It was "the wrath of Allah" — senablaw in the local dialect — that killed the 17 accused Abu Sayyaf terrorists who took fellow inmates hostage last Monday at the Metro Manila Rehabilitation Center (MMRC) in Bicutan in Taguig City, Islamic leaders in Central Mindanao said yesterday. "If you go astray and follow the path to wickedness, you will be punished," said a grand mufti (preacher) in a nearby North Cotabato town, who asked not to be named. | You can quote me, but, umm...don't use my name. I don't want to get anyone angry." |
At least nine of 14 Islamic missionaries interviewed by The STAR said the government was right in using force to quell the mutiny after it had exhausted all peaceful means to convince the Abu Sayyaf terrorists to surrender. "We even ought to congratulate the policemen involved in the successful neutralization of the mutineers," said a 59-year-old imam in Datu Odin Sinsuat, Maguindanao. Islamic religious leaders said the slain Abu Sayyaf detainees were struck with senablaw for perverting Islam in justifying atrocities such as kidnapping.
"It is a big sin in Islam to deliberately misinterpret the teachings in the Holy Quran to justify killing of innocent civilians, Muslims and Christians alike, to bomb public places and kidnap people to achieve political or religious objectives," said a Maranaw preacher who asked to be identified only as Samir, and who belongs to the Tabglegh, a congregation of preachers performing missionary work in far-flung communities. An ustadz in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao's executive department said the government must not be alarmed by possible reactions from Muslims in Basilan and Sulu where most of the 17 slain hostage-takers are from. "No Muslim, in his proper frame of mind, will openly sympathize with people who belong to a virtually satanic organization," said the ustadz, an ethnic Tausug. In a statement, the Maguindanao provincial peace and order council said the "neutralization" of the Abu Sayyaf terrorists to end the prison siege was a "clear depiction of the battle between good and evil." |