Ulama issue fatwa in mass rally versus anti-Moro candidates

March 20, 2010/Marawi City - "NO TO BAD DOGS" reads one of the placards referring to the candidates perceived to be anti-Moro and anti-Muslim.

Thousands of Bangsamoro Muslims joined the mass rally held at Plaza Cabili, Marawi City on March 9, as a manifestation of outrage at national candidates who, based on their recent actions and policies, the Muslims now consider as enemies of Islam.

These candidates are running for national positions in the coming May 10 elections.

As early as 7:00 am, people flocked to the streets of Banggolo at the heart of Marawi City to attend the rally organized by the ‘Concerned Muslim Citizens of the Philippines’ headed by one of the most respected ulama in the Philippines and Bangsamoro, Imam Jamil Yahyah, who is also a known defender of Islam.

One of the highlights of said rally was the reading of a fatwa ( religious edict) issued by the Bangsamoro Supreme Council of Ulama which declared that "after studying the actions and policies of Mr. Erap Estrada before and after his election as president until this present time, we found out that he is really an enemy of Islam."

Mr. Joseph ‘Erap’Estrada, a movie actor and former Philippine president who was ousted from office by a popular revolt in 200, is running for the presidency. During his incumbency as Philippine president, he declared and waged all-out war against the MILF which resulted in widespread destruction in Mindanao and Sulu and over 1 million Bangsamoro Muslims being uprooted from their lands and homes. Mosques were not even spared and were also desecrated and destroyed. He has publicly announced that once elected as president, his priority is to make war against the MILF, which is currently holding peace talks with government, again.

The fatwa also declared Senator Mar Roxas and Franklin Drilon, vice-presidential and senatorial candidates respectively of the Liberal Party, as enemies of Islam and the Bangsamoro people. Both strongly opposed the 2008 MILF-GRP Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain (MOA-AD) and filed a petition-intervention before the Philippine Supreme Court against the signing of this agreement that would have brought the conflict in Mindanao to near closure at the negotiating table between the Philippine government and the MILF. “Up to the present, they are against the welfare of the Bangsamoro", says the fatwa.

The fatwa finally declared and enjoined all Muslim believers in the Philippines and the Bangsamoro that voting for Erap Estrada, Mar Roxas and Franklin Drilon is ‘HARAM’ (forbidden).

Although Adel Tamano, a Maranaw Moro running for senator under the Nacionalista Party and one of those at the forefront of the opposition to the MOA-AD, was not mentioned in the fatwa, he was alluded to by some speakers in the rally as one of those opposed to the MOA-AD and the Bangsamoro cause.

The organizers also distributed a manifesto entitled "MOA-AD - THE MARTYRED SOLUTION TO PEACE IN MINDANAO" in which they put their blame on the ‘war hawks’ in the local and national leadership who used the Supreme Court in sabotaging the MOA-AD.

In that said document, they also urged their fellow “Mindanaoans” not to allow war provocateurs to succeed in their obsession for “worldly gains” and self-aggrandizement by not electing them to key positions in the national government.

Hadji Abdullah Lacs Dalidig, one of the organizers of the rally and chairman of the ‘Islamic Movement on Electoral Reform and Good Governance’ (IMERGG) emphasized that this Movement is for the good of the people.

"We will utilize the media and organize more rallies, conferences and Friday congregations to make sure that Erap, Mar Roxas and Franklin Drilon will not succeed in this 2010 election", says Lacs Dalidig.

In a related event, a seminar on automated election was held at the MSU Dimaporo Gymnasium in MSU-Marawi last Tuesday March 16 from 8:00 am to 12 noon. Sittie Sahara D. Mutia, student leader and lead organizer of the said seminar, when asked to comment on the fatwa, said that "The Bangsamoro people have the right to choose who they are going to vote for in any position. They have the right to choose somebody who they think will serve them best. Moreover, they also have the right to reject, boycott and oppose individual or group of individuals who they think are a threat to their identity, self-determination and struggle for that matter."

Meanwhile, when asked for an opinion on these developments, a ranking member of the MILF in Ranao who requested anonymity said: “The MILF is not involved and, therefore, not participating in Philippine elections. From the very inception of the MILF, this has been the policy. Philippine elections are a political exercise that is internal to the Philippine state. This has to be made clear repeatedly and emphatically. However, regarding the rally and the fatwa, it is the right of the Bangsamoro masses to ventilate their individual as well as collective opinion, even outrage, on issues that affect their lives and the dire condition they are in. The rightly-guided ulama, as true guardians of the Islamic faith, also have all the right to issue a fatwa against those who, by their actions, have proved to be inimical to Islam, our Moro nation, and the right of self-determination of our people.”