Shameful, Immoral, Embarrassing and disgraceful are some of the words that are solicited to describe the level of aid our government has given to earthquake struck Pakistan. With more then 1.2 million British tax paying citizens with direct links to the affected region, our government's response has been nothing short of petty. Years of taking the Muslim vote for granted and the lack of political lobbying by British Pakistanis have yielded these dividends.

Department For International Development UK (DFiD), the premiere franchise for channelling UK government funds for development and relief efforts proudly underlined the government's net sum of £500,000 earlier today. Now compare this to the Indian Earthquake in Gujarat - within 24 hours of the tragedy, the British Government had pledged £3 million. The government had no option but to succumb to Indian Vote Bank, the sustained lobbying by the British Indians and tremendous pressure by high profile Indians such as "The Brothers" and the "Steel King". It is unfortunate that in these testing times, the political hip-hoping does indeed makes all the difference. Even Pakistan, a third world country recently donated over $1 million to Hurricane Katrina Relief efforts - the same minus a mere $900,000 has been pledged to Pakistan by USA - totalling a grand $100,000.

It is left upto the grieving relatives and friends in UK to set up small scale relief funds. The government is eager to take the back seat and perfect its dilatory "wait-and-see whilst U wait" tactics. Department For International Development (DFiD) and Foreign Commonwealth Office (FCO) are taking a casual approach. Time for lobbying is now ..

So who is to blame?

Sadly on deeper analysis this is a failure of the Mosque Leaders. They failed Pakistan thanks to the ignorant "NO POLITICS IN THE MOSQUE" mindset. They neglected their duty to teach the community to involve themselves in Politics. Thus with no voice in the corridors of power to represent us, the Government treated the Pakistani crisis with little regard even contempt.

The goons who run our mosques allowed the community to remain ignorant, pacified, and helpless of how to make change.

This helplessness led to the terror attacks by angry Muslims unable to express themselves politically, and now it was claiming more lives....as we stumble around blind wondering how we can help so many people with such little money.

Consider this, does the reader think if this had happened to Israel the Jewish community would not have strong voices in the corridors of Power speaking up for the victims? ..no they teach their young how to be active in forms of political life, we teach our children how to be ignorant of any real influence.

The Mosque leaders themselves also failed to demand more from their MP, never holding them to account, happy to shake their hand, or attend a pointless meetng, again is it a surprise that MP's that we elect do nothing for us.

Now these same leaders come and ask us for donations, and think they have done a great deed, (they call this active), we call it 'shutting the barn door when the horse has bolted'. This is another failure they brought upon us - it will cost many more lives but they will never learn. Power has corrupted their minds. It is up to us to demand change in the mosque.

While the Mafia in your local Mosque, ask you to pay penny's instead of demanding the Government pay pounds, you can do the smart thing. Lobby your MP and Call this Government Department and demand they help.

We also urge you to fund MPACUK, if we had a powerful political voice, you can be sure this would never have happened.

Call DFiD and demand to expedite the relief activities, offer voluntary assistance and increase aid to the victims.

For further information, contact 020 7023 0950 or 020 7023 0600, e-mail pressoffice@dfid.gov.uk

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