Uneasy Eid’l Fitr in Mindanao amid conflict

MAGUINDANAO, Philippines – Security issues made the outdoor Eid al-Fitr congregational prayers yesterday in Marawi City and other areas in Mindanao markedly uneasy and somber.

Many of the designated worship sites in southern provinces were guarded by combined police and military teams tasked to ward off outcast Islamic militants hostile to Christians and moderate Muslims who disagree with their religious malpractices.

The Army’s 6th Infantry Division (ID) opened to moderate worshippers the Camp Siongco in Datu Odin Sinsuat town here where they can perform an open-field sambahayang (prayer) without fear of being sabotaged.

ID commander Major Gen. Arnel dela Vega led soldiers in providing the worshippers food and drinks after their obligatory prayer rite.

An important religious holiday in Islam, the Eid al-Fitr marks the culmination of the Ramadan fasting season that lasts for one lunar cycle, or from 29 to 30 days.

Muslims fast at daytime during the Ramadan as an obligation and in keeping with the five pillars of the Islamic faith, which include belief in Allah, praying five times a day facing the direction of Makkah in Saudi Arabia, giving of zakat (alms) to the poor, and for those who can afford the cost of travel, performing the hajj even at least once in a lifetime.

Fasting during the Ramadan, besides being a form of reparation for wrongdoings, is also meant to inculcate among Muslims the importance of self-restraint to achieve spiritual perfection. 

Salma Ansao, a mother of three elementary pupils, said she and her children first planned to perform the religious rite in another town in Maguindanao, but, apprehensive of an attack by extremists, they decided to proceed to Camp Siongco instead.

Members of local groups claiming allegiance to the Islamic State (IS) conveniently calls munafiq (hypocrite) neutral Muslims rabidly opposed to their extreme interpretation of teachings in the Qur’an to suit their vested interests.

“We’re scared to be seen as only remains with cardboard signs written with munafiq. We’re not like that. We are Muslims who do not want terrorism,” Ansao, 37, told The STAR.

?Many clerics who delivered khutab (sermons) after leading Eid prayers yesterday spoke of the Islamic principles on respect for non-Muslims and love for neighbors, regardless of race and religion.

They also discussed Islamic values promoting religious tolerance and fraternalism among Muslims and non-Muslims.

One firebrand imam said it is wrong to promote hatred against non-Muslims the way the despised Maute and Abu Sayyaf groups, now together in the Dawlah Islamiya, are advocating for.

“There is no teaching in the Qur’an about that and nowhere in the teachings of Prophet Mohammad did he ever order the killing of Christians and Muslims for religious goals. What we have are teachings on keeping as remembrance all goodness non-Muslims have extended to Muslims,” the cleric said.

 He cited as examples how Christian doctors provided medical care to Muslims in past decades when Muslim physicians were still rare and how non-Muslim teachers served in remote areas when there were still few Muslim mentors working in barrio schools.

 “And now here comes misguided groups wanting Muslims to kill Christians or people with other faiths. That is wrong and absolutely against the principles of Islam,” the imam pointed out in his fiery khutab.

Separate prayers 

In Marawi City, male relief and emergency workers and local executives held congregational prayers in a mosque in the capitol compound of Lanao del Sur province.

Marawi City is the capital of Lanao del Sur, a component province of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.

Female provincial government employees prayed separately inside a large multi-purpose hall in the capitol building.

“Thanks to Allah, there were no gunshots and explosions in Marawi City during our prayer sessions,” said Salma Jayne Tamano, provincial information officer.

Those who came to the provincial capitol from nearby areas to join the prayer rites were subjected to rigid body searches by policewomen and soldiers deployed in the surroundings.

Tamano said the sermons delivered during their group prayers were about the need for Maranaos to be resilient and forgiving in the wake of the trouble besetting Marawi City, which Maute and Abu Sayyaf terrorists instigated.

“In context, the sermons stated that everything in this world happens by the permissiveness of Allah and that if we were crippled by this conflict, there is a reason and that by Allah’s grace, we will rise again,” Tamano said.

Tamano said the eight-hour suspension of military operations in Marawi City in keeping with the Eid al-Fitr, dubbed “humanitarian pause,” gave residents, whose houses are far from the battle zones, the chance to pray after sunrise on Sunday without disruption.

“But the mood was both tense and gloomy, not the kind of Eid’l  Fitr we had years before. Sadness filled the air, felt deep in the hearts,” Tamano said.