Friday Khutbah

By EDD K. USMAN

Five top Muslim clerics or “muftis” in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) have reiterated that Islam, being a religion of peace, has nothing to do with terrorism as they asked those who link it with violence “to look deeply into its teachings…and peaceful message.”

The clerics, who head and serve as guardians of Darul Iftah (House of Opinion) in ARMM — three of them, Mufti Omar Pasigan (represented by Ustadz Esmael) of Maguindanao, Mufti Abdulwahab Tunggal of Basilan, and Mufti Abdulwahid Inju of Tawi-Tawi — stressed that “Islam is highly incompatible with violence in the wake of the continuing attempts to connect Prophet Muhammad Sallallahu Allaihi Wassalam’s religion with terrorism. ”

Muslim clerics in the ARMM delivered the “khutbah” or sermon in mosques last Friday, Jan. 26, and will be read again in various mosques around the country, possibly in a simultaneous delivery.

The crafting of the “khutbah” was due to the unceasing linking of terrorism to Islam, which is also due to some misguided Muslims’ penchant for committing violence and justifying these un-Islamic acts as permissible.

ARMM muftis were also alarmed by a purported interview with slain bandit leader Khaddafy Janjalani, leader of the extremist Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG), where he said Islam’s prophet ordered the commission of kidnaping.

“Nothing is further from the truth,” Islamic religious leaders said. In the “khutbah” titled “Islam Condemns Terrorism,” the muftis said the phrase “Islamic terrorist” is a contradiction.

“Islam and terrorism should not even sit in the same sentence together. Islam has nothing to do with terrorism,” they said.

“Islam is, indeed, a religion spread all over the world, recognized and accepted by the world as a religion that always advocates peace, security, and harmony and has nothing to do with terrorism,” the Muslim clercis said.

“It is, therefore, high time for those who associate Islam with terrorism to look deeply into the teachings of Islam and peaceful message of Islam.”

The religious leaders lamented that in Western thought, Islam and terrorism have been closely tied together because of “people with ill agenda, who seek to discredit the good name of Islam, and who consider Islam as a threat to their global ambitions.”

Meanwhile, a Mindanao-based party-list said yesterday that President Arroyo’s pronouncements last Monday of the final days of terror in Mindanao undermines the real ‘‘peace’’ issues of the Bangsamoro people and the minorities of Mindanao.

“The portals leading to the end of what we were told as terror in our land would not greet the people of Mindanao and the entire archipelago until the root cause is understood and identified,” Deputy Secretary General of Suara Bangsamoro Party-list Zaynab Ampatuan said.

Ampatuan added that “it is becoming apparent that the Arroyo administration, as with its predecessors, is missing, once again, the point.”

“It’s as if the peace conflict in Mindanao is brought about by these ‘annihilated’ leaders of the Abu Sayyaff Group,” he said.

Ampatuan said that Mrs. Arroyo’s statements is subscribing to a very naive solution to a deeply rooted issue.

She also commented on attempts of the government to solve the peace conflict in Mindanao through “all-out war” campaigns, including joint military exercises with the United States.

“In these attempts, the government failed. The wars launched in Mindanao against so-called terrorists had only led to forced displacement of more civilian populace,” she said.

source: Manila Bulletin