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Muslims Under More Pressure After Philippines Blasts

A Philippine Marines searching for evidence from the debris of the explosion Monday in Zamboanga City

By Kazi Mahmood, IOl Southeast Asia Correspondent

KUALA LUMPUR, October 21 (IslamOnline) - Muslims in the Philippines are feeling the heat after the recent spate of bombings that has ripped through the country’s mainly Muslim dominated areas, a source in Cota Bato city told IslamOnline Monday 21, 2002.

The Philippines police investigating the deadly bus bombing in Quezon City on Friday have targeted majority Muslim areas in Mindanao and Manila in the hunt for key suspects, news agencies said.

A man, believed to be a Muslim, is suspected of planting the bomb on the bus and efforts to locate him were centering on three Muslim communities in Manila, police said.

The Abu-Sayyaf and other Muslim extremist groups were blamed for the series of bombing in the country, but the authorities have not given any proof yet of the claims.

Police are still working on information that could link the bombings to the Jemaah Islamiah (JI), a banned underground organization mainly based in Singapore and having roots in Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines according to anti-terror think tanks in the region.

Both groups have been linked to the Al-Qaeda network of Osama bin Laden.

Editors in Manila are pointing fingers directly at the JI, saying that the defiant group is planning more attacks in response to the aftermath of last years U.S. attack against Afghanistan.

The Philippine Star, another English-speaking newspaper in Manila said the Indonesia-based militant group JI remains “committed to its goal” and “unfazed” by the recent arrests of its members across Southeast Asia, including the Philippines.

Citing local intelligence reports, some editors said they believed there will be more attacks in Manila, Mindanao and most probably in Jakarta. They singled out Muslim extremists and dismissed the possibility that other groups than Muslim extremists were involved in the attacks.

The Philippine intelligentsia has advised the Gloria Macapagal Arroyo government to take enhanced steps to prevent more attacks and one of these steps is to counter Muslim insurgency groups in Mindanao.

There is strong belief in Manila that movements fighting for independence such as the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) are involved with the JI and the Abu-Sayyaf.

The local intelligentsia has also urged the authorities to set up special units to carry out house to house checks in Muslim areas and to urge the MILF and the MNLF to cooperate fully in these searches, which they believe will lead to arms cache and the capture of suspects.

The Military may also be brought back to play more important roles in finding arms cache in areas once occupied by the MILF but are now under the control of the army.

The editors said the military still could not penetrate vast areas of territory under its control, suspecting the presence of small but very mobile and powerful pockets of resistance of the MILF within these areas.

It is highly probable that huge ammunition cache are hidden in these territories and that the terrorists, under the protection of the rebel movements are using such ammunition to perpetrate the bombings, an editor told IslamOnline.

For its part, the MILF denied it was behind any of the blasts, but suggested that the authorities study the bombing patter to see whether they are the work of rebel movements, adding that it could be the work of anti-rebel movement or of the military itself in its bid to wage another anti-rebellion war in Mindanao.

According to the intelligence report cited by the Philippine Star, the Dauliah Islamiah Raya, an Islamic emirate to be created in the region, would comprise Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Singapore. Other neighboring countries would eventually be "absorbed."

Southeast Asia would be a "vital part" of Al-Qaeda’s worldwide operations. Because of this, Australia would be placed "under strong threat" from extremists.

To establish the Islamic state, the JI was tasked to coordinate with other militant groups in various countries, including the MILF in the Philippines, the Kumpulan Militan in Malaysia (KMM), and the Lashkar Jundullah (Jihad Force) in Indonesia, among other groups.

To coordinate operations, Jemaah Islamiyah formed the "Rabitatul Mujahedeen Alliance," which acts like a central committee comprising leaders of various militant groups.

An alleged influential member of the Rabitatul Mujahedeen, the MILF would provide training camps for operatives of Jemaah Islamiyah and other groups. Jemaah Islamiyah would provide funding.

The Rabitatul Alliance allegedly facilitated the sharing of resources, including weapons and explosives, training and funds.

Of the 21 Jemaah Islamiyah members arrested in Singapore in September, four allegedly trained in MILF camps in Central Mindanao. When the camps were captured in 2000 by the Philippine military, camps were set up in Indonesia.

The MILF denies the allegations. Abu Bakar Basyir, the arrested Islamic leader in Indonesia, utterly rejected these allegations, saying that they were the pure fabrication of the United States.