International courier service, DHL, has retracted its financial support for an "extremist evangelical" organisation after concerns raised by Muslims.

By Nurah Tape
Saturday 28 February 2004
Aljazeera

The organisation under scrutiny, Samaritan's Purse, is run by Christian evangelist Franklin Graham, which the UK-based Islamic Affairs Central Network (IACN) describes as a "hatemonger with a history of anti-Islam comments such as describing the religion as 'wicked and evil'."

The IACN objected to DHL's support of the group's project Operation Christmas Child which the IACN said "exploits the suffering of people, particularly in Muslim countries to promote their work under the disguise of humanitarian (missions)".

The UK-based IACN said that Graham's organisation "has been very instrumental in deteriorating Christian-Muslim relations".

Franklin Graham's group is
accused of backing Iraq invasion

"Initial enquiries show that our staff agreed this support (to Operation Christmas Child or Shoebox Appeal) with good intentions ie being (sic) to help needy children at holiday time". DHL apologised for "causing any offence".

'Key issue'

The IACN, however, felt the response failed to address the key issue of supporting "a genuine relief organisation and not organisations like the Samaritan's Purse".

The organisation added that already, "many establishments such as 10 Downing Sreet, Co-Op, Asda, South Wales Fire Service and Enterprise Rent-A-Car" retracted their support "for this organisation as they were made aware of the reality".

In subsequent correspondence, DHL informed the IACN that it would use "all reasonable endeavours to not knowingly support the organisation".

The IACN said it did not object to missionary work.

However, it said "we find it appalling that the likes of Franklin Graham firstly supports invasion of countries including Iraq and then they are one of the first to go in for 'aid'."

Franklin caused uproar after the 11 September 2001 attacks on the US when he called the Islamic religion "wicked", "violent" and "evil".

SOURCE: http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/2244B841-42DD-4B72-9E4F-623D58CE65E6.htm

Letter Exchange

John Hogan
Managing Director
DHL UK & Ireland

Dear Mr Hogan,

It has been brought to our attention that DHL is supporting ‘Operation Christmas Child' also known as the ‘Shoebox appeal'.  We would like to give you the benefit of doubt and assume that you are supporting this project unaware of the facts and not out of malice.  Taking this into account, we would like to set the record straight concerning this operation.

The project ‘Operation Christmas Child' is run by the Samaritan's Purse, an evangelical organisation run by Franklin Graham.  Franklin Graham is a hatemonger with a history of anti-Islam comments such as describing Islam as “a wicked and evil religion” and has been very instrumental in deteriorating Christian-Muslim relations.

His organisation exploits the suffering of people, particularly in Muslim countries to promote their work under the disguise of humanitarian work.  This project in particular exploits human suffering around the world to promote extremist evangelical teachings by offering food in one hand and bible in the other.  In his book, ‘Rebel With A Cause', Graham writes "I turned my attention again to the primary goal of Samaritan's Purse - sharing the gospel. Some people are a bit surprised to learn that this is our main focus, but it's true. We are not just a Christian relief organization". [Page 187]

How ironic that extremists like Graham fully supported attacks on many countries including Afghanistan and Iraq?  So far this has resulted in the deaths of approximately 19,000 civilians in Afghanistan and approximately 10,000 civilians in Iraq since the invasion.  How hypocritical is it to first attack someone and then offer them ‘aid'?  We witnessed genuine relief organisations oppose any such military action and this was not the case with Mr Graham's organisation.

We do not oppose missionary work.  However what does cause great concern is when the likes Graham firstly support a massacre and then exploit the situation to further their extremist agenda.

If you are indeed interested in supporting humanitarian work then we suggest that you support a genuine relief organisation and not organisations like the Samaritan's Purse.

We have already witnessed many establishments such as 10 Downing Street, Co-Op, Asda, South Wales Fire Service, and Enterprise Rent-A-Car retract their support for this organisation as they were made aware of the reality.

DHL is an international company with branches in many Muslim countries, thousands of Muslim customers and staff.  It must not be seen as supporting an organisation like the Samaritan's Purse.

We suggest that you immediately retract your support for this organisation and prove to your Muslim customers that you do care for them.

I look forward to a response from you.

Response from DHL

Dear Mr. Abdullah,

I am writing in response to your email sent to John Hogan on 11 January 2004, subject: “DHL & Operation Christmas Child”, which has been forwarded to me as I am responsible for Corporate Citizenship at DHL UK & Ireland.

Firstly, I would like to thank you for bringing this important matter to our attention. DHL understands the seriousness of your concerns. The aim of our Corporate Citizenship Strategy is to use our core competence of express delivery and, particularly, logistics to bring benefit to the local communities in which we operate. We also support projects that focus on capacity building, helping young people especially to build for the future through helping people to learn, stay healthy and develop personally. We are currently reviewing our project selection criteria internally and our policies of support for charitable causes in general within our UK & Ireland operations.

We will therefore ensure that the points that you have raised are addressed in the procedures we will use for future project selection. We have looked into this and our initial enquiries show that our staff agreed this support with good intentions, i.e. being (sic) to help needy children at holiday time. We hope therefore that you accept our apology for causing any offence and our reassurance that we are putting best practice systems in place to guide our charitable giving in the future.

Yours sincerely,

Sharon Dance
Head of Communications and Corporate Affairs

DHL

2nd E-mail to DHL

Dear Ms Dance,

Thank you for your letter dated 12 February 2004, which I received today, concerning Operation Christmas Child.

Unfortunately your letter does not address the key issue we had raised nor does it reflect my conversation with Ms Alison Murray during which I was informed that DHL will not support Samaritan's Purse in the future. The letter simply suggests that DHL will be “putting best practice systems in place to guide our charitable giving in the future”. There is no mention of DHL retracting support for this organisation.

I must register my total disappointment at the response I have received after more than a month. I certainly hope that you will clarify your position on Samaritan's Purse as a matter of extreme urgency.

I look forward to a response from you.

Kind regards,

Hasan Abdullah
Director of Public Relations
Islamic Affairs Central Network (IACN)

Response from DHL

Dear Mr. Abdullah

Thank you for your email of 17th February 2004.

For the sake of clarity, I would like to confirm that DHL UK & Ireland will use all reasonable endeavours to not knowingly support the organisation mentioned in your email.

In light of this, we would very much appreciate if you could remove your letter to DHL from our website.

Yours sincerely

Sharon Dance
Head of Corporate Communications
DHL

3rd E-mail to DHL

Dear Ms Dance,

Thank you for your clarification letter of 20th February 2004.

We are pleased that DHL will not be supporting Samaritan's Purse in the future. This brings DHL in line with many other establishments who have already retracted their support once the real motives were made clear to them.

An article has now been published on our website informing the many concerned individuals of the ethical stance DHL has taken by withdrawing any future support for this organisation.

Kind regards,

Hasan Abdullah
Director of Public Relations

Islamic Affairs Central Network (IACN)

SOURCE: http://www.iacn.org.uk/about/letters/dhl110104.htm

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