From Religion News Service
by Yonat Shimron
PRINCEVILLE, N.C. (RNS) — When it comes to disaster relief, few outfits across the South have been as organized, efficient or cheerful as the Baptist and Methodist recovery networks.
Whether it’s tornadoes, floods or hurricanes, their know-how and can-do spirit have helped people gut uninhabitable homes and rebuild them from stud to kitchen cabinet.
Imagine Delores J. Porter’s surprise, then, when she gingerly stepped onto the exposed floor joists of her torn-out home to find a troop of young Muslim volunteers in blue “Islamic Relief USA” T-shirts installing support beams in the 90-degree heat.
“I just don’t know how to thank you enough,” said Porter, 61, a lifelong resident of Princeville, wiping the sweat off her forehead. “If I start tearing, just forgive me. It has been a long journey.”
At a time when the far right often cites the inability — or refusal — of Muslims to assimilate, these young volunteers are ready, willing and able to do what other religious groups in this country have been doing for decades: providing emergency aid, labor and comfort to people suffering the effects of natural disasters.
“It’s a great way to show other people that Muslims are friends and that we can work together,” said Mimi Hassanain of Livingston, N.J., an employee with Islamic Relief who sanded drywall in a Princeville home recently.
