Muslims urged: Follow teachings on peace, religion

COTABATO CITY, Philippines – Local clerics yesterday urged worshipers to strictly adhere to the Islamic teachings on peace and religious tolerance, in Eid’l Adha sermons in heavily secured designated sites. 

The Eid’l Adha or “feast of sacrifice” is important to Muslims, perhaps even more spiritually significant than the Eid’l Fitr that marks the culmination of the month-long Ramadan fasting season.

Muslims celebrate annually the Eid’l Adha on the 10th day of Dhul-Hijjah in the Islamic lunar-based Hijrah calendar.

Worshipers in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) have performed their supposed outdoor congregational Eid’l Adha prayers in covered courts and mosques either due to inclement weather or security concerns.

The ARMM covers Maguindanao, Lanao del Sur, Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi – provinces plagued with security concerns due to the presence of extremist groups that include the Abu Sayyaf, the Moro National Liberation Front and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.

Muslim personnel of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division and their dependents prayed inside the mosque near the entrance to Camp Siongco in Datu Odin Sinsuat, Maguindanao due to security issues.

Text messages circulated over the weekend claiming that radical groups in Central Mindanao are to sabotage the Eid’l Adha celebration in some vulnerable areas to avenge the deaths of 57 Abu Sayyaf gunmen killed in recent encounters with government forces in Sulu.

ARMM Gov. Mujiv Hataman yesterday appealed to residents to unite against religious extremism being espoused by groups circumventing Islamic teachings on religious tolerance and “spiritual multilateralism” among local sectors.

“These groups, to suit their ‘ill interests’ are misinterpreting the Islamic teachings on love for people and Allah’s other creatures, including nature, respect for other religions and unity among Muslims and non-Muslims,” Hataman said.

Hataman said Islam has a very strong advocacy for interfaith unity and forbids religious persecution.

Hataman’s deputy, ARMM Vice Gov. Haroun Al-Rashid Lucman, said he is saddened with the efforts of self-styled jihadist factions to foment hatred on non-Muslims.

Lucman said religious extremism is a misnomer in Islam, which literally means peace.

Meanwhile, a Turkish non-government organization pushed through its tradition in slaughtering cattle and shared the meat yesterday with thousands of indigent residents in Zamboanga City and other parts of the country in observance of Eid’l Adha.

However, the number of cattle slaughtered this year for the Eid’l Adha, or ‘Kurban’ in Turkey, was drastically reduced, said Maruf Celebi, representative of ICAD Foundation and director of the Filipino-Turkish Tolerance School.

Eid’l Adha in the Muslim world is a representation of two significant Islamic events – the culmination of the Hajj or pilgrimage in Makkah, Saudi Arabia, and the sacrifice when Allah commanded Abraham to sacrifice his son as an act of submission to Allah’s will. – With Roel Pareño