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by Kazi Mahmood KUALA LUMPUR (Islam Online) - Muslims around the world are criticizing the ongoing military operations in Jolo in southern Philippines initially directed against the Abu Sayyaf kidnapping and guerilla group, who have evaded direct confrontation with the heavily armed military and are still calling for "Jihad" in the Muslim majority province. The operations, however, have now included within the casualty lists, scores of civilians.
Several youth organizations and social associations have taken the opportunity to voice their concerns over the treatment of Muslims in the Philippines. They believe that the current showdown is the result of years of frustration and domination of Muslims by Filipinos. Militantislam.org a newly created Islamic based Internet non-governmental organization (NGO) in Indonesia has called for the immediate cessation of hostilities against the Abu Sayyaf. It also criticized human rights abuses by the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) "who seem to be waging an all anti-Muslim war in Jolo," the organization says. The newly formed group also called for the creation of a pan-Islamic "Ummah" based intervention force. They say the force would act like a "U.N.-styled peacekeeping force" to negotiate a settlement of the Jolo crisis. It added that the this force is necessary due to the fact that Muslims do not currently possess a pan-Islamic force capable of intervening in order to prevent carnages like the ones in Sarajevo, Kosovo, Kashmir, and now Jolo. In the past, the Islamic Organization Conference (IOC) has rejected calls for the creation of a pan-Islamic military force. The only time the Muslims organized themselves into a united force was in 1973-74 during the Egypt-Israeli war that ended in the recapture of part of the Sinai desert from Zionist forces led by Commander Moshe Dayan. Ugandan, Pakistani, Philippine Muslims, and other Arab Muslims, participated alongside the Egyptian army in the Suez war and almost overran the Jewish army, the group wrote in an editorial that will be published on its site in mid-October; the launch date for the site. Members of Militantislam.org are students living in Jakarta and Riau province; they are from Nigeria, Ghana, Indonesia, Afghanistan and Pakistan. The group is setting up a website with the aim of dissipating the wrong assertion that Islam is violent and attracts terrorism. "The Filipinos all out war in Jolo is trying to portray the Muslims in the poor province as terrorists," said the group in a statement. "For years the Muslims have been neglected, dominated and oppressed by the successive Filipino regimes. Marcos waged both economic and political wars against the poorly fed and badly clad Muslims in Mindanao and Sulu. "Estrada is waging a credibility war against the poor Muslims. The Abu Sayyaf is a twisted response to the horrors committed by the Filipinos. In Manila, Muslims lives in slums, ask for pittance on the streets, and is the constant target of the military police. "Muslim women are mistreated and shown no respect, men and children does not escape the wrath of the both the people and the government of the Philippines. The limit has been reached, and [the] Abu Sayyaf type of rebel groups is only the tip of the iceberg," the organization said. "The domination and political/economic suppression of the Muslim[s] the Philippines took place while the rest of the Muslim world was comfortably enjoying the oil boons in the 1970s. "It continued until today and that has to stop. The Ummah must take up the responsibility of organizing itself and gain consciousness over the fate of the millions of Muslims worldwide, suffering from the same suppression like the Moro's in the Philippines, te group added, calling for the people of Islam to group themselves in worldwide organizations. Earlier this month, several Indonesian and Malaysian groups called on the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) organization in the United States to go global and make use of the Internet to unite the Muslims into an "online" Ummah. The groups also called for the creation of pan-Islamic organizations that would assist Muslims in countries where they are minorities, such as in the Philippines, Myanmar and Thailand. Many other organizations said to Islam Online that they have lost faith in governments. "We want to press for the creation of an 'Ummah-based' aid and cooperation system that would by-pass the bureaucracy and anti-Islamic policies of the existing Muslim governments," Stopinjustice.org, another Islamic-based Human Rights organization, told Islam Online. Libya and Malaysian based Muslim organizations, as well as the OIC, have been skeptical on the motives of the Philippines army in its operation in Jolo. A recent editorial in a Malaysian newspaper showed that the concern is now reaching a larger spectrum of the Malaysian population. "The safety of the hostages aside, the operation in Jolo has taken on an ominous turn with reports of heavy damage to villages and increasing civilian casualties. "Although figures cannot be verified at this stage, when the operation is in full swing, the fact that 50,000 refugees are fleeing the scene is a sad story of the human tragedy-taking place," the editorial said. |
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