1/21/2005 3:00:00 PM GMT
Source: Reuters
Indonesia's clean up operation was paused for Friday prayer as President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono joined the survivors crowding the mosques in the ravaged Aceh province.
They were also joined by members of the Indonesian armed forces, foreign relief workers and members of foreign military contingents in the dawn prayers at the 17th century Baituraman mosque. The mosque withstood the giant tsunami waves that crashed onto Banda Aceh's beach, the capital of the province that was hardest hit.
Thousands of worshippers spilled into the courtyard, some kneeling on prayer mats in the mud left by the wave.
Women in white head scarves and robes, men in Muslim skull caps and soldiers in uniform prayed at the mosque, swept clean inside but still surrounded by debris and pools of flood water.
Yudhoyono attended prayers at the main mosque in the provincial capital and told residents of Aceh, battered by a 30-year-old insurgency, that it was time for unity. "The message that goes to my brothers and sisters in Aceh: take a lesson from this disaster and let's unite and move ahead to build Aceh," he said.
Indonesia is the world's most populous Muslim country and Aceh is the nation's most staunchly Islamic region.
"The disaster was God's will and I can only be grateful that I am here still alive," said Ninik, 40, one of the worshippers.
In nearby Meulaboh, the call to prayer and not the sound of helicopters carrying relief supplies, rang out in all directions and people walked to mosques in their best clothes.
Shops and markets were closed, bulldozers sat idle and scavengers were nowhere to be seen. Two women, arms outstretched in prayer, wept as they sat amid the rubble.
The only residents who stayed away from the mosques were men like Zulkifli, 48, who lost his home and nine family members in the tsunami, including his wife.
"I want to go, but I don't have a peci. I can't go to the mosque without one," said Zulkifli referring to the black cap Indonesian men wear to the mosque