'Tense and gloomy' Eid'l Fitr amid Marawi crisis
June 25, 2017 | 7:20am
MAGUINDANAO, Philippines — Security issues made the outdoor Eid’l Fitr congregational prayers on Sunday in Marawi City and other areas in Mindanao markedly uneasy and somber.
Many of the designated worship sites in the southern provinces were guarded by police and Army teams against Islamic militants hostile to Christians and moderate Muslims who disagree with their interpretation of Islam.
The Army’s 6th Infantry Division opened to moderate worshipers Camp Siongco, located in Datu Odin Sinsuat town in Maguindanao, where they can perform an open-field sambahayang (prayer) without fear of being sabotaged.
Major Gen. Arnel Dela Vega, commander of the 6th ID, led soldiers in providing the worshipers food and drinks after their obligatory prayer rite.
The Eid'l Fitr, an important religious holiday in Islam, 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.
A resident of a nearby barangay, Salma Ansao, mother of three elementary pupils, said she and her children first planned to perform the religious rite in another town in Maguindanao, but decided to proceed to Camp Siongco instead because of security concerns.
Members of local groups claiming allegiance to the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria label as munafiq (hypocrite) neutral Muslims opposed to their extreme interpretation of teachings in the Qur’an.
“Takot po kaming makitang mga bangkay na lang na may nakalagay na karatula sa aming mga katawan na may nakasulat na munafiq. Hindi po kami ganun. Mga Muslim po kaming ayaw ng terrorismo,” the 37-year-old Ansao, wife of a tricycle driver, told The STAR.
Religious tolerance and brotherhood
Many clerics who delivered khutab (sermons) after leading Eid'l Fitr prayers on Sunday spoke of the Islamic principles on respect for non-Muslims and love for neighbors, regardless of races and religions.
They also discussed Islamic values promoting religious tolerance and fraternalism among Muslims and non-Muslims.
One imam said it is wrong to promote hatred against non-Muslims the way the Maute and Abu Sayyaf terror groups, now together in the Dawlah Islamiya, are advocating.
“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.
Another imam told worshipers that Islam is a religion premised on the spiritual conviction that all humans are siblings, being descendants of the biblical couple Adam and Eve.
Eid'l Fitr in Marawi
In Marawi City, male relief and emergency workers and local executives held congregational prayers in a mosque in the capitol compound there 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 Maranaws 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’l 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.
The incursion into Marawi City of Maute and Abu Sayyaf terrorists dislocated 264,000 residents per latest account by the Lanao del Sur provincial crisis management committee.
There is no clear indication yet on when the raging strife in Marawi City will end, although the government has expressed confidence that that will happen before the 60th day of martial law.
In Cotabato, thousands pray under heavy guard
In Cotabato City, thousands prayed under heavy guard at the compound of the People’s Palace, the operation center of the city government.
Cotabato City Mayor Cynthia Guiani-Sayadi personally led the enforcement of security measures meant to prevent saboteurs from getting close to the vicinity of the People’s Palace.
The mayor, who is chairperson of the inter-agency Cotabato City peace and order council, said she is thankful to the police and the military for encircling the compound of the People’s Palace while moderate Muslims prayed there on Sunday morning.
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