating virtually everything in their path.

But while some spoke of "God's wrath", hundreds turned to their mosques, in panic for shelter from the

advancing tides and later for spiritual comfort in a time of desperate need.

In the village of Kaju, also outside Banda Aceh, hundreds of homes were annihilated while the local

mosque suffered only a few cracks in the walls.

"There is a saying among Acehnese that a mosque is God's house and no one can destroy it but God

Himself," said Ismail Ishak, 42, who was digging rubble from his crumbled house while searching for 

seven of his relatives.

In Pasi Lhok, some 20 kilometres (12 miles) east of the north Aceh town of Sigli, 100 frightened people

sheltering inside their mosque were spared while almost every house in the surrounding five villages

was pulverised, according to chief cleric Teungku Kaoy Ali.

In Meubolah, a town on Aceh's western coast less than 150 kilometres (95 miles) from the quake

epicentre which bore the full force of the tsunami, leaving at least 10,000 dead, mosques stand sentinel

over a vanished town centre.

Banda Aceh resident Achyar said when he saw the waves pounding in from the sea, his first instinct was

to turn and run for the nearest mosque.

"I climbed the mosque tower and hung on to an electric wire until water receded," he said. "Many of my

friends, many of them ethnic Chinese, died because they climbed to the second floor of their shops and

were trapped there," he said.

Another, less divine, explanation for the survival of the mosques is that many are built much more

sturdily than most of the other structures in the towns and cities of Aceh.

However one mosque in Sigli was made only of wood but still survived unscathed despite all the other 

 buildings around it being destroyed.

Banda Aceh's grand Baiturrahman mosque suffered partial damage from the quake and tsunami, but

 proved invaluable to the city's survivors in the minutes, hours and days that followed the cataclysm.

For many it became a rallying place to search for missing friends or relatives, a makeshift hospital to

treat the injured and a morgue to collect the dead.

With much of Banda Aceh likely to remain in ruins for months, residents were quick to repay their debt

to their cherished religious buildings, working swiftly to ensure the Baiturrahman mosque was one of 

the first places restored.

On Sunday, some 300 survivors gathered for their first prayers since their five-times daily ritual was

halted - a major step on the long road back to normality in Aceh.

Many churches, synagogues and temples were demolished when the Tsunami struck. A person sought

shelter in a church but managed to survive when the church collapsed around him. He hid in the corner.

When he was asked whether it tests his faith he said “It just makes you wonder if your following the true

religion”

This event imitates the earthquake in turkey in which the mosques remained intact when the earth quakestruck. It truly signifies the wrath of god in a world of corruption and sin.

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