but they can't pull her out there's no
heavy equipment so he kept hearing her
voice until she passed away
from that there was a person who had
just gotten evicted last night I learned
the story of a young man that was given
an eviction notice from his apartment
the day prior to the earthquakes hitting
and he said I was living on the street I
was homeless and I woke up in the
morning and witnessed the very same
apartment building that I used to live
in collapsed and turned to rubble and
turned to dust and I said alhamdulillah
for the one who evicted me from this
apartment because I could have easily
been amongst those who passed away
beneath those Rebels now I want you to
imagine
you're going about your day and next do
you know that the Earth underneath you
is shaking
[Music]
yes yeah all right guys so we signed
everything here
what's up you gotta get the keys now
[Music]
[Applause]
foreign
[Music]
nurture and basically educate and it's
gonna basically spread Islam
I know
foreign
you're going about your day and next you
know that the Earth underneath you is
shaking and the home that you were
living in is no longer a home it's just
rubble and then you're underneath that
rubble and you can hear the voices on
the outside and no health is coming no
help is coming and you have so many
cases like this in turkey and especially
here now in Syria we got someone who is
going to bring us up to date on what's
going on in Syria turkey we have counts
of over 40 000 plus people who have died
lost their lives can be up to like 200
000. I'm here with the president of
Syrian forum
thank you
and his final message
[Music]
thank you
alhamdulillah how are you my brother
am I was I pain in the picture right you
actually you have people stuck under the
rubble and now they you can hear it's
like let's say you're you're in another
room now but you just got rocks all over
you you can't get out Boulders you know
from the construction of the buildings
and now I can hear your voice you can
hear me but people are stuck in there
absolutely and they can't get out
absolutely and in Northern Syria the
reason uh that this situation was
happening over and over again because
unlike in in southern turkey where where
they had heavy equipments and you have a
government you know agencies being
mobilized bringing heavy equipment in
Northern Syria they had no heavy
equipments other than what was available
there for for construction purposes
there was no heavy equipment so people
literally using shovels and using you
know their hands in some cases just to
kind of dig to try to to pull out uh the
survivors uh and and we have like
stories after stories of people
literally there's one man was sitting
holding the hand of his child who that
he can reach her hand but they can't
pull her out there's no heavy equipment
so he kept hearing her voice until she
passed away
[Music]
foreign
[Music]
because they don't have heavy equipment
but how is that in the day in the modern
day 2023 I mean you got uh weapons being
sent two people are coming together to
you know get things over to Ukraine
right in the United Nations and and we
can't get you know a a forklift
unfortunately in Syria in Northern Syria
it's it's any more No Man's Land I mean
because it is literally blockaded from
the south by the regime because the
regime considers these people people who
don't deserve to die in fact there are
scenes of when the regime used to send
uh uh Barrel bombs and drop them from
the helicopters that are exactly the
same as the scenes from the earthquake
now so he was causing them earthquake
after earthquake unfortunately the world
was you know numb to that and and nobody
cared to look at it that same regime
cannot be trusted or expected to allow
any Aid to come through in fact the
daughter of the president of the country
put on tweeted that those people in the
north are terrorists they don't deserve
to LA to live and they they don't
deserve any help so any help coming
directly to the Syrian government is not
reaching the notes and turkey because of
the political situation and the
elections being close there's a lot of
pressure on the government saying you're
helping foreigners and the syrians
before before your citizens and so they
they had to show that their priority is
their citizens rightly so as far as I'm
concerned they need to worry about their
citizens but that also resulted in the
only Crossing border crossing from
Turkey which is babul Hawa that was
function channel that there's no Aid
that came through it for the first week
almost I mean now there's a little bit
of of equipment is coming through there
was a convoy that came from the east of
Syria from their result from the tribal
leaders who literally challenged the
blockade and challenged the situation
and kind of dared anyone to to stop the
Convoy they sent but they're tribal
leaders they're not governments they're
not you know you know International
entities
um and so as a result you have people
funding for themselves and they're under
extreme circumstance where where there's
earthquake after earthquake yesterday
there was a 6.3 or 6.4 uh earthquake uh
that happened just yesterday by the way
um and so unfortunately when you look at
the situation a lot of the people that
passed away they really didn't have to
necessarily I mean again as Muslims We
Believe at the end of the day it is
Allah those people you know but but you
know you look at the the ability of
humans to have saved lives and failed to
do so it's it's incredible the the
numbers don't have to be as high as they
are if it weren't for the fact that
there were people who you can hear you
can see but you cannot lift the big
concrete pieces because you have no
heavy equipment and unless you were able
to to to somehow get just enough you
know of a hole to pull them out you
really you know we're helpless and
honestly you see some of the videos of
people that that that were hearing the
voices and then and then not hearing the
voices and knowing that the person on
the other side has passed away they
themselves honestly I worry about their
mental health some of them literally are
losing their bearings because they can't
believe this that somebody needed my
help I was right there and then they
they passed away and I wasn't able to
help them and it was you know situation
after situation like that
now who was the person that tweeted this
that they don't deserve to live the
daughter of the president of Syria the
daughter of the Pres she tweeted that
those people in the north they are
terrorists they don't deserve to live
so they're young people I'm paraphrasing
the young girl that her father was
holding her hand she's a terrorist
that's basically what what what the
brainwashing of people within within the
government controlled yes
absolutely how do people make sense of
uh it when they are ignorant to how
things are progressing over there as far
as politically like if you have you
you're mentioning nor people think North
Korea South Korea is it North Syria
South Syria can you gain a picture like
what exactly for the Layman who's tuning
in you're like okay sure I thought it's
just one country how if we're sending
support why is it not getting to these
people why is it only getting to this
other side so so since the the
revolution started in Syria in 2010-11
at one point about 80 percent of the
country was outside of the control of
the government and then you know in 2015
with the interjection of Russia and Iran
into the scene they they kind of
supported uh the the regime and regained
uh a good swath of land I would say
maybe about 80 percent of of the country
now is back into his control some of it
nominally but there's 20 percent that's
outside of his control particularly in
the northwest of of Syria
um uh basically a province called idlib
and part of the province of Halep and
some of the northern part that extends
All the Way East uh I don't know if you
you know if you're aware about maybe a
couple of years ago turkey declared like
a a border line of about 30 kilometers
as being being part of its uh Strategic
Defense of itself and that so they they
kind of uh prevent the government forces
to come in so there's literally if you
can think about this 900 kilometers
border between turkey and Syria uh you
know a line of 30 miles extending from
the Far East all the way to the forest
and then in the Far West it dips down uh
you know maybe another 100 kilometers so
that that's that's you know uh the
damage is considered in this Northwest
area in in idlib and part of what's
called uh rural
Province also that's where the damage is
concentrated so so that that piece is is
uh surrounded by by the the regime from
from the south and from the East the
West is really uh um is mostly also the
regime but it's it's the Mediterranean
Sea and North it's it's turkey and so
they are boxed there they are they have
no way to go nowhere to go and the
International Community have decided
that those people don't don't deserve to
be heard unfortunately can you repeat
that the International Community that
consists of who of United Nations that
yeah the five big ones in the United
Nations that yeah absolutely uh so what
are the estimates now of total lives so
as we mentioned both I mean there are
numbers that combine turkey and Syria
between the two of them is the number is
is a bit over 40 000 but as I mentioned
to you before we started taping is that
is that there's about 200 000 people who
are unaccounted for and after you know
now nine ten days and with with like
heavy trimmers and with what would be
considered new earthquakes because 6.4
is no longer a trimmer or a Aftershock
you know it's a it's an earthquake in
its own right uh
what's the chances of those people being
alive this one just hit yeah just
yesterday just yesterday yesterday there
was a 6.4 uh earthquake in in southern
turkey in Northern Syria it was felt
this time all the way to Egypt by the
way I mean people in in Palestine in
Gaza uh felt the Tremor in Jordan they
felt the trimmer but there was no damage
any anywhere nor you know south of the
area that's originally affected our life
can change so quickly huh absolutely
absolutely yes yes and so for us as as
an you know as a non-profit who has been
working for a decade you know in the
areas that that got affected uh and
really our work our motto is rebuilding
Syrian lives and we really kind of
adopted it because you know the the
extensive destruction that the regime
have left in the areas outside of its
control is unspeakable but but above it
you know the the crushing of the soul of
a people that that wrote those seeking
Freedom all of a sudden to find
themselves abandoned by everybody and so
and so our organization is dedicated to
that we've been working on on rebuilding
projects we we try to rebuild lives you
know from psychological help to giving
people small uh small business projects
you know we can buy for somebody their
seeds to do a you know the planting
season we can buy somebody a couch so he
can uh use it to feed his family and and
make a small business out of it that was
you know plus building rebuilding homes
actually for people affected that was
our Focus uh before the the earthquake
it continues to be our Focus but the
daily earthquake hit we we have about
1800 uh people working for the
organization within that northern part
of Syria and so we mobilized immediately
I mean the main thing that we needed
first of all shelters so we set up about
a hundred uh 80 uh like temporary
Sheltering places some of them were
large where we would have maybe like a
50 tenths or and some of them only like
20 tens or 30 tenths depending on the
area then we realize people need to you
know need water so so we set up like a
watering basically uh scent watering
containers or trucks basically that were
stationed in different places but then
we realized people need to eat so we did
you know temporary soup kitchens and and
uh things to provide food we started
bringing in uh things for them to to
stand the the cold so so we we have
served we estimate we have served 53 000
people since you know the the beginning
from day one and we were the first
organization on the ground tell me uh
if you were to go ahead and um
from a logistical standpoint if you were
trying to get what needed to be get in
there to save the lives when this first
hit how far is the nearest country with
the resources and if and if it was to be
done how quickly could they have with
all of these uh all this red tape that
you mentioned oh certainly turkey is the
closest and as I told you I mean I I
have to acknowledge that turkey within
its own constraints both the fact that
it's dealing with even a larger scale
disaster as well as the pressures on it
internally and externally it has done
what it can I I I don't you know I don't
mean in any way to signal that they have
they have not done what they can but
still what they can is far short of what
is needed given the disaster now not you
know two days ago or three days ago that
the Bible however Crossing was opened
with for for some some relief some heavy
equipments even so we are seeing that
but but it's not anywhere need what the
need is and that's the issue
you know Turkey is only like maybe less
than 100 miles away from the majorly
affected areas in fact in some places
it's only 20 20 miles away uh but of the
main like there's there's a there's a a
town called genderous uh in Syria it was
the hardest hit it's probably about 70
or 80 miles from less than that 50 miles
recently also had the French newspaper
who said we don't have to uh
uh we don't have to throw missiles
anymore yes you know and making pretty
much mocking the the victims what was
your responsible it's so unfortunate
it's so unfortunate it shows honestly
the Deep the Deep hatred the Deep you
know uh disregard I mean it flies in the
disregard for human life disregard for
for just pure Humanity I mean it flies
in the face of all the claims of Human
Rights and and and and and and and being
a humanitarian Free Speech well I mean
it is it is free speech that's what uh
what people hide under sure sure
absolutely but you know what the way I
view it is that it it shows it exposes
those people for who they are because
most of the time they are able to hide
behind being humanitarians being you
know Libertarians being you know uh
being do-gooders and and those kind of
Publications expose them for who they
are
um but for us we just need to continue
to work hard uh on on alleviating the
situation on the ground and just not not
be distracted by that though Market as
you know we know what these people those
people are there's a stories and there's
a lot of these but one in particular
where a person was narrating that there
was a person who had just gotten evicted
here's a lesson that we all can take
from the devastating earthquakes that
took place in turkey and Syria last
night I learned a story of a young man
that was given an eviction notice from
his apartment the day prior to the
earthquakes hitting and he said I was
living on the street I was homeless and
I woke up in the morning and witnessed
the very same apartment building that I
used to live in collapsed and turned to
rubble and turned to dust and I said
alhamdulillah for the one who evicted me
from this apartment because I could have
easily been amongst those who passed
away beneath those Rebels and he said I
saw the very same landlord that evicted
me he became my neighbor in the tent
subhanallah this is the reality of Dunya
that your life can completely change
overnight so be grateful for the things
that you have Allah says
everything in this world will fade away
will pass away and the only thing that
will remain is Allah
that day got evicted from his house and
next thing you know he left the
earthquake happened so if he was in
there so he thought this is the worst
thing that could have happened to me he
was out absolutely uh he's homeless but
then shortly a little while later he
found his landlord a victim also
homeless yes you see how yes incredible
absolutely incredible stories absolutely
incredible stories like that absolutely
absolutely you know yesterday I was
hearing somebody uh it caught my
attention
somebody was telling me it's not related
to the earthquake somebody
that was told you know what if we give
you 10 million dollars because he was
saying you know money makes happiness
and and and he said great they said but
you're going to die next years no no no
no if I give it to me I need to enjoy
them they said no they're making it 30
100 no so the deal is off so there are
things that more import are more
important than money in the case of this
landlord you know he if he were to
realize what's coming maybe he would
have thought differently about evicting
somebody because they couldn't they
couldn't make their payment on time yeah
you know you know it just puts things in
perspective absolutely what is uh the
most precious because you've seen you're
just enjoying your life absolutely
second absolutely you know the Earth
literally is just uh
absolutely absolutely yeah I mean yeah
we live in a culture that kind of tries
to convince us that money is everything
money and fame is everything and and
then this makes you realize that no it's
not it may make life a little easier but
there are things that are far more
valuable than money and um for for the
atheists for the person who's void of
believing in the crater of the heavens
and the Earth as Muslims obviously we
have some Solace knowing that you know
potentially people who have died in this
situation they'll be considered Martyrs
God willing inshallah and now they will
end up transitioning to the next life
and they'll have everything and Beyond
you what you can imagine absolutely but
if you don't have that hope if you don't
have that waiting for you and now you've
lost everything how do you make sense of
it without the Hereafter absolutely
absolutely you can't absolutely I I
agree with you 100
life is a story and you know something
that that one thing that I heard that
was most like
convincing in that regard as far as
believing in the afterlife
um and I know we are kind of getting off
the subject a bit but you know imagine
if if there's a twin developing in their
mom's womb right and they spend nine
months together and they are research
now they indicate that they play
together I mean those like with the
membrane between them they will they
will rub on each other's you know hands
and fingers and cheeks and stuff so so
they are they are beings they are you
know so imagine if one of them gets born
just an hour before his brother or
sister right
what do you think if that if that being
have ability to to express and think and
what do you think they would be feeling
so one is outside of the placenta and
the other inside in the womb yeah the
one in the womb is going to think that
he lost
his brother or sister the one they've
known all their lives
they will be grieving them they will be
feeling this is a catastrophe this is a
horrible thing on the other hand what's
happening you have people smiling
congratulating each other receiving a
baby you know happy you know it's the
same way when we end our lives now the
ones that were happy at Birth now they
are sinning
uh you know sad uh having lost somebody
thinking that this is the worst thing
that could happen to them but on the
other side trust me it's another
beginning similar to the one that we
were celebrating when somebody was born
but but there it's one of two things
it's either it's either a piece of
paradise until the day of judgment or
your grave you know gets gets uh
tightened on you until you can breathe
and and it's our deeds in this journey
in this life that's going to determine
what happened there so so to me it is so
uh it is so intuitive to believe that
there's something afterward because this
couldn't be the whole story absolutely
could not be and and when you think
about Justice and Injustice also how
many tyrants they died at the height of
their power and strength having wrong
people killed people if that's the end
you think like they got away with it I I
can't take that I can't believe that I
have to believe that they are going to
stand for accounting and pay for it and
it doesn't have to be a tyrant or anyone
who wronged somebody and got a quote
unquote in our terminology got away with
it there has to be an accounting for it
otherwise
this life becomes very difficult very
tough and becomes you know free for all
and and it really you can't you can't
um then uh convince anybody of morality
or are doing the right thing because
they will think if I do the right thing
then I'm stupid and and that's what
happens with a lot of people who don't
believe in the Hereafter is that they
turn into not very pleasant human beings
and not very uh kind or fair or just a
human being not all some you know it's a
lot more complicated than the way I'm
putting it but in general this is what
happens people who don't people who
don't believe in the Hereafter they
really it takes them to very dark places
within themselves and in their relation
to to other people around them yeah and
then you're tweeting stuff like these
people don't need uh help and get your X
Y and Z labeling them so before we
conclude um hypocrisy I want to touch
upon this word because we saw it when um
with Ukraine when you had the migrants
and you saw this are we seeing some of
that here I I believe so I believe we
continue to see that absolutely
absolutely can you elaborate on that I
mean honestly to me
um the world have always known this that
it's not the Injustice but upon whom
it's being done and if it's being done
on certain people then everybody gets
uphold and everybody already asking
everybody to say are those are those uh
uh certain people Muslims
I mean
like the number speaks 80 percent of the
world's Refugee population is Muslims
I don't know what percentage was almost
almost
I want to throw again another 70 80
percent of of the the war ravaged areas
around the world is populated by
majority Muslims and so so as a result
you know the victims the the you know
the the refugees the the the the the the
the underprivileged all of them the high
number High majority of them and
unfortunately you know as we see is that
normally the the world powers are not in
a hurry to hear the cries of of the
victims or the cries because of who they
are what their religion what their
ethnicity and and there's enough
evidence to show that honestly so we
wanted to do our small part to create
some more awareness and to go ahead and
see what we can do and I like the story
it gives things that put things in
perspective also for people who are like
why is this happening how would you
answer that for someone who is Muslim
and I say why is this uh happening to
Muslims why is this and they don't uh
put in perspective that you know
earthquake weeks we're happening in
other regions also and and that but they
think okay how can they cope with this
this loss and whatnot how do you put
that sure
I mean
there's a Hadith of the Prophet
salallahu that says
that you are given Aid and victory by
Allah because of your weakest and most
vulnerable and it is well known that
when he used to prepare to go out on an
expedition or a battle he would bring
the women and children to pray to make
Dua for him this this idea that so so
related to that you know that Allah
gives us gives us
our weakest our poorest our
underprivileged our outcasts as a test
how are we going to act towards them and
without it we can't prove our faith
really and so so those things happen
first of all as you said they happen to
everybody but when they happen then they
are really more than they are a test for
the person who's being Afflicted they
are tests for the rest of us are we
going to run to their aid are we going
to make sure that they are they are
taken care of if somebody is poor are we
making sure that they're they're
sustenance their Necessities at least
are provided for them are they cared for
and if we as a society
our reaction is that we don't care then
we have shown that we are lacking in
faith no matter how much we have the
appearance of Faith No matter how long
our beards are our you know how much we
put our our foreheads to the ground
those people are tests for us whether
it's the earthquakes whether it's the
wars whether it's whatever it's tests
for the rest of us how are we going to
react what are we going to do in the
face of this and those of us who are
able to to to to to to extend the hand
and alleviate a suffering inshallah they
are the ones who are passing the test so
how can people support now if they want
to help those uh victims here of this
earthquake there in specifically Syria
sure because you have the organizations
called the Syrian Forum yes and then how
can people be sure that now it's not
going to get stopped here or there
everywhere else but get to the people on
the ground there for sure and I want to
say a point in this regard by the way
there were organizations that were hit
themselves because they were located in
Russian tab in Turkey which itself got
hit
Etc I mean we are located in Los Angeles
but our headquarters in Istanbul so we
didn't get hit so some of them
themselves couldn't respond until about
a week later because they first had to
deal with their own you know situation
for us as an organization a larger
organization alhamdulillah we had we had
our credits with with vendors that we
have been dealing with for for a decade
so we were able to actually say Supply
me with 100 tenths I'll give you the
money I'll get you the money but Supply
me now so like the next day we were
getting supplies we were getting you
know uh Foods we were getting you know
things we need you know
um very quickly and and now that that
the situation got streamlined we are
even more able to uh to deliver and also
we have a very good history and rapport
with the Turkish governments with
diwalis of of the different provinces
that are bordering during you know Syria
that we are able to move the supplies
and what we need and by the way one
thing that I want to mention is that we
had a wonderful and we continue to have
a wonderful relationship with Sam's the
Syrian American Medical Society that
that really have partnered up with us
and between the two of us I mean I would
say if we have provided help for about
53 000 they probably have done something
similar so so those two organizations
have really worked together beautifully
to to show case how would we work
together you know uh uh benefits more
people so we are able we are we we are
ready people can can send donations you
know through Zell they can go to our
website Syrian Forum uh dot org we you
know they can they can send us also info
at CRM Forum uh dot org and and we would
receive we will receive uh those and we
put them into use immediately we have we
have the infrastructure we have the
ability to immediately impact people on
the ground thank you thank you for uh
bringing us up to speed on what's going
on in Syria my absolute pleasure may
Allah alleviate their pain and suffering
and bring relief and reward all those
who will contribute
um
thank you thank you