Indonesia's
indestructible mosques defy colossal forces of tsunami under
'God's invisible hand'.
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 the
neighbourhood 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.
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.
Before
Tsunami (10 January
2003y.)
After Tsunami (26 December
2004y.)
By Victor Tjahjadi,
Middle East
Online
www.middle-east-online.com
