* Here we have a few articles combined in one thread on the situation in Mindanao:
MILF says US govt has “unfinished obligation toward Moro people”
* Which is a demand on infidels to pay the jiziyah:
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MILF says US govt has “unfinished |
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Muslims originally refused to become part of the Philippines |
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Continued…
Philippines: Counterterror efforts find that “hearts and minds” are fickle
* From our “Philippines: Jihad, Swine & Muslims” series
Below is a story of how the security situation in the southern Philippines is deteriorating, where it was once upheld as a model of success in counterterror operations. Both the article and the theories about what went wrong depend heavily on the notion that poverty causes terrorism, and thus, that the persistence of poverty is why the jihadists never quite seem to go away.
There is no mention of any possible ideology or its role in maintaining support among the populations into which the fighters disappear when the pressure is on. Apparently there will be no engaging of the jihadist ideology when it’s so much easier just to throw more money at the problem.
“In Basilan, Philippines, a US counterterrorism model frays,” by Jonathan Adams for theChristian Science Monitor, December 11:
Manila – Just a couple of years ago, the Philippines was hailed as a success story in the US-led war on terror.
A military campaign by US-backed Philippines Special Forces had routed al Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf terrorists from their stronghold in the southern island of Basilan, killed their leaders, and confined surviving diehards to a remote island. Generous economic aid and “hearts and minds” outreach undergirded the “Philippines model.”
“The iron fist and the hand of friendship succeeded in … restoring both peace and hope to the island,” crowed an August 2006 State Department report.
But recent violence shows how hard it is to keep the peace, and to uproot terrorists for good. Fighting broke out in Basilan early last week between the Philippines military and Abu Sayyaf. Battles Sunday left five soldiers dead and 24 injured, and reports say some 3,000 civilians have fled their villages amid the violence. The Abu Sayyaf is eyed for a recent spate of kidnappings, the latest of a girl and a nursing student.
How did Basilan flip back into tumult? In an interview last week, one US official explained, “if you withdraw too quickly without leaving appropriate law enforcement to maintain order, you leave a vacuum.”
The lesson: terrorists love a vacuum. But in the southern Philippines, it’s not clear how much more the government can do. Its resources are already stretched to the limit there fighting a major communist insurgency, hunting “rogue” Muslim rebels, and dealing with a witch’s brew of kidnapping gangs, extortionists, gun-runners, and international terrorists in dense jungle terrain. One minor victory: Last week police arrested a suspected bombmaker for Jemmah Islamiyah (JI), the Indonesia-based terror outfit.
More militants ‘lurking in the wings’
US officials and analysts say fighting Abu Sayyaf and other terrorists here is a long-term mission with no clear end in sight. They number as many as 200, with another 200 to 400 “lurking in the wings,” says Scott Harrison, managing director of Pacific Strategies and Assessments.
“It’s immune to destruction. If the [counterterrorism] efforts are successful, their numbers just contract. People bury their weapons, disappear back into the villages, wait for the dust to settle, and then recoup themselves to various degrees. But they are by no means destroyed,” he says.
There’s no quick fix to the problem, says Mr. Harrison, because Abu Sayyaf and other terrorists are products of decades of policies that aren’t easy to reverse.
“These are areas that have suffered from generations of abuse at the hands of the Filipino government and Filipino military,” says Harrison. “Poverty, neglect, and abuse is what continues to fuel the Abu Sayyaf Group.”
Hugh comments:
Another US official adds, “You need a concerted effort of hard power and soft power to make up for a century of insecurity and underdevelopment.” The US is contributing – $500 million in aid in the last decade, much of it targeted at impoverished Muslim-majority areas in the south.
There’s no quick fix to the problem, says Mr. Harrison, because Abu Sayyaf and other terrorists are products of decades of policies that aren’t easy to reverse.”
— from the article aboveNot “decades of policies.” The texts of Islam — Qur’an, Hadith, and Sira, and what Muslims, over the past 1350 years, did as a result of what those texts, as endowed with their permanent meaning long ago, and inculcated by Muslim clerics, naturally led them to do.
It is this that American, British, French, and a dozen other national governments, and all the consultants and “terrorism experts” and “counterinsurgency experts” and strategists of every stripe, keep missing, because they simply refuse — some are too lazy, some too dumb, some don’t want to be confused with reality, some don’t want to be presented with the unhappy truth that there is no end to the menace of Islam for Infidels, merely a condition to be handled, an enemy to be divided, demoralized, constrained at every step. It’s too much for imaginations, unused to being exerciseed, to be put to use, even if those imaginations, set going to come up with ways to weaken the Camp of Islam, might save the Infidels a cool trillion or even more. Who needs to worry about money these days?
Posted by: HughÂ
 at December 12, 2008 1:03 AM
MILF and its jihadi child-soldiers
As this story indicates, first MILF insisted that it did not utilize children for their jihad; now it is saying that it will stop using them — most likely since that will help gain it “a sense of legitimacy and boost the chances of a negotiated peace.” At any rate, it should be recalled that the concept of “slave-soldiers” in Islam is a time-honored tradition and phenomenon. The caliphates and sultanates especially utilized slave-soldiers, such as the Mamelukes and Janissaries. Though slaves have been used as soldiers by many cultures and people, Daniel Pipes, author of Slave Soldiers and Islam, makes the case “that there was something unique about their use in the Muslim countries.”
“PHILIPPINES: Muslim rebels agree to end use of child soldiers,” from Reuters, December 12:
MANILA, 12 December 2008 (IRIN) – Muslim separatist Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) rebels have agreed to end the recruitment and use of child soldiers, the UN special representative for children and armed conflict, Radhika Coomaraswamy, has announced.Â
“When we met with the leadership of the MILF, they agreed that they had children in their midst and they agreed to enter into an action plan with a UN country team to ensure the separation of the children from their ranks and their return to civilian life,” she said…
If the MILF follows through on this commitment, it could given them a sense of legitimacy and boost the chances of a negotiated peace, she said.
The 12,000-strong MILF has been fighting for an independent Islamic state on Mindanao, in the mineral-rich southern third of this predominantly Roman Catholic country of 91 million people. Tens of thousands have been displaced, in what the government and international aid agencies have described as a complex emergency situation that could lead to a full-blown humanitarian crisis if left unchecked.
Along with the Al-Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf group and the communist New People’s Army, the MILF has been included in a UN list of groups using child combatants.
Denial:
In the past, the MILF denied using child soldiers, but acknowledged they had been taking care of boys under eight who were orphaned in some of its camps in the south. It argued it was protecting these boys from hostile fire and giving them an education.
Of course they are; that’s where the jihad always starts — education: education in the Koran and Hadith; education in the sunna of their warrior-prophet. And so forth.
But military intelligence sources and child rights groups say many of them are used on the battlefield or in support roles as porters, guides or camp hands.Â
The London-based Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers – in a report [http://www.child-soldiers.org/home] earlier this year – said that up to 13 percent of the MILF’s 12,000 strong force in 2005 were children.
Documents also declassified by the army intelligence, and obtained earlier by IRIN, showed that the MILF continued to train children as “tough, self-reliant, fighting men”.
Â
Euphemism for “child abuse”?
Ethoman comments:
Posted by: ethomanÂ
Wait a minute we were at war with Muslims in the Philippines as long ago as 1900! WOW!
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/654540/posts
President McKinley said:“The Philippines are not ours to exploit, but to develop, civilize, educate and train for self-government.” And to that cause the Americans in Mindanao, meaning to preserve the Moro way of life, intended to suppress piracy, eliminate the slave trade, prevent intertribal war and bring the “natives” into the modern world. But piracy, slavery and fighting were as much a part of the Moro way of life as was Islam. Thus, when the Americans began to blaze trails, take a census, impose a head tax and customs duties, and set up schools and the like, the Moros saw those well-meant but abrupt changes as threatening to their religion and their social fabric. The invaders never interfered with Islamic customs. Yet as they installed telegraph lines and introduced health programs and medicine, the Moros reacted with increased fear that their children would learn English and subtly become Christianized.”
“But piracy, slavery and fighting were as much a part of the Moro way of life as was Islam.”
WOW! You don’t say!
Why would the peaceful moooslims feel that slavery was as much a part of a way of life as Islam?
Taken from Islam Q&A online.
What is a right hand servant? Do you have to be married to have one? How can you finalize it and get one and state this person as your right hand servant?.
Praise be to Allaah.Firstly:
If Allaah enables the Muslim mujahideen to defeat kaafir enemies in war, then the men may be killed, ransomed, set free without ransom or enslaved. The choice between these four options is to be made by the ruler, according to what he thinks is the best course.
With regard to the women, they become slaves and “those whom one’s right hand possesses” (described as a “right hand servant” in the question). Male children also become slaves. The ruler shares out these slaves among the mujaahideen.
Shaykh al-Shanqeeti (may Allaah have mercy on him) said: The reason why a person may be taken as a slave is his being a kaafir and waging war against Allaah and His Messenger. If Allaah enables the Muslims who are striving and sacrificing their lives and their wealth and all that Allaah has given them to make the word of Allaah supreme over the kaafirs, then He allows them to enslave the kuffaar when they capture them, unless the ruler chooses to free them or to ransom them, if that serves the interests of the Muslims.
Adwa’ al-Bayaan, 3/387
Islam limited the sources of slaves which existed before the mission of the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) to just one source, namely slavery resulting from capturing prisoners from among the kuffaar.
Islam treated female slaves more kindly in their enslavement than other cultures did. Their honour was not considered to be permissible to anyone by way of prostitution, which was the fate of female prisoners of war in most cases. Rather Islam made them the property of their masters alone, and forbade anyone else to also have intercourse with them, even if that was his son. Islam made it their right to become free through a contract of manumission; it encouraged setting them free and promised reward for that. Islam made setting slaves free an obligation in the case of some kinds of expiation (kafaarah), such as the expiation for accidental killing, zihaar (a jaahili form of divorce in which a man said to his wife, “You are to me as my mother’s back”), and breaking oaths. They received the best treatment from their masters, as was enjoined by the pure sharee’ah.
Secondly:
A mujaahid does not have to be married in order to gain possession of a “slave whom one’s right hand possesses.” None of the scholars expressed such a view.
Thirdly:
If a mujaahid takes possession of a female slave or male slave, it is permissible for him to sell them. In either case – whether one acquires a slave through battle or through purchase – it is not permissible for a man to have intercourse with a female slave until she has had a period from which it may be ascertained that she is not pregnant. If she is pregnant then he must wait until she gives birth.
It was narrated that Ruwayfi’ ibn Thaabit al-Ansaari said: I heard the Messenger of Allaah (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) say on the day of Hunayn: “It is not permissible for any man who believes in Allaah and the Last Day to irrigate the crop of another else – meaning to have intercourse with a woman who is pregnant. And it is not permissible for a man who believes in Allaah and the Last Day to have intercourse with a captured woman until he has established that she is not pregnant. And it is not permissible for a man who believes in Allaah and the Last Day to sell any booty until it has been shared out.”
Narrated by Abu Dawood, 2158; classed as hasan by Shaykh al-Albaani in Saheeh Abi Dawood, 1890.
For many reasons, including the fact that the Muslims have long since given up jihad, slavery is now very rare. This means that the Muslims must be extra cautious by examining any case in which it is claimed that someone is a slave, whether male or female.Â
Posted by: ethomanÂ
Philippino Jihad: Clueless in Mindanao
Top Philippine court says deal with rebels illegal
Philippines: MILF attacks continue despite ‘improvement in interfaith dialog’
Christians Fear More Islamic Attacks In Southern Philippines
Philippino Jihad: Observance of Ramadan enables rogue MILF units to regroup
Philippino Jihad: Observance of Ramadan enables rogue MILF units to regroup
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Philippines: ‘No ceasefire during Christmas’, says rebel leader
Manila, 9 Dec. (AKI) – One of the leaders of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), the Philippines’s largest Islamic rebel organisation, said that his group is not keen on a ceasefire to celebrate Christmas.     ÂMILF chief negotiator Mohagher Iqbal said that the MILF is not opposed to the government stopping hostilities in December, but did not forget that Manila refused to call a ceasefire during Ramadan, the Muslim holy month.Â
“So if they declare a ceasefire now, Muslims will take it as a sign this government values December more than Ramadan,” Iqbal said in an interview on dzXL radio.
Iqbal however reiterated that the MILF is observing a ceasefire and accused the military of attacking.Â
“We don’t need to declare a ceasefire. It is the government that needs to declare one because it is doing the attacking,” he said.Â
Fighting between the MILF and the military intensified since August, after a proposed peace agreement between the two warring parties was halted by the Supreme Court on he ground of unconstitutionality.Â
Hundreds have been killed since and over 600,000 people were forced to flee their homes. Many remain in squalid evacuation camps, aid agencies and social workers said.
In the last few days, the fighting has been particularly fierce in island of Basilan, Sulu Archipelago, where at least 55 people were killed in two days, the military said. Five soldiers were among the dead.Â
Marine commandant Major Gen. Ben Dolorfino—himself a Muslim—said that the military are fighting against a combined force that includes terrorists of the Abu Sayyaf Group, lawless elements of the MILF, and small kidnap-for-ransom groups.Â
“The military has deliberately attacked the MILF under the guise of pursuing the Abu Sayyaf,” said MILF spokesperson Eid Kabalu.Â
Abu Majid, a MILF junior political officer based in Basilan, claimed also that attacks have been indiscriminate.Â
“There is no distinction between civilians, Abu Sayyaf, MILF, or those involved in the ceasefire between the Philippine government and the MILF,” Majid told the MILF-affiliated ‘Luwaran.’Â
Experts have long claimed that the lines between MILF, Moro National Liberation Front—the precursor of the MILF—Abu Sayyaf and lawless groups are very misty in the Sulu Archipelago and that alliances shift fast and are mostly driven by ethnicity and family ties.Â
The Moros have been fighting since the 1970s for self-rule in claimed Muslim territories.
Moro is the communal term to define the original tribes of Mindanao and Sulu that were islamised in 1380.Â
Karim ul’ Makhdum, was the first Islamic missionary to reach the Sulu Archipelago and Jolo. He is credited with bringing Islam to what is now the Philippines, Asia’s largest Catholic country.Â
However, there are an estimated 4.5 million Muslims in the Philippines and the majority live in the south of the country.
MILF rebuffs Philippine president’s New Year greeting
Being a jihadist means never having to say you’re sorry: it’s always the other guy’s fault. “MILF rebuffs Arroyo’s New-Year greeting,” from GMANews.tv, December 30 (thanks to JW):
MANILA, Philippines – Accusing her of an inconsistent peace policy, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) rebuffed President Gloria Arroyo’s New Year greeting to the Islamic community.MILF deputy spokesman Khaled Musa said it is hard for Muslims to help the government achieve lasting peace if it cannot honor an agreement like the one on ancestral domain.
“How could there be peace when you don’t honor agreement?” he said in an article posted on the MILF website.
Musa said wishing is the forte of “children and weak minds” but added that honoring an agreement is the exclusive domain of honorable men and women….
Â
Not that the MILF has honored its agreements.
Last August, the MILF’s “rogue” commanders led attacks in Mindanao after the Supreme Court blocked the signing of a memorandum of agreement on ancestral domain.The fighting prompted the stalling of peace talks as government shifted its policy from dealing with armed groups to conducting “peace consultations” in the countryside….
Earlier, Musa said Arroyo’s Islamic New Year message asked Muslims to support government’s resolve “in turning the fragile peace in Muslim Mindanao into a genuine ad [sic] lasting one.”
“More than ever, our countrymen of whatever faith and culture should unite in our continuing search for peace and stability in Mindanao,” the message said….
Â
“Peace and stability in Mindanao” — i.e., Sharia.
US: supporting the global jihad by aiding and abetting Islamic murderers in the Philippines
Clueless, delusional, Â naive & veiled: Kristie Kenney, US Ambassador to the Philippines
MILF says US govt has unfinishedÂ
obligation toward Moro peopleMuslims originally refused to become part of the Philippines
By Julmunir I. Jannaral, CorrespondentÂ
Â
COTABATO CITY: A high official of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) here on Sunday urged the United States government to fulfill its unfinished obligations towards the Moro people when despite the vehement protest of the latter they were forced to join the Filipinos as citizens of the Philippines in 1946.Muhammad Ameen, chairman of the Moro separatist group Central Committee secretariat, said the US government carries “an unfinished obligation to the Moro people when they turned them over to the Filipinos despite their protestations in the grant of independence in 1946.”
This must be rectified, he said, referring to the Moros’ refusal to become part of the Philippines. “This historical error must be corrected immediately or the fighting in Mindanao escalates,” said Ameen.
Political observers here in Central Mindanao said “when Ameen talks, it is tantamount as if Murad talks also.” That is, any official statement that he pronounced reflects that of the highest leadership of the MILF Central Committee chaired by Al Haj Murad Ebrahim.
However, Ameen took exception of the recent meeting of President Gloria Arroyo with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in Lima, Peru on the occasion of the 16th Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC ) meeting that was held last month from November 22 to 23.
Press Secretary Jesus Dureza was quoted in a media report that the President was asked by Rice on the status of the peace process with the Moro separatist group.
“President Arroyo explained our new paradigm in pursuing the peace talks with the Moro rebels based on more authentic consultations and not dictated by any armed group,” said Dureza, adding the government is ready to return to the negotiating table with the Moro separatist group once consultations are concluded with stakeholder communities. The government has time and again also said that it would talk peace with the MILF rebels based on DDR (disarmament, demobilization, and rehabilitation).
Ameen interpreted the gesture of the US Secretary of State in making the query as a continuing concern of the United States government for the peaceful resolution of the decades-old Moro problem.
“This is a rare occasion that a high American official ever make a statement of the resolution of the Moro problem, and therefore, this deserved commendation and appreciation,” Ameen said in the Moro rebel’s interactive website.
He also thanked US Ambassador Kristie Kenney for visiting the Moro ‘bakwit’ or internally displaced persons in Datu Odin Sinsuat, Shariff Kabun-suan, in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao and her announcement of the new $2.5 million (about P120 million) relief assistance for the individuals and families of the thousands of evacuees who were forced to abandon the comfort of their homes to evade the hostilities between the Moro rebels and military.
As this developed, Eid Kabalu, Moro separatist group spokesman and chief of civil-military affairs, said the US interest towards the peaceful resolution of the Mindanao conflict is highly welcome to the Muslim communities.
”It is the MILF’s policy to settle the conflict peacefully and we welcome any contribution from any party,” said Kabalu.
