Mosques stand alone amid Indonesia tsunami destruction, devout

Mosques stand alone amid Indonesia tsunami destruction, devout
see divine help[ Eds: RETRANSMITTING to ADD photo numbers[ AP
Photos XEH106, PDJ107, BM109-110[ By EDWARD HARRIS= Associated
Press Writer=
BANDA ACEH, Indonesia (AP) -

Devout see divine help as mosques remain standing

Edward Harris
Associated Press/Banda Aceh

The white Ulee Lheu mosque gleams defiantly on the tide line of
the worst-hit stretch of Indonesia's devastated coast, nearly
pristine despite a buffeting by last month's tsunami that turned
villages behind it into a dead zone of corpses and splintered
wood.

The building suffered only one ruined wall, a sandy floor and
a wave-tossed boat trailer crumpled on a second-story verandah.

It is a feat of survival replicated across the region that
local Muslims call extraordinary and divinely inspired, though
the more scientifically inclined would note the rickety, timber-
and-tin buildings many people lived in didn't stand a chance
against the massive waves.

"It's because it's the house of Allah. It's protected. Most of
the buildings that were saved are mosques," says Fitria, 26, of
the brick-built, onion-domed mosques left standing after the Dec.
26 disaster.

"People noticed -- and they're talking about it," said Fitria.

Around Banda Aceh, capital of worst-hit Aceh province where
106,000 Indonesians died, mosques stand alone amid vast
wastelands of upended towns reeking of rotting bodies more than
two weeks after an undersea earthquake near the region sparked
the tsunami.

Along the road to Banda Aceh's beach, debris is piled high
against a mosque's outside gate, but the building is otherwise
untouched. Nearby, a multistory mansion sits like a stack of
pancakes, but a similarly proportioned house of worship next door
is unmoved.

Survivors believe divine protection, rather than sturdy
construction, prevented their destruction.

"When the earthquake hit, the houses were fine. But when the
waves came, they were all gone," says Munjarab Raif, a 45-year-
old builder.

"But the imams built the mosques hundreds of years ago, so
they made them carefully. Of course, they're protected by Allah,"
he said. "Houses belong to humans, but mosques belong to Allah."

From behind the Ulee Lheu mosque, the most seaward building
still standing, the waves rushed inland for kilometers, slamming
into the center of town where the main Baiturrahman Mosque became
a safe haven for hundreds.

Dramatic amateur video footage aired on Indonesian television
showed the torrents of water charging through streets outside the
mosque's wrought-iron gates, carrying away cars and people.

Screaming survivors clambered onto the second story of the
city's grandiose, multi-minareted complex, clinging to ramparts
to escape the raging waters below.

Only a few centimeters of sea water invaded the mosque's main
prayer space, leaving no serious damage after the waters receded,
said one of the city's top religious leaders.

"Whenever there's disaster, people run to the mosque.
Everybody who escaped to this mosque, about 1,000 people, was
saved," said Johan, 39, the mosque's deputy imam. "This is a
house of Allah. He couldn't kill them here."

The waters did claim 150,000 lives in 11 countries in Asia and
Africa and left millions of others homeless.

Devout Muslims in Banda Aceh say the catastrophe that spared
mosques while killing people may have been a test of the
faithful.

"It's Allah's secret," Fitria said. "Maybe he wanted to show
the people that they're infidel, because they don't pray. It's a
warning."

Johan said he was amazed that so many mosques survived, but
added that he believed countless other mosques were surely
destroyed.

"All the mosques built by imams are saved. The ones ruined
were built by regular people," said Johan. "Those built by the
imams are graced with strong foundations."

GetAP 1.00 -- JAN 12, 2005 15:46:41