How Hungary's Small Muslim Community Is Helping Refugees

Washington Post: As Hostility Flares, Hungary's Muslim Community Mobilizes To Aif Refugees

The ongoing refugee crisis in Europe has been an ordeal marked by countless  personal tragedies  and turmoils that deserve rigorous international media coverage.

Just as deserving of coverage are the pockets  of hope , where people throughout the world are stepping up to do what they can to provide assistance to refugees in need.

An example of the latter can be found in a story by Robert Samuels in The Washington Post Tuesday .

While Hungary has received extensive  negative  attention for how it has handled migrants attempting to enter the country, the Samuels offers a powerful portrait of how a small community of Muslims living in Hungary -- they represent less than 1 percent of the population -- are pushing back against the country’s opposition to the refugees and an associated uptick in anti-Muslim rhetoric . 

Samuels reports many Hungarian Muslims are donating food and medical supplies and providing translation help for refugees camping at the Keleti train station in Budapest.

“The Hungarians are good people, but the politics have gotten bad,” one volunteer, Josef Elhindy, told the Post. “We have to show them who we are.” 

Few other media outlets appear to have sought out Hungarians who are supportive of the refugees. Anadolu Agency, a Turkish state-run press agency, published a video earlier this month  that showed a diverse crowd of Hungarians attending a pro-refugee rally in Budapest.

The Post has offered other solution-oriented coverage that has provided an alternative viewpoint on the crisis including a Wonkblog post by Ana Swanson titled “The big myth about refugees”  and “Five ways to solve Europe’s refugee crisis”  by Michael Birnbaum. At the same time, it has also run stories criticizing wealthy Arab nations like Saudi Arabia and Kuwait , as well as Silicon Valley , for taking little action on the issue.

MORE:

FastCompany: In Vermont, A Forward-Thinking Utility Is Helping Customers Share Solar Power

The Marshall Project: ‘Sex is Not a Service’

The What’s Working Honor Roll highlights some of the best reporting and analysis, from a range of media outlets, on all the ways people are working toward solutions to some of our greatest challenges. If you know a story you think should be on our Honor Roll, please send an email to editor Joseph Erbentraut at joseph.erbentraut@huffingtonpost.com with the subject line "WHAT'S WORKING." 

For more solutions-focused coverage, follow What's Working on Facebook  and Twitter .

Also on HuffPost: