'Merry Rismas!'

Merry Rismas!” That’s what my four-year old son Mike told me a few days ago. “Rismas” is his invention  it’s a merging of Ramadan and Christmas and while no such holiday exists, my son’s respectful attitude to Christianity and Islam shows that our multicultural approach at home seems to be working.

My sons are being raised as Muslims, meaning that even at an early age they are being taught the basic tenets of Islam. Additionally at home my wife and I teach our kids that, while they are Muslims, they must respect other religious beliefs, specifically Christian beliefs and traditions. Since my children’s mom, in-laws, and most of their friends and classmates are Christians, it is important for my children to understand and accept their Muslim-ness, particularly that it is fine to be different from the majority and that their differences don’t have to get in the way of friendships and getting along with others.

So when we go to parties and social occasions and my kids can’t partake of the usual Filipino party fare of spaghetti, lechon, and barbecue  pork is prohibited in Islam  they don’t mind. My children know that it is only a small inconvenience that they pay for practicing their Islamic faith and that there are other things they can eat anyway. Sometimes, after the party we simply buy food that they like. In fact, my wife and in-laws have been particularly gracious and accommodating because they always make it a point of having pork-free food for me and my kids at family gatherings.

If only our Philippine society was as tolerant. Unfortunately, it isn’t and that is the painful reality that my children will face when they make their way in the world. In fact, as a lawyer, I handled a case that embodies the intolerance of some sectors towards Filipino Muslims. This is the case of Abdul Muhammad who was unjustly jailed for nearly three years as a suspected Muslim terrorist.

I’m using a pseudonym and changing some facts to protect his privacy, however, his story applies to many other unknown Filipino Muslims who have been similarly treated: He was a simple clerk for a garment company based in Makati and, like so many of us, spent his days working and living the simple life of a salaried employee. That is, until the police and military took him. On his way back to his office, after running an errand, he was abducted by police and military forces. He was tortured into making a confession that he was a member of the dreaded Abu Sayyaf.

After his “confession,” a criminal case was filed against him and he was put under detention.

Since Abdul was relatively poor and had limited education, he was unable to obtain a lawyer. Of course, very few lawyers would have wanted to handle the case of a suspected Muslim terrorist. So two years passed until one day a “Balik-Islam” friend (“Balik-Islam” is the term used for Filipinos converting, or in Islamic belief “reverting” to their original state of being a Muslim) asked me to handle Abdul’s case.

Initially, I was very hesitant because I didn’t want to be the lawyer of anyone who had links to terrorist organizations. However, after my friend’s insistence that Abdul was innocent and upon learning his story, I decided to take his case. I visited him at the military camp where he was being held  upon meeting him my intuition said that he was an innocent man  and later I dived into the records of the case. After reviewing the case files, to say that I became outraged is an understatement: the only “evidence” that the police and military authorities had against Abdul was the testimony of a fellow accused that one of the members of their group was named “Abdul Muhammad.”

The only proof that they had against my client was that he had the same name as another suspected terrorist. And they had kept him in jail for two years because of that! Eventually, I was able to convince the Court and the Department of Justice of the grave mistake that had been committed and Abdul was set free.

Abdul’s case is nearly identical to the Alan Aimonte case, who, after being acquitted on terrorism-related charges, filed a P470 million suit against the government for his wrongful prosecution. Abdul never filed a suit against the state and instead decided to leave the country to find a better life elsewhere and to provide income for his family.

However, the point from Abdul’s and Aimonte’s story is that, sadly, despite some advancements in Philippine society on religious tolerance and multiculturalism, Filipino Muslims still nevertheless experience persecution. In fact, according to a recent study, the negative stereotypes that the Christian majority have towards Filipino Muslims have not significantly changed since the 1960s.

Obviously, I do not want my children to experience that negative stereotyping  with its accompanying discrimination  and the other ill effects of intolerance against Muslims. And most likely they won’t because they are, like me, not perceived as the stereotypical Filipino Muslim.

But the fact that they will not experience the difficulties faced by other Filipino Muslims such as harassment from authorities and discrimination is cold comfort. Our children deserve better. They deserve a society that treats people, regardless of religion or social class, with equal respect and dignity. In legal language, we refer to this kind of treatment as equal protection and non-discrimination.

However, as I know that while we can enact thousands of laws forbidding and even punishing wrongful discrimination, until we change hearts and attitudes of our people, then discrimination and oppresion will continue. So I have decided to take the first simple step to changing attitudes  raising my own children to respect everyone  rich or poor, Muslim or Christian.

“Merry Rismas” suddenly has taken on a deeper meaning.