An important distinction

Babble on.

Peter Bergen makes the point - made by many others (via Daimnation!) - that western nations, and the U.S. in particular are often more charitable towards Muslims in need than Muslims nations are:

Around the Islamic world it is common currency that Muslims are perpetual victims of Western and Zionist conspiracies. The bill of particulars includes the handling of prisoners at Guantánamo Bay, Israel's inequitable treatment of the Palestinians, and the deaths of thousands of civilians in Iraq - as a result first of United Nations sanctions after the Gulf war, and more recently of the American occupation. The most articulate spokesman of such views is, of course, Osama bin Laden.

Yet when Muslims are suffering, it is usually the West, and often the United States, that takes the lead in helping.
...
This anemic effort on the part of the richest Islamic countries is emblematic of a wider political problem in the Islamic world. For all of the invocations by Muslim leaders of the ummah, or the global community of believers, they typically do little to help their fellow Muslims in times of crisis.

There's certainly some substance to the accusation. Another telling example - and one surprisingly overlooked by Bergen - is the slaughter of Sudanese muslims in Darfur. My posts in August of last year still hold true, though: the failure of Muslims and their governments worldwide to forgo demonizing Americans and Jews and support their co-religionists in times of crisis is shameful; but the real problem is one of poor governance of Muslim nations, not paucity of individual Muslims' charitable spirit.

While the citizens of a country can never fully escape responsibility for the actions of those they allow to govern them, there is inarguably a greater degree of separation between the people and the government in dictatorships than in democracies. It's intellectually lazy to equate corrupt, selfish, unprincipled Muslim rulers with the worldwide Muslim population.

On the other hand, it's telling that the American government, American businesses, and the American people all seem to be on the same page regarding disaster relief for tsunami victims - regardless of religion. Muslims, domestic and abroad, should take note.

Babble off.