Last weekend, Gloria Arroyo placed the province of Maguindanao under martial law, “except for the identified areas of the MILF.” I’m confused. I thought the Moro Islamic Liberation Front were rebels and the Ampatuans were her friends.
The Ampatuans must be confused as well. They thought Gloria appreciated what they had done for her in previous elections. They thought she understood that the massacre happened because they wanted to ensure the cozy relationship between them would remain undisturbed by local rivalries. What happened?
Ellen Tordesillas of Vera Files blogged that North Cotobato Vice Gov. Manny Piñol said the Ampatuans were threatening to reveal what they knew about the 2004 elections.
“Ang sabi ng ibang mga miyembro ng Ampatuan clan, kung bibitawan sila ni Pangulong Arroyo, sasabihin din nila ang lahat,” Piñol said.
Tordesillas added she heard rumors that the Ampatuans were still in possession of the original documents from the 2004 elections. Blackmail material.
No wonder Gloria Arroyo declared martial law despite the fact that the military, just a few days earlier, said there was no need for it.
“There is no need for the declaration of martial law in the area of Maguindanao or elsewhere in the country because the AFP and the Philippine National Police are on top of the situation,” said Lt. Col. Romeo Brawner.
The Armed Forces spokesman added, “We now have a level of normalcy in the province of Maguindanao primarily because of the occupation by our government forces and our law enforcement agencies of the seats of government.”
Last Saturday, Gloria Arroyo made a liar out of Brawner. She said,
“Whereas, heavily armed groups in the province of Maguindanao have established positions to resist government troops, thereby depriving the Executive of its powers and prerogatives to enforce the laws of the land and to maintain public order and safety.
“Whereas, the condition of peace and order in the province of Maguindanao has deteriorated to the extent the local judicial system and other government mechanisms in the province are not functioning, thus endangering public safety.”
So the military and the police were not on top of the situation, conditions were so bad courts could not function?
Not true, said Midas Marquez, spokesman of the Supreme Court. He pointed out that the Kidapawan Regional Trial Court issued search warrants for the Ampatuan residences. “This is far from a picture of a non-performing judicial system,” he said.
So Justice Secretary Agnes Devanadera said now was not the time to question the legality of martial law. Now was the time for the government to act. The administration will carry out its duties under the presumption that Congress will not revoke the martial-law proclamation and that the court will not rule it illegal. I’m hoping, albeit with trepidation, that Devanadera is correct and the massacre victims will get justice.
Raissa Robles, a reporter for the South China Morning Post, blogged about a glaring error in the proclamation.
“Citing the wrong law as the legal basis shows that this martial law is so sloppily put together. I fear the suspected murderers can get away with murder by exploiting precisely this sloppiness.
“In this instance, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo signed Proclamation 1959 using the following as her basis for declaring martial law:
· the Constitution and
· Republic Act 6986.
“But RA 6986 happens to be ‘An Act establishing a high school in Barangay Dulop, municipality of Dumingag, province of Zamboanga del Sur, to be known as the Dulop High School, and appropriating funds therefore.’” Ouch!
Somehow I get the feeling that the Ampatuans are going to get away with murder, with a little help from their friend.
Popularity: 1% [?]
This is the reason the Ampatuans abused their power. They know that
they have a hold Gloria Arroyo’s tail. Regarding the Cheating in
the last election. Martial Law can be the answer to prevent the
Ampatuan’s from Opening their Mouths and Singing a Different Tune Now. They face Criminal Charges. The Ampatuans for sure have in minds. They dont have to SINK ALONE. They have to take Gloria Arroyo with them.
Watch for the next Episode. It could be interesting!
No 6986 here
http://www.scribd.com/doc/23742767/PGMA-Report-on-Proclamation-No-1959
Reaction: If they get away with murder, someone needs to take things to International Courts. What is it called, “crimes against humanity?” I prefer to think Ms. Arroyo wants justice, and if the Ampatuans get ugly, she can get uglier.
Joe
As long as the next episode will not have: mass murders, back hoes, jihadists, suicide bombers, etc…it will be interesting.
Let us all have amusements other than Wowoowee. I am tired of
looking on those gyrating dancers showing a lot of skins.
“High court sees no need to issue TRO”, so today’s headline goes.
Was it predictable? Did we hear what that Agnes Devanadera say on TV? She must be speaking from the other side of the river.
So as simple as this runs the argument: “The court did not feel there is a need to issue a TRO at this point”. Bravo wouldn’t it be? By every indicator, with more reason that it should be TRO-ed since it was never necessary to declare martial law unless every democratic process and their institutions already failed.
So there is a lot of waiting game going on like whether there will be an oral argument, that the tribunal will deliberate upon the comments when submitted by respondents, et cetera.
Government erects the legal myth called “looming rebellion” and claims that the court system is not functioning when on TV, the court personnel themselves state there it is not so.
No less than the SC spokesperson confirms that the courts are functioning in the multiple murder case filed against Mayor Andal Ampatuan. So from which side of the river is anyone speaking? As stated, six warrants of arrest were issued by the court, what is this?
Any lawyer in his right mind will say that the conditions requisite for the declaration of a state of martial law are simply not present.
How much time does the SC need to peruse on the matter of constitutionality when the ordinary mind can see right through the nose just what the bare facts are than they loom within the head of the President herself.
There are rumors that the Ampatuans will release revealing documents at the proper time.
I believe the SC is acting out of respect for Congress. They will take up the matter after congress finishes its joint session. My fearless forecast is this – if it looks like the Court will rule against 1959 then GMA will lift it before the Court comes out with a ruling
Arroyo is doubly afraid of what the Ampatuans could reveal. I think, in the pretense of Martial Law, she’s looking for those evidences. Else, if she had plans of justice, 24 hours after the murder she should have acted. Her failure to act for 4-5 days shows she was still considering friendship, the Ampatuans after 1 week were considering of “spilling” the beans. Her ML was a way to shut Ampatuans up with the Jr and Sr in hostage the clans dare not move else Arroyo will really go back on her word and revive death penalty.
Who wants to bet? Once ampatuans reveal election documents, arroyo will have the jr or sr or both executed legally/illegaly.
These two oppositions, are a threat to society and to the security of our government. I am confounded, to why PGMA did not apprehend these two opposing [Moro Islamic Liberation Front, Ampatuan] terrorist party. While, she had the opportunity to kill two birds with one stone.
She is a very confused woman. For crying out loud, I know she is not that inept. Now PGMA is treading water and hopefully she has kept her pink boots, after the Ondoy onslaught. Let’s see if she can get herself out of this predicament.
She was using Ampatuan’s CVOs as a counterbalance to the MILF.
Until, the Ampatuan CVOs ran to the MILF territories, seeking for cover.
:)
Indio duplicity gets a dose of its own medicine.
Helo BongV
In my opinion, i don’t think these scoundrels (CVOs) can run for cover towards MILF lair in the area or that the MILF i.e. Cmmdr. Kato would permit it because ever since these CVOs have been battling the MILF in Maguindanao. Many MILF families were victims of atrocities and excesses committed by the Ampatuans with the clan’s private armies. I therefore opine that the Ampatuans got those recovered heavy armaments with DND markings by using MILF as pretext of their acquisition.
So why not ask the MILF assistance as provided for in the May 2002 Joint Communique to help interdict these criminals who might pass by their lairs? If the military has spotted these CVOs massing at the hilly sides of Maguindanao, why not run after them? why not go and pull all their military might like they always do to “rogue” MILF usually at the insinuations of these same CVOs before? Like they did before in 2005(?) the MILF can cooperate, let military check their camps and flush out these CVOs if they only want.
But I think, still it is not yet this time. time can wait when military adventurism of GMA and his hawks would flirt again upon their heads and undermine the peace process like they did before. I opine again that aside from shutting the Ampatuans up from singing, the Proclamation 1959, i fear, has its true and grand use vis-a-vis the “sovereignty-based” mindanao conflict.
Which implies, the AFP is watching whether the MILF will make a move on the CVOs or not. This can be used as a further justification to widen the areas under martial law.
What peace process danilo? Maybe a piece of that and a piece of this. The milf-grp conflict is about territory and sovereignty. GRP wanting Mindanao a part of it and MILF wanting Mindanao out of GRP. There is no peace there, only more bloodshed.
yeah jcc, there have been no peace here in Mindanao and even in the other parts there because there has be no one who has the political will, let alone conscience, and them who are in charge always prefer not to listen and understand, therefore do not give in to the just demand of the other but instead insidiously muddles up the true issue with continuous complexity so that the right is not given to where it is due. that’s only here in the philippines!
Interesting observation, as I always say, I didn’t see that coming. In fairness, there is a reason why “…areas of the MILF are not under Martial Law.”
My guess, is because of the coming peace talk.
source: gmanews.tv
Can you consider it a possible reason why?
“My guess, is because of the coming peace talk.”
I think you failed to see. I think MB’s query is not actually a question. It’s a derision.
The peace talks are always the excuse.
Remember those marines who were trying to rescue a hostage and they ended up being beheaded?
The government issued warrants of arrest for the murderers but then peace adviser Jesus Dureza stepped in and said the warrants would not be served because arrests would get in the way of peace talks.
Like in Iraq and Afghanistan. There are Peace Talks.
In the Middle East. Peace talks are there. You have
to understand Islam to know that this is their ideology:
1.If you do not convert. You are not my brother.
2. There will be Jihad or Holy War in order to make
the Infidels convert.
3. After the whole world is Islamized. There will be
Peace. Politics or War to Islam is like a Sacrament
to Christians.
These beliefs are false.
Saddam Hussein’s Iraq invaded Iran and Kuwait. Both Muslim countries. The Shiite Muslims and the Sunni
Muslims are at each other’s throat. The Sunnis (Ottomans) were at War with the Safavids (Shiites).
If you look into your history books.
It is religion or beliefs used to control people and
gain power. The Lust for Power is the common denominator.
Hayden,
That’s just like the christian missionaries in saudi arabia who believe that the messiah will come when all are converted to their christian sect.
Christian missionaries in Saudi Arabia?
They’re all in jails! All the others deported.
And then there was Umbra Kato and Commander Bravo who went on a rampage after the junking of the MOA-AD. The government did not go after them because…peace talks.
When the fundamental negotiating approach is appeasement, the only guarantee is losing, in the end. The devil does not respond gratefully. No matter the goodness of intent. That’s why he is what he is.
And he is on Mindanao, in spades.
Joe
manuelbuencamino,
if you only read what had been going on the ground, you would know that the conflicts in North Cotabato has been there even prior to the August 5 MOA-AD fallout. Said conflict involves agrarian issue were native Moro residents even at the far-flung barangays have been continuously dispossessed of lands. It is reported that Vice-Governor Pinol and other ilonggo trapos have been grabbing Moro and LUmad lands while converting them into plantations owned by their families.
Note that aside from said places are moro-dominated areas and falls within MILF territories which the government had recognized in the past, most of the victims of these land-grabbing activities are families of MILF members.
Distorting the Truth for Propaganda
By Ibrahim Canana
The MILF-GRP Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain (MOA-AD) not only became the subject and focus of acrimonious debates across the country that pitted those for and against it; it has also become the issue with which anti-Moro and anti-Muslim sectors of the Filipino populace were able to conjure up yet again a sinister hate-campaign against the MILF and the Bangsamoro people.
In this renewed hate-campaign against the Bangsamoro people, Philippine media is playing the lead role. What this illustrates to us is that little has changed – at least insofar as the 5-century struggle of the Bangsamoro people is concerned – since the Spaniards first touched the soil of our homeland. Just as the ‘moro-moro’ and the zarzuela in Spanish colonial times became the propaganda means for implanting on the minds of the Indios the image of the Moro as villain and that his struggle to resist colonialism was ‘piracy’, so is modern Philippine media today portraying the Moro freedom-fighter to a largely brainwashed Filipino audience as the personification of all evil and his struggle for homeland and self-determination a “despicable effort to dismember the country”.
The truth about the MOA-AD has been mangled beyond recognition by media that public reaction to it is almost one of unanimous hostility bordering on the same degree of hysteria that took grip of the American public in 9/11. This is despite the fact that the MOA-AD, in the words of Archbishop Orlando Quevedo, can “speak for itself” – meaning the fear that it has generated is unfounded – because it is a product of a four-year hard negotiation between the MILF and the Philippine government; and it is a written document with both hard and CD copies made available by the Governments of the Philippines and Malaysia as well as the MILF to officials, NGOs, media (both local and foreign), and the diplomatic corp.
A case in point is this real-life scenario:
In a morning political program aired daily over a Manila-based radio station, DZRH, the MOA-AD was the target of ridicule by a commentator, Deo Macalma, and his female co-host, Ruth Abao, who read some portions of the MOA-AD on air. Apparently, they had a copy on hand. Macalma and her girl Friday quoted some of its provisions out of context. In his usual way of combining sarcasm, innuendoes and toilet humor to mystify and regale his listeners, Macalma ranted that the indigenous peoples were included in the Bangsamoro Juridical Entity (BJE) against their will.
Here, the deception by Macalma was deliberate as it was sinister. Unseen by his radio audience, the falsehoods that he was peddling on air were, for the naïve, gullible and ignorant, the gospel truth. He had a copy of the MOA-AD while the audience did not. So what the audience did not know was that in the case of the indigenous peoples Macalma purposely excised and did not read that portion of the MOA-AD which states that “the freedom of choice of the indigenous people shall be respected” (MOA-AD of the GRP-MILF Tripoli Agreement on Peace of 2001, “Concepts and Principles”, Paragraph 1, p.2).
Why would Macalma tell such a blatant lie on air? Why would his bosses at DZRH tolerate the falsehoods spewing from the filthy mouth of this bigot and those of his equally bigoted colleagues Ruth Abao and Joe Taruc (and his equally stupid female sidekick whose name escapes me) who find relish in dishing out daily venom against the MILF, the Bangsamoro people and Islam and whipping up a hate campaign against them?
There is only one explanation for this: these people who call themselves broadcast journalists are paid to be propaganda mouthpieces of the State and/or vested interest groups within the establishment.
In other words, they are paid to distort the truth. Or, to put it succinctly, to tell lies and promote hate towards the Moros while hiding behind the facade of journalism.
The kind of journalism that Macalma, Abao and Taruc profess illustrates how truth is distorted to serve the poisonous propaganda of reactionary elements that are sowing hate against the Bangsamoro people, their Islamic faith and their struggle for the right of self-determination.
This is now the modern ‘moro-moro’ that the Filipinos are daily ‘entertained’ with when they open their radios in the morning, read the newspapers over breakfast, and watch the evening news and political talk shows on TV.
But it is not only in the case of the MOA-AD that truth has been sacrificed for propaganda. Invariably, in occasions where confrontation between the MILF and the government takes the form of violent combat on the ground, the MILF is pilloried before the eyes of the public.
This recalls one of the most sensational episodes in the Bangsamoro people’s recent experience with the hostile Filipino media. This is the Basilan incident in July 2007 wherein 14 Philippine Marines who figured in a legitimate encounter with the MILF mujahideen in Basilan were killed and then mutilated long after the smoke of battle had vanished into thin air.
When the news of the dead Marines’ mutilation hit the streets, the propaganda machinery of the Philippine establishment, at the core of which is the media, began to frenetically churn out the lie that the MILF committed the barbarity even before proper investigations could be launched by the ceasefire bodies and the International Monitoring Team (IMT) to ferret out the truth.
From all corners of the Philippine nation-state, the demand for Moro blood dominated the media from broadcast (radio and TV) to print (major dailies, tabloids and provincial papers). Consequently, a strong pressure was put to bear on government to wage total war on the MILF and its so-called ‘Abu Sayyaf terrorist allies’.
In the end, after a long process which involved a tedious investigation by a joint body of the MILF and the Philippine government and a ‘police action’ that utilized army and Marine combat troops against the MILF in Basilan resulting in the displacement of Moro civilians, it turned out that it was the “Abu Sayyaf terrorists” that were the ‘culprits’. But even this was not the whole truth. The “Abu Sayyaf” was a convenient cover-up for the real culprits of the beheadings who were men of a prominent politician close to the powers-that-be. The beheading of the Marines long after they were killed in combat was done to justify the demonization of the MILF and deprive it of its battlefield victory over the AFP’s ‘finest fighting unit’, the Marines.
Another twist in this episode of which the public was never told reveals that the government would have succumbed to the pressure to wage total war on the MILF had it not discovered that the Marines who were killed in Basilan intentionally violated the ceasefire agreement because they were trying to provoke the MILF into fighting a big war in Mindanao. The Marines belonged to a unit which was loyal to their imprisoned putschist officers who figured in a failed coup attempt against the sitting regime in February 2006. By instigating a big war against the MILF in Mindanao, the Marines, and their co-conspirators in the AFP and the civilian sectors, believed that ultimately the regime would be economically and politically crippled, thus rendering it more vulnerable to another but this time successful military-civilian coup.
This plot, in fact, was eventually discovered by government that all the Marine elements in the Presidential Security Group (PSG) were sent to Basilan ostensibly to help their Marine comrades there fight the MILF and the “Abu Sayyaf” who were said to be responsible for the beheadings. The PSG Marines were purged just before President Arroyo was to deliver her State of the Nation Address (SONA) that year. This was the regime’s way of ridding the capital of a ‘threat to national security’ which really translates to a threat to the longevity of Arroyo’s presidency. The Marines were kept busy fighting the MILF and the “Abu Sayyaf” in the “manufactured” war in Basilan so that they could not again launch another coup attempt against the regime. It was also a ‘punishment’ for them. Basilan and Sulu were meant to be their place of exile if not their ‘graveyard’.
At any rate, here again in the Basilan episode, truth had been mangled to serve the purpose of propaganda. The Bangsamoro people and the MILF were demonized to hide the real story behind the beheadings, the vicious power struggle in government, and the consequent military operations unleashed on the Moros to deflect public attention from this rot eating at the very core of the Philippine establishment. These military operations uprooted a lot of Moro civilians not only in Basilan but in Sulu.
In a nutshell, to quote a member of the MILF peace panel, the Moros are the “favorite punching bag” of Philippine regimes.
In any case, it is of interest to note that the same commentators of DZRH who have been opposing the MOA-AD are also the same people who, in the Basilan episode of 2007, were hysterical in demanding that the MILF and the Moro “barbarians” be pulverized into non-existence. Again, these were the same broadcast journalists who cheered Joseph Estrada and Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo when they unleashed their dirty all-out wars against the MILF and the Moros back in 2000 and 2003 respectively.
In the latest developments following the controversy over the MOA-AD, history seems to be repeating itself. We are experiencing déjà vu as once again the media and their political paymasters are screaming for an all-out war against the MILF in the wake of the attacks by some guerrilla units of the latter in North Cotabato, Lanao del Norte, South Cotabato and Basilan.
Truth, yet again, is being mangled beyond recognition by the purveyors of hate to serve political and economic agendas at the expense of attaining peace and justice in Mindanao. There seems to be no end to the Moro’s excruciating hardships while he remains captive in the hands of Filipino colonialism.
The on-going battles between MILF guerrillas and government forces are now being depicted as acts of terrorism on the part of the MILF. Bounty money is being dangled by government for the capture dead or alive of Ameril Ombra Kato and Bravo Macapaar of the MILF. The two mujahideen commanders are accused of ‘breaking the peace’, attacking government forces and committing atrocities on civilians in North Cotabato and Lanao del Norte.
But while the Philippine media screams for the heads of the two MILF commanders, there never was an honest attempt to get at the roots of why Kato and Bravo had to launch those attacks in their respective areas of operation. The chain of events that led to these attacks was deliberately obfuscated so as to make it appear that Kato and Bravo did things on their own whimsically, irrationally and criminally. On the reverse side of the coin, this was also meant to show that the MILF leadership was losing control over its men on the ground.
What has never been highlighted, however, is that that these incidents in Cotabato, Lanao del Norte, South Cotabato and Basilan are interlocking events that started from the conspiracy of North Cotabato settler politicians led by Vice-Governor Emmanuel Piñol to purge the province of its Moro natives so that no area in North Cotabato would be included in the Bangsamoro Juridical Entity (BJE).
Piñol wants to build his multi-billion dollar dream of a business empire in North Cotabato by establishing oil palm, banana and sugar plantations which need tens of thousands of hectares of land. He also wants to control the oil-and-natural gas-producing areas of the Liguasan Marsh. The inclusion of Moro-dominated areas of North Cotabato to the BJE, however, would foil this plan because many of the lands and resources Piñol covets are in these Moro-dominated areas. Thus, the Moros have to be driven out of North Cotabato and the lands they live on have to be seized and occupied by ‘Christian settlers’ purposely organized to fulfill the agenda of Piñol and his Makati and foreign capitalist backers. This calls for ‘ethnic cleansing’ of the Moros reminiscent of what the Serbs perpetrated on the Muslim Bosnians in the 90s.
Anticipating the inclusion of these Moro-dominated areas to the BJE, Piñol allocated huge sums for the purchase of arms and ammo to be supplied to Filipino colon militias (in the 70s they were called Ilagas) tasked to forcibly eject the Moros from their ancestral lands. According to a reliable source, Piñol had placed an order for military hardware initially worth P10 million months before the aborted August 5 signing ceremony of the MOA-AD in Malaysia.
Piñol knew that there would be stiff resistance from the Moro natives of North Cotabato because many of them are members of the MILF or that their relatives are with the latter. And so when the plan to harass and eject the Moro native inhabitants from their villages was put into play, Piñol took steps to have the military and the PNP on his side. With his armed colon militias legitimized as CAFGUs and CVOs, he then proceeded to implement the grand conspiracy to drive the Moro Muslims from their North Cotabato habitats.
The release of the MOA-AD to the public provided Piñol with the convenient document to transform his self-serving agenda into a ‘crusade’ – a cause célèbre – to hoodwink the public and generate national sympathy. With the support of other anti-Moro colon politicians in Mindanao, he launched a demolition campaign against the MOA-AD and was able to create the scenario that projected him as a ‘hero’ to the Filipino colons: a patriotic defender of the Philippine nation-state’s ‘territorial integrity and national sovereignty’. As such, Piñol succeeded in acquiring the Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) from the Supreme Court that aborted the August 5 signing of the MOA-AD by the MILF and government panels in Malaysia. The worst part is that the situation that allowed him to purge North Cotabato of its Moro Muslim native inhabitants has assumed legitimacy in the eyes of the Philippine government and the Filipino public.
This was when Ustadz Amirul Ombra Kato, the combatant ‘alim and commander of the MILF-BIAF 105th Base Command based in Maguindanao Province, entered the scene. His coming to the defense of the oppressed Moros of North Cotabato is what is being depicted today by the media and government officials as “terrorism” and “war crimes” for which a bounty of P5 million was placed on his head.
MILF Commander Bravo Macapaar’s role in Lanao del Norte should be viewed through the same glass prism as Kato’s. His recent daring raids in Lanao del Norte are part of the chain of events that began in North Cotabato but whose larger picture speaks of the conspiracy by anti-Moro elements in Mindanao and their patrons in Manila to perpetually deprive the Bangsamoro people of their ancestral homeland (or what is left of it) and their freedom.
Thanks but no thanks to the Philippine media, Bravo is now villain numero uno to the Filipinos, a ‘stature’ he now shares with Amiril Ombra Kato. He stands accused of killing innocent people, burning civilian homes, and even murdering children. Never was there any mention that those civilians who died in the fighting in Lanao del Norte were caught in the crossfire, were members of armed government militias such as the CVOs and CAFGUs, or were armed civilians who belonged to anti-Moro and anti-Muslim pseudo-religious Christian groups such as the Ilaga and ‘Shepherds’. This was, in fact, pointed out to the media by a member of the MILF negotiating panel during the MILF leadership’s press conference at Camp Darapanan on August 23, 2008.
What is further ignored is the fact that Bravo is part of a revolutionary organization. His actions, therefore, are not ‘unrelated’ or isolated from revolutionary events that are taking place elsewhere in the occupied Moro homeland. Seen from this angle, his raids in Lanao del Norte were affirmative revolutionary actions – acts of resistance – which complement and supplement Ameril Ombra Kato’s resistance activities and those of other MILF guerrilla units fighting the Filipino colons in North Cotabato and in other parts of the Moro homeland.
Moreover, what the media likewise deliberately failed to give proper attention to is the fact that Filipino politicians in Iligan City and in Lanao del Norte have also called for the arming of Filipino Christian civilians to violently oppose the MOA-AD and the BJE. Bravo’s so-called unilateral action in Lanao del Norte is not only the consequence of “extreme frustration” over the failure of the Philippine government to sign the MOA-AD in Malaysia but it was also a preemptive guerrilla strike against the Filipino colons who are now mobilizing for war against the Moros in Iligan City and Lanao del Norte. The raids were Bravo’s way of making a ‘statement’ in response to the hostile acts of Iligan City Congressman Raphael Belmonte, a gambling lord-turned-politician, and Mayor Lawrence Cruz, who openly challenged the MILF to a fight.
By openly calling on the Filipino Christian civilians to come to arms against the MOA-AD and the BJE, these colon politicians have abandoned peaceful dialogue as a means to resolve conflict. In short, they do not accept the peace process. Instead they are agitating for a violent confrontation with the MILF and the Bangsamoro people. It is not Bravo, thus, who started the violence; it is the colon politicians.
Even then, the atrocities that Bravo is accused of are concocted to serve the demonizing agenda of Philippine propaganda against the MILF. As in the aforementioned Basilan incident in 2007 where Marines who already died in a legitimate battle were thereafter mutilated to serve the government’s intent to arouse local and international loathing for the MILF and the Bangsamoro struggle, it is not remote that the same purpose and design apply to the alleged atrocities of Bravo in Lanao del Norte. In fact, if serious and impartial investigation were to be made, evidence would inevitably point to this direction.
Come to think of it, no nationwide uproar was demonstrated by the Filipinos over the barbaric atrocities committed by the Philippine military on the Moro civilians of Sulu over the last couple of years. These atrocities, by the way, are also taking place in Basilan, Maguindanao and other Moro islands almost on a regular basis. Looking further back, was there ever any Filipino war criminal brought to justice for having been responsible for the tens of thousands of Moros killed and mutilated by the Ilagas and their military backers before and during the Marcos martial law period? Ninoy Aquino’s alleged military assassins were thrown to prison after the Marcos dictatorship was booted out of power in 1986. But not one of those who masterminded the anti-Moro and anti-Muslim pogroms in Mindanao in the late 60s and 70s was ever tried and placed behind bars; yet the crimes are so horrendous that using today’s standards these crimes are categorized as crimes against humanity under international law. Still, the perpetrators of these dastardly crimes are not only free but have become respected members of Filipino society. Juan Ponce Enrile, for one, is a senator and still rants against the Moros.
In the midst of the mounting clamor by the Filipinos and their government for the MILF to surrender Kato and Bravo, MILF Chairman Al Haj Murad Ebrahim is correct in rejecting this absurd demand. He pointed out that the MILF is a revolutionary organization that does not submit to the justice system of the Philippine nation-state, assuming that such a genuinely ‘just’ justice system even exists. The MILF, he further said, has its own justice system based on Islam, and it is through this justice system that the MILF will conduct its own investigation and subsequently discipline or punish those who violated its policies and rules.
That said, let me add to the MILF Chairman’s public pronouncements. If the Filipinos and their government persist on their absurd demand, then what would stop us Moros, too, from demanding that they surrender to the MILF the Filipino criminals who were responsible for the genocidal policies of the Philippine government and the military which led to the deaths of tens of thousands of Moro civilians in Mindanao and Sulu from the late 60s up to this time? These crimes against humanity are still being committed in the Bangsamoro homeland without the Filipino media allotting a small space for them even in the cheapest tabloids.
If we give serious thought to this, the peace process will be mired in the never-ending cycle of demand and counter-demand for the surrender of those perceived guilty of ‘war crimes’. The negotiation will never be able to move on to address the conflict that is causing the violence behind these charges of atrocities and ‘war crimes’. And I think this is also what the MILF leadership has in mind when it rejected the Filipino demand for Kato’s and Bravo’s heads. The Filipino media, however, is just too chauvinistic to realize this fact. So do the Filipino political leaders whose propensity is to have their pictures and nonsensical speeches printed in the major dailies, not the serious termination of the conflict in Mindanao.
Looking at these recent developments vis-à-vis the Bangsamoro struggle, a Moro ‘on the ground’ should be able to easily discern how truth is being distorted to serve anti-Moro and anti-Muslim propaganda. People like Deo Macalma, Ruth Abao, Joe Taruc, Franklin Drillon, Teddy Boy Locsin, Manny Piñol, Celso Lobregat, Lawrence Cruz, Adel Tamano, the Philippine Daily Inquirer, the Philippine Star, the broadcasters of ABS-CBN, GMA7 and NBN and the whole boisterous anti-Moro crowd are openly demonstrating this animus in public. Admittedly, this no longer comes as a surprise for this is a practice, as I have said, that has long been established since Spanish colonial times. The Indios are good students of their erstwhile colonialist teacher-master. Unfortunately, some Moros, too, prefer to be Indios.
Indeed, if one were to put in more simple terms what the Bangsamoro struggle is all about, we can now be confident of the verity that it is a struggle between Truth and Falsehood. Truth was, and is, on our side that is why despite the fact that the Philippine government deployed the best of minds that money can buy to man its negotiating panel against the MILF, the latter still won a political and moral victory on the negotiating table. It was never an issue of incompetence on the part of the government negotiating panel as what the people opposed to the MOA-AD would like to have it. The members of the government negotiating panel have brilliant minds. But the core issue in the negotiation went against them because it was an issue that revolved around Truth, and Truth was on side of the Moros. And this is what the Filipinos could not and never understand because they refuse to understand.
There is one more very important lesson, however, that we have learned from these recent developments. That is, if the going really gets tough, the Moros stand alone. The Filipinos believe they are the only humans in Mindanao while we Moros are aliens from another planet. Going by this convoluted colonialist mindset, we do not deserve any kind of right, even the right over the land we now occupy, save for those ‘rights’ that the Filipinos condescendingly believe as fitting for us. As we can see, when the partial realization of the Bangsamoro people’s aspiration was about to happen as in the case of the MOA-AD, those who called themselves our allies, friends and sympathizers among the Filipinos have joined the ranks of those who traditionally and ideologically oppose our right to have our usurped homeland and freedom back. The whole spectrum of Filipino society – from Left to Right – stood as one against the Moro and condemned him for the ‘crime’ of wanting freedom and fighting for it.
This should teach us henceforth where to stand be it now or in the future.
I said this in the past and I will say it again: Independence!
This is no longer an idealistic aspiration.
This is now a matter of survival for our oppressed Moro people and nation.
-end-
Danilo,
I have been writing of late about the distortions we face daily in dealing with politicians who spin things, news commentators who are promoting an agenda other than reporting, or people who are simplistic and/or emotional in their advocacies, preferring impact to truth (reality show points of view).
The problem for the ordinary man is that he does not know whom to believe. Mr. Canana indicates clearly the deceits from Philippine government, or on the radio, and details them specifically, but how do I know that he is not deceiving me, or is deceived by pro-Moro advocates? He claims Americans reacted to 9/11 hysterically, so I see him spinning a peculiar version of that particular truth. When moderate Muslims rein in their radical killer brothers, you can rest assured that Americans will behave, ummm, less hysterically. That requires addressing the source of the disease, not the allergic reaction . . .
So where is truth, really?
That is why I believe the only stance one can take is unbridled skepticism coupled with belief in what we have seen ourselves. So I am skeptical of many people. I agree that abuses of power and wealth in the Philippines are extraordinary. And I think there is little hope for harmony until the national government can command trust. And until Muslims have a single negotiating entity that also can command trust, and can control its most radical elements. That is a long way away.
I personally have no trouble with a Muslim separatist state as long as it is not a launching ground for attacks against perceived “infidels” of other states. When it is, I believe that Muslim state must bear full responsibility for the violence that ensues. A state must be held responsible for violent acts of its most extreme citizens, against another state. It is not reasonable to say, “well, God excuses us for any behavior, no matter how uncivil, because we are defending our faith”. I believe human kindness rises – or should rise – above any proclamations of faith that categorize one set of peoples as better than another.
Practically speaking, I also think a separatist state will be economically very weak, so it may not be the best approach if one considers the material well-being of people.
There is precious little kindness exhibited in western and southern Mindanao, and I have no idea about where the root source of the unkindness resides, especially the murderous kind. I suspect it is a malignant cancer that has spread about in many places due to a variety of abuses. And it will be fixed when people look inward at what they can do, not outward at what others should do.
Joe
I don’t agree that the only way to achieve peace in Mindanao is by dismembering the Philippines.
The MILF complains about colonialism but muslims colonized and converted the indigenous peoples of Mindanao. At one time muslim colonization extended all the way to Manila. They were beaten back and now they occupy a small part of Mindanao and Sulu.
So one colonist who is defeated by another colonist cries Foul! and we’re supposed to restart the game?
That’s a lot of half truths.
For one, the Moslem presence in Manila was brought about by intermarriage – NOT THROUGH CONQUEST.
That’s intermarriage brought about by conquest. Raiding villages in search of slaves to trade.
half truth to debunk a perceived half truth.
For one, the Moslem presence in Manila was brought about by intermarriage – NOT THROUGH CONQUEST.
What they got married somewhere in Mindanao and moved to Manila?
Or a muslim prince or princess married into a prominent Manila family and so Soliman became the rajah or king of manila?
Or maybe the muslims had already reached northern philippines was converting natives and so were settled in and there were intermarriages among muslim families because no good muslim will marry an infidel
No Peace will come to Mindanao. Unless those people under the
rule of Feudalism/Warlordism/Datuism are freed from their
antiquated mindsets.
The trouble with Islam is: it is too controling for any individual.
Born into the faith. They have to inculcate their faith. As soon
a child is on school age. No Freedom of thoughts. No outside
thoughts. Other than the Islamic dogmas and doctrines. This is the
reason. You find preteen or teenage soldiers in the insurgency.
Jihad or Holy War is a sacrament to them. Like any Christian
sacraments.
If you look at how Civilizations evolve. Change in thoughts, ideas,
ways of life, etc…were the factors of progress. Islam is too much
focused on the WILL OF ALLAH (God). Look at those Islamic countries.
Majority is still being ruled by Kings, dictators, or authoritarian rulers. Except their oil. They have few other goods that they can export. Turkey is the only country that is ruled by Democracy. It
was the effort of the Young Turks Movement. That overthrew the
Sultan rule of the Ottoman Empire. Sharia Law was the Law of the
Sunni Ottoman Empire.
Like the Dinosaurs, or other extinct animals. Change and evolve. Or
you will become extinct. This is the Natural Law for any civilization. Those Incas, Mayas and other Empires ruled by High
Priests (Sultans, Datus, Ayatollahs, and other religious/political
leaders) of old. Did not survive. A doctrine or dogma based on false
premise will be replaced by a better dogma and doctrine that will
be more reliable.
Hyden,
Although I agree with your fundamental point, I would only add that the criticism applies as well to Christianity or any dogmatic faith, or even to atheists who would seek dogmatically to restrain others from their enriching spiritual practices.
Joe
This is the reason, I dont believe in Organized Religions.
I believe in a Divine Being. But not like what those Organized
Religions are portraying in their dogmas and doctrines.
You do this and that. Then you go to Paradise, Heaven, make love to 72 virgins, sing with angels, live in golden mansions etc…
You dont do this and that. You are burned to Hell forever, with the devils, etc…
We have yet to know other Planets, our universe, our galaxy,
and others that are there. Life itself is still a mystery to us. Why we are here.
Mindanao muslims are no different from Malaysian/Indonisian/Saudi/Iraq/Iran Muslims. They all believe that the non-believing infidels must be put to death and killing the infidels will bring them to heavean with 17 virgins. They are for making the world a muslim world. Their prophet Mohammad believes that killing those who would not convert to Islam will bring them to heaven but the Christians’s prophet had the opposite view. Loving your enemy will bring your enemy and you both to heaven.
During the time of Muhammad, which they call their prophet. But, in
truth a tribal warrior. Muhammad fought a lot of wars to spread
Islam. It was not different now. The same mindsets of those people with fossilized ideas and beliefs.
Al-Lah, which is the God of Islam was one of the Gods, in Kaaba, which
is in Mecca, Saudi Arabia. Muhammad Islamized the Arabic religion. So, he retained Allah, as God. They are also worshipping a Black Meteor Stone there. When they take the pilgrimage to Mecca. They throw stones to a cement stracture, which they call the devil. At the
end of their pilgrimage.
I have nothing against Religions. But, if you use religion to kill,
murder and maim people. Because you believe you go to Paradise for
doing it. Then, that is different matter already. We must respect
each other as dwellers of this Planet Earth. Dont call anybody demeaning names like: infidel, indio, moro, etc…we have all the right to be here.
72 Virgins, not 17 virgins in Paradise. You can see the statues of
those mythical virgins in Syria. Built by the Umayad Caliphs to
celebrate Paradise .
JCC and Hyden
I can just laugh at you – of course without sarcasm. I think my explanations even during those previous threads don’t do any good on you despite all my proofs that that is not Islam the way you believe. Or, you really do not read what I usually post other than to find fault at them?
Hyden betrays his sheer ignorance despite the claim of knowledge about Islam he arrogates upon himself. Of course, I am not judging you since that’s what you have got from your experience of, say, reading out Islam. But I am most pleased with is that you said you believe in that Divine Being Who is behind this complex reality of existence – the Ultimate Cause of those causes. What I can only say is that go on with your search of Him. Yet, if we cannot find good terms dealing with Him through what you call “organized religions,” one can’t likewise do the same through one’s own way since that’s where varieties of perverted expressions of spirituality stemming from sheer misconceptions of Him emanates, hence these proliferation of religions.
Of course, I shall not be tired of explaining the same whether you’ll find time reading between their lines in the end or not.
JCC, Islam never teaches killing non-Muslims. None in the Qur’an teaches fighting and killing “infidels” unless during the circumstances of war when Muslims are attacked by them. Islam, unlike other some religions and secular isms, never wage war just to sow aggressions and colonize other countries. “Holy war” did not originate from Islam. Jihad essence is for defense of one’s life, property and home. And defense is not just essentially according to human nature but also ingrained in animal instinct which therefore does not necessarily calls for any spiritual invocation. Jihad does not mean killing those who do not find in good terms with Islamic tenets as what is portrayed in the partisan media and as what you have essentially drunk from. How many times did I make quote of Qur’anic verses telling Islam enjoins wisdom and therefore does not promote “religious compulsion;” that Islam tells whoever kills a person not in due cause and legal process is like as if s/he is killing all humanity” and the recompense is hellfire; etc., etc. And if that were the case, I might have converted or killed all Christian settlers who have been residing at our municipality. But they are already there since 1960s living our ways and speaking our language yet fulfilling their own religious obligations unhampered. Had it been the case, then no churches shall be seen standing in Muslim areas here in Mindanao. And had it been the case, then local Christians here will never help advocate for the right to self-determination of the Bangsamoro in Mindanao.
Those “Islamic conquests,” unlike those wars of inquisition or crusades (I’m sorry for mentioning), were not for religious conversion but perhaps political. Had it been that case, 1/3 people of the world shall be converted because Islam during the time of caliphate was able to rule about 1/3 of the world. Had it been that case then those people within the Islamic state in Madinah during the time of the Prophet (peace be upon him) shall all become Muslims. But it still had its Jews and Christian constituents and perhaps even Arab bedoins who retained their animist beliefs who were free to exercise their own religions. Those “Islamic conquests” happened during those circumstances when the world was in the grip of despots who arrogated godships upon their persons and who prevented peoples from all kinds of enlightenment. Say in Saudi Arabia, the Muslims evacuated themselves to Abbysinia honorably received by the Christian King Negus and then to Madinah just to free themselves from persecutions of the polytheists Quraish yet these Meccan disbelievers still pursued them so that war of defense as the last resort had been given permission to the Muslims. And these were wars of defense and nothing else.
Hyden, Muslims do not worship the Kabah when they go on Hajj (pilgrimage). When the Prophet peace be upon him returned back to Makkah during 8th years of Hijrat, all idols stored in the blackstone i.e. about 360 idols were destroyed and taken out and replaced by the One True Almighty God Allah. Therefore, Allah is not one among these false things attributed with godhood by the polytheists. I forgive you for saying that. Muslims kisses Ka’aba and fulfill such rite because it was done by the Prophet peace be upon him. Such black stone was first rebuilt by prophet Ibrahim (Abraham) after Adam peace be upon them. Once, the fourth Caliph Ali, if I am not mistaken, while kissing the Ka’aba had told that he was doing the same because it was the way of the Prophet peace be upon him.
Therefore Hyden and JCC, Muslims in their normal minds are not and shall never be enjoined to kill non-infidels just to be accepted of their worships. There is NONE in the Qur’an saying such diabolic things. But what is unjust is when you rule such standard during circumstances of war for defense when Muslims fight and kill aggressors sowing havocs on their lands. I tell you, you must not detach the reality of “suicide bombers” with the grim reality of colonization. And as what BongV had once posted, the issue of “72 virgins” has been prolifically peddled in Western partisan media just to make insidious cover-ups of Western aggressions on Muslim lands.
Sorry for the messy post. Good day.
Congrats! pala sa new shirt ng FV.
Danilo/BongV
Here are verses of the Koran which Sam Harris has compiled.
http://www.truthdig.com/images/diguploads/verses.html
At the end of his compilation he concluded:
“This is all desperately tedious, of course. But there is no substitute for confronting the text itself. I cannot judge the quality of the Arabic; perhaps it is sublime. But the book’s contents are not. On almost every page, the Koran instructs observant Muslims to despise nonbelievers. On almost every page, it prepares the ground for religious conflict. Anyone who can read passages like those quoted above and still not see a link between Muslim faith and Muslim violence should probably consult a neurologist.
Go, savor them yourselves.
How steadfastly they seek the Fire! That is because God has revealed the Book with truth; those that disagree about it are in extreme schism” (2:176).
“Slay them wherever you find them. Drive them out of the places from which they drove you. Idolatry is worse than carnage. . . . [I]f they attack you put them to the sword. Thus shall the unbelievers be rewarded: but if they desist, God is forgiving and merciful. Fight against them until idolatry is no more and God’s religion reigns supreme. But if they desist, fight none except the evil-doers”(2:190–93).
“Fighting is obligatory for you, much as you dislike it. But you may hate a thing although it is good for you, and love a thing although it is bad for you. God knows, but you know not” (2:216).
“They will not cease to fight against you until they force you to renounce your faith—if they are able. But whoever of you recants and dies an unbeliever, his works shall come to nothing in this world and in the world to come. Such men shall be the tenants of Hell, wherein they shall abide forever. Those that have embraced the Faith, and those that have fled their land and fought for the cause of God, may hope for God’s mercy” (2:217–18).
“God does not guide the evil-doers” (2:258).
“God does not guide the unbelievers” (2:264).
“The evil-doers shall have none to help them” (2:270).
“God gives guidance to whom He will” (2:272).
“Those that deny God’s revelations shall be sternly punished;
God is mighty and capable of revenge” (3:5).
“As for the unbelievers, neither their riches nor their children will in the least save them from God’s judgment. They shall become fuel for the Fire” (3:10).
“Say to the unbelievers: ‘You shall be overthrown and driven into Hell—an evil resting place!’” (3:12).
“The only true faith in God’s sight is Islam. . . . He that denies God’s revelations should know that swift is God’s reckoning” (3:19).
“Let the believers not make friends with infidels in preference to the faithful—he that does this has nothing to hope for from God—except in self-defense” (3:28).
“Believers, do not make friends with any but your own people. They will spare no pains to corrupt you. They desire nothing but your ruin. Their hatred is evident from what they utter with their mouths, but greater is the hatred which their breasts conceal” (3:118).
“If you have suffered a defeat, so did the enemy.We alternate these vicissitudes among mankind so that God may know the true believers and choose martyrs from among you (God does not love the evil-doers); and that God may test the faithful and annihilate the infidels” (3:140).
“Believers, if you yield to the infidels they will drag you back to unbelief and you will return headlong to perdition. . . .We will put terror into the hearts of the unbelievers. . . . The Fire shall be their home” (3:149-51).
“Believers, do not follow the example of the infidels, who say of their brothers when they meet death abroad or in battle: ‘Had they stayed with us they would not have died, nor would they have been killed.’ God will cause them to regret their words. . . . If you should die or be slain in the cause of God, God’s forgiveness and His mercy would surely be better than all the riches they amass” (3:156).
“Never think that those who were slain in the cause of God are dead. They are alive, and well provided for by their Lord; pleased with His gifts and rejoicing that those they left behind, who have not yet joined them, have nothing to fear or to regret; rejoicing in God’s grace and bounty. God will not deny the faithful their reward” (3:169).
“Let not the unbelievers think that We prolong their days for their own good. We give them respite only so that they may commit more grievous sins. Shameful punishment awaits them” (3:178).
“Those that suffered persecution for My sake and fought and were slain: I shall forgive them their sins and admit them to gardens watered by running streams, as a reward from God; God holds the richest recompense. Do not be deceived by the fortunes of the unbelievers in the land. Their prosperity is brief. Hell shall be their home, a dismal resting place” (3:195–96).
“God has cursed them in their unbelief” (4:46).
“God will not forgive those who serve other gods besides Him; but He will forgive whom He will for other sins. He that serves other gods besides God is guilty of a heinous sin. . . . Consider those to whom a portion of the Scriptures was given. They believe in idols and false gods and say of the infidels: ‘These are better guided than the believers’” (4:50–51).
“Those that deny Our revelation We will burn in fire. No sooner will their skins be consumed than We shall give them other skins, so that they may truly taste the scourge. God is mighty and wise” (4:55–56).
“Believers, do not seek the friendship of the infidels and those who were given the Book before you, who have made of your religion a jest and a pastime” (5:57).
“That which is revealed to you from your Lord will surely increase the wickedness and unbelief of many among them. We have stirred among them enmity and hatred, which will endure till the Day of Resurrection” (5:65).
“God does not guide the unbelievers” (5:67).
“That which is revealed to you from your Lord will surely increase the wickedness and unbelief of many among them. But do not grieve for the unbelievers” (5:69).
“You see many among them making friends with unbelievers. Evil is that to which their souls prompt them. They have incurred the wrath of God and shall endure eternal torment. . . .You will find that the most implacable of men in their enmity to the faithful are the Jews and the pagans, and that the nearest in affection to them are those who say: ‘We are Christians’” (5:80–82).
“[T]hose that disbelieve and deny Our revelations shall become the inmates of Hell” (5:86).
“[T]hey deny the truth when it is declared to them: but they shall learn the consequences of their scorn” (6:5).
“We had made them more powerful in the land than yourselves [the Meccans], sent down for them abundant water from the sky and gave them rivers that rolled at their feet. Yet because they sinned We destroyed them all and raised up other generations after them. If We sent down to you a Book inscribed on real parchment and they touched it with their own hands, the unbelievers would still assert: ‘This is but plain sorcery.’ They ask: ‘Why has no angel been sent down to him [Muhammad]?’ If We had sent down an angel, their fate would have been sealed and they would have never been reprieved” (6:5–8).
“Who is more wicked than the man who invents falsehoods about God or denies His revelations?” (6:21).
“Some of them listen to you. But We have cast veils over their hearts and made them hard of hearing lest they understand your words. They will believe in none of Our signs, even if they see them one and all. When they come to argue with you the unbelievers say: ‘This is nothing but old fictitious tales.’ They forbid it and depart from it. They ruin none but themselves, though they do not perceive it. If you could see them when they are set before the Fire! They will say: ‘Would that we could return! Then we would not deny the revelations of our Lord and would be true believers’ 6:23–27).
“But if they were sent back, they would return to that which they have been forbidden. They are liars all” (6:29).
“Had God pleased He would have given them guidance, one and all” (6:35).
“Deaf and dumb are those that deny Our revelations: they blunder about in darkness. God confounds whom He will, and guides to a straight path whom He pleases.” (6:39)
“[T]heir hearts were hardened, and Satan made their deeds seem fair to them. And when they had clean forgotten Our admonition We granted them all that they desired; but just as they were rejoicing in what they were given, We suddenly smote them and they were plunged into utter despair. Thus were the evil-doers annihilated. Praise be to God, Lord of the Universe!” (6:43–45).
“[T]hose that deny Our revelations shall be punished for their misdeeds” (6:49).
“Such are those that are damned by their own sins. They shall drink scalding water and be sternly punished for their unbelief” (6:70).
“Could you but see the wrongdoers when death overwhelms them! With hands outstretched, the angels will say: ‘Yield up your souls. You shall be rewarded with the scourge of shame this day, for you have said of God what is untrue and scorned His revelations” (6:93).
“Avoid the pagans. Had God pleased, they would not have worshipped idols. . . . We will turn away their hearts and eyes from the Truth since they refused to believe in it at first. We will let them blunder about in their wrongdoing. If We sent the angels down to them, and caused the dead to speak to them, . . . and ranged all things in front of them, they would still not believe, unless God willed otherwise. . . . Thus have We assigned for every prophet an enemy: the devils among men and jinn, who inspire each other with vain and varnished falsehoods. But had your Lord pleased, they would not have done so. Therefore leave them to their own inventions, so that the hearts of those who have no faith in the life to come may be inclined to what they say and, being pleased, persist in their sinful ways” (6:107–12).
“The devils will teach their votaries to argue with you. If you obey them you shall yourselves become idolaters. . . . God will humiliate the transgressors and mete out to them a grievous punishment for their scheming” (6:121–25).
“If God wills to guide a man, He opens his bosom to Islam. But if he pleases to confound him, He makes his bosom small and narrow as though he were climbing up to heaven. Thus shall God lay the scourge on the unbelievers” (6:125).
JCC:
The Holy Bible has the same intolerant verses.
http://www.skepticsannotatedbible.com/int/long.html
BongV/Danilo;
You were quoting the Old Testament not the New Testament. The old testament was about the Old Law seeking punishment for the unbelievers but after Jesus came, the new Testament were written by his disciples about his teachig of Love and Forgiveness thus practically overturning the harsh punishment for those who do not believe in God but would seek for their redemption. Jesus came to spread the good news that everyone would be saved if only they believe. The new testament, if I am not mistaken does not carry any single line about killing those who would not believe so the killers can go to heaven.
If only there is a “New Koran” (just like the New Testament) which preaches love instead of hate, then I have no problem accepting its religion as a religion of peace.
jcc:
has Catholicism junked the Old Testament?
Normal minds with people attaching bombs on their bodies? Blowing
other people up? If that is what you call normal. Then, you belong
to a mental asylum. Dont demean me. Because you dont know me. I hold a
responsible position in a World Renown Corporation. I traveled to Muslim countries. I have studied religions in good American and Middle
Eastern Universities. I hold a good History degree from a well known
American University. I can even read and speak Arabic.
Who are you? One of those Muslim rebels. Whose knowledge is given
by an Imam. Whose is half educated. Dont deceive people. Because
people have brains. Not like your antiquated brains that belongs to
an 11th century so called prophet.
If your God is that. You can have him. You have the right
to worship him. Just as I have the right to disagree with
anybody. Everybody has mind of his own. But, if you try to
spread your beliefs, religion and way of life. By terrorisms,
bombings, wars, deceits, etc…that is another case.
The Ottoman Empire fell, under the Sharia Law. Because the
Sultans became incompetent. Like any other administrator.
The Empire was not a Paradise on Earth. As portrayed in hopes
of the Islamic religion.
The Byzantine Court of the Empire was full of intriques. People vying for power. History is a great teacher.
THOSE WHO FORGET THE PAST.ARE CONDEMNED TO REPEAT IT!
Hyden;
Ifrah. Alaalam lum yantahy baad rugam alirhab kul youm fi alaalam min elmajaneen
Sorry sir Hyden. it’s never our intention to demean your person the way you do the same with our persons. I am just “thinking out loud” and i just can’t reconcile in my thoughts why despite your wide exposures to “enlightenment” – as you say – yet, i am sorry to say this frankly, that it seems you are not as “enlightened” as our professors in the Catholic University of America. perhaps, the way we use our respective “enlightenment” as peaceworkers and advocates with regards to the world order is different from yours. Of course, I admit that sometimes or most of the times, i can’t help but become subjective specially when things in their proper contexts as all may believe is portrayed persistently differently. I like adversarial discussions when all they aim for is truth. So far, not to scratch his back, i like the objectivity of joe. his way really makes sense to me. he is not redundant of his words, though i am.
jcc,
this is what is called making a lavish quotes of qur’anic verses outside their proper contexts. do you see the essence of staying with the context. say if I quote some passages of the Holy Bible or any holy books of some religions out of their contexts and then judge them right away only out of that picked up lines, or unleash what i have already in my mind beforehand out of these passages which are in reality displaced from their proper contexts, then what shall this be? shall I be reliable? Is it scholarly? do you know what i mean by this jcc, hayden?
say, if i quote some lines e.g. violent lines from what you wrote, insidiously discarding that the general thought of what you wrote is, say, the Just War Theory of St. Thomas Aquinas and then just show it off without showing beforehand what it tells before and after it? What if, for example, I just quote a passage of St. Aquinas theory extolling Christian crusaders to kill anyone that might come their way while displacing such passage from its context, say, for example justfying killing of enemies that might harm them because they are at war with them, then would what I have done i.e. picking up passages according to my own choice thence present them outside of their contexts, be just?
That is what Deo Macalma et al had done with respect to airing some portions of the MOA-AD to the people who have no copy of it just to make fun of it and mislead the public, and essentially to undermine the legitimate rights of the Bangsamoro. He et al by that had been just a paid mouthpiece of government misinformation and disinformation campaign if he is not acting out of his sheer prejudice.it’s that he was just reading some passages out of the MOA-AD, perhaps those provisions that sound unjust when taken out of their contexts. do you know what i mean jcc/hayden? that is exactly what Sam Harris and his likes, Hitchens, Dawkins are used to do to mislead their already mislead audiences in their smear campaigns against religions.
So I am asking jcc/hayden, is that just? Would any discreet mind pay times to hear them out of their injustices? Anyway jcc, hayden, those passages from the Qur’an have their respective number of chapters and verses, so if you may have fine time to read not just, say, verses 4 and 5 of a particular chapter but the whole chapters of those verses you have quoted lavishly from Sam Harris.
You know, when I enter the movie house where I can watch the movie already played at the middle of it without having watched at the beginning, i used to judge such movie does not worth my time until i watch it again from its very start to its end whereby i can understand the exact plot and figure out what such movie really wants me to be informed with.
I totally agree with you Danilo. I everyone knows how to listen and not just listen to their egocentric thoughts. People should based their understanding on the context of a passage or statement and not just on mere self-understanding.
I don’t know Danilo, but most of those who “misinterpeted” the Koran are muslims themselves, in the likes of Bin Ladin, et al and hundreds of young muslims who would strap themselves with bombs and blow themselves up in maket places to kill the infidels . It is not the pro-western like me and Sam Harris who misquoted the Koran but majority of your muslim brothers who up to now are in the mountains of Afghanistan and other violent places of the world who would, on almost daily basis attack civilians who do not subscribe to their own faith.
The Madrasas in Afghanistan and Pakistan are reflective enough of Muslims adherence to the Koranic battle-cry against the infidels. Don’t I get some kind of reprieve if I have quoted the Koran out of context specially in the light of the fact that millions of muslims, specially those attending Madraras have quoted them out of context too?
ah afghanistan? and other muslim countries who are victims of western colonialism and aggressions? that’s where you can see Muslims who strap bombs on the bodies because they have run out of effective weapons, let alone hope for peaceful negotiations just to drive “infidels” – their aggressors out. And, to them, when anyone side with the aggressors, s/he then eventually becomes infidel too.
You see, not an instance that I am amused of the act, but you don’t also see the context of why these Muslims strap bombs on their bodies and sacrifice themselves jcc. It’s that even without the invocation of any spirituality to hold weapons for defense, unless you lost your masculinity, let alone such noble ingredient of your humanity, then one has to have a defensive stance in the face of aggressors.
Of course, while misinterpreting Qur’anic texts is an issue to justify any efforts attributed with acts of worship, misquoting the same out of their context is another issue.
It’s that when such particular action is never found in Islam’s primary sources i.e. Qur’an and Hadith though some verses are misquoted just to justify such action is absolutely unIslamic. Whether one is a Muslim yet who does not have the qualification to interpret Qur’an, then s/he can NOT do such that easy way like done to other written documents. The prophet has said those who interpret it according to his/her own way i.e. without mustering and mastering the required scholarly qualifications is cultivating a place of his in Hell.
Of course, i don’t think this explanation makes any sense to you but what i am trying to say is the unlikelihood of the following:
1. quoting qur’anic verses out of their context,
2. interpreting qur’an minus the required scholarly qualification,
3. any act attributed with worship yet not in accordance with the qur’an and the tradition of the prophet peace be upon him is not Islam.
Bad and Good Muslims. That’s good book to read about to know why Muslims strap bombs. I am also amused of Michael Moore’s usual shot out that it has been western foreign policies that produce terrorists at home or abroad.
misquoting the koran but not misquoting the bible. same can be said of those who think that the bible specially the old testament is about punishment of the unbelievers but not quoting the new testament which preaches love and forgiveness. did mohammad by the way preaches about love and forgiveness and that teaching had been instilled in the KOran?
is new york (911 twin tower disaster) and fort hood texas (where the shooting was made by a terrorist doctor) still part of the Muslim world that they have the right to repel them for incursing in their territory?
has the catholic church junked the old testament?
’nuff said.
“misquoting the koran but not misquoting the bible. same can be said of those who think that the bible specially the old testament is about punishment of the unbelievers but not quoting the new testament which preaches love and forgiveness.” – JCC
Just curious JCC, Are you trying to impress upon us that the Old testament has been supplanted by the New Testament? That its provisions have been outdated by the New Testament and therefore not binding anymore as guidance and standard of a Christian life? That the Old Testament is not part and parcel of the Bible? But why it is still attached to the Bible itself?
For instance, were those atrocities committed by the Crusaders against heathens and Christians alike only in accordance with the Old Testament and that the New Testament had nothing to do with what they had atrociously done since it only teaches love and forgiveness as you say? Were they simply saying that “hey guys we are just amusing ourselves with the spill of your blood, rob of your properties, etc. by virtue of the Old Testament!”
As written in page 407 of “La Civilisation Islamique et Arabe (The Arab and Islam Civilization),” by Gustav Lebon: “The atrocities committed by the Crusaders against friends and foes, against soldiers and innocent peasants, against women and children, against old and young, give them top place in the annals of savagery. One of their number Robert the Monk, wrote: ‘Our army raged through alleys and piazzas and over the flat roofs of adjoining houses like a mother lion robbed of her whelps, rampaging, tearing children to shreds in savage delight. We put old and young to the sword. To speed up the work we used one rope’s loop to hang many people together. Soldiers stole anything that came to hand, even ripping open the bowels of corpses in their search for jewels or coins. Whatever they found the pocketed. Finally, Bohemond assembled all the survivors-men and women, maimed and helpless, together-in the castle, and butchered them all, saving only the young for sale in the Antioch slave-market.’ And Godfrey Hardouinville reported to the Pope: ‘In Jerusalem Muslims who fell into our hands were slain by our people in Solomon’s porch until the temple precincts flowed knee-high with blood,”
Furthermore, among others, the papal bull “Ad abolendam” for instance had ordered many inquisitions, which eventually led Cardinal Cisneros in 1499 to coerce 50,000 Muslims of Granada into mass baptisms while those who refused were deported to Africa or were systematically eliminated. These people were not foreigners but natives of Spain whose more than 90% of them had accepted Islam voluntarily.
Also, it was recorded that on August 24, 1572, a.k.a. “Massacre of Saint Bartholomew,” King Charles IX and Queen Catherina ordered the massacre of more than 60, 000 protestants in Paris and the neighboring towns thereat on the account of their creed.
And these had been done in the name of Christianity. And they had done these hundreds of years after the advent of Jesus Christ, after the New Testament was compiled.
Also see: http://www.exposingchristianity.com/Inquisition.html
Meanwhile, here the Biblical verses that also preach cruelty and intolerance, etc.
http://www.skepticsannotatedbible.com/cruelty/nt_list.html
Yet I believe that these verses were lavishly picked up by SAB outside of their respective contexts.
“did mohammad by the way preaches about love and forgiveness and that teaching had been instilled in the KOran?” – JCC
Some verses in the Qur’an, it tell:
Sura 5 : Verse 82
“…, and you will find the nearest in love to the believers (Muslims) those who say: “We are Christians.” That is because amongst them are priests (men of learning) and monks (who have renounced the world), and they are not proud.
Surah 2 Verse:109
“Many of the people of the Scripture (Jews and Christians) wish that if they could turn you away as disbelievers after you have believed, out of envy from their ownselves, even after the truth (that Muhammad Peace be upon him is Allâh’s Messenger) has become manifest unto them. But forgive and overlook, till Allâh brings His Command. Verily, Allâh is Able to do all things.
Surah 7 Verse:199
“Show forgiveness, enjoin what is good, and turn away from the foolish (i.e. don’t punish them).”
Surah 42: Verse 40
“The recompense for an injury is an injury equal thereto (in degree): but if a person forgives and makes reconciliation, his reward is due, from Allah: for (Allah) loveth not those who do wrong.”
Surah 4: Verse 36
“Worship God and join none with Him in worship, and do good to parents, kinsfolk, orphans, the poor, the neighbour who is near of kin, the neighbour who is a stranger, the companion by your side, the wayfarer (you meet)… Verily, God does not like such as are proud and boastful.”
Meanwhile, the Prophet peace be upon him has once said that verily, a true believer is him/her whose neighbors are safe (even) from his/her tongue.
You can also see, http://www.islamreligion.com/
hahahaha!!!! crusaders was something of the past.. the strapping of bombs are recent. most new christians now practically debunked the old testament that’s why there are no more “white knights” killing those who would not convert to christianity. whether it was officialy debunked or not does not deny the issue that no modern-day christians now would ride a horse with a sword and slay those who have a different faith. look at how the age of enlightenment specially in America where all faith are welcome as long as you respect the faith of others.
You see jcc you don’t get my point.
I do not deny that there are those Muslims who strap bombs on their body and blow themselves in public. But as the article tells, it is not because of religious passion. It is not the issue of shoving Islam at one’s throat or kill such otherwise. It is the issue of driving aggressors and colonizers out. Don’t you see the colonial contexts of these series of suicide bombings? In Palestine? in Iraq? in Afghanistan? And hope here in the Philippines too, joke! It’s what Dinesh D’Souza wants to tell his readers. Seems that you’re arguments arising only from sheer prejudice against Islam are redundant and always taken out of context. I am even surprised, despite your belief on Jesus and your claim of Christianity, you are using arguments of atheists like Sam Harris, Hutchens, Dawkins, etc. (but only in castigating Islam) who also junk Jesus divinity and Christianity. What an inconsistence!
Perhaps, you have heard of the Catholic God Spirit, a Tadtad cult in Bukidnon with long-haired members emulating Jesus and who invoked magic in their own interpretation of the Bible, thereby arming themselves with kris against their enemies who might not be in good terms with them. And they were wiped out by the PNP in 2000.
Well you forgot what Marcos had once aimed for the Philippines: He had always wanted to make the Philippines the Only Catholic Country in Southeast Asia. So Moros, being Muslims, must be taken out of their homeland in case cajolery fails. Of course, that is already a past reality as you would say again.
New Christians? Of the New Testament? Did the 12 disciples belong to the Old Christians category? Or even Jesus? Is there such a thing as that?
But Jesus also told those “Old Christians” to follow the Law of Moses, basically the Old Testament. He did not abrogate it, but confirmed it instead. I’m just curious JCC because in Mathew 5:17–19, it tells, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished. Anyone who breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.”
btw danilo,
are kidnapping for ransom and beheadings of civilians and school teachers in Mindanao still part of defensive masculinity you were talking about?
jcc, NOBODY among Muslims tells such criminality as Islamic except them who are members of Abu Sayyaf. Remember that there are also non-Muslims in its rank. Remember too that Abu Sayyaf has been tainted with mystery where involvement of men-in-uniform and some clandestine manipulation of psywar experts including CIA operatives leaked. Have you heard of the priest in Lamitan who was about to reveal such mystery yet obstructed by no other than the authorities? Likewise, nobody among Christian adherents that Agusan hostage crisis was a Christian act though the perpetrators are Christians by faith.
btw danilo,
those who strapped themselves with bombs and blow themselves up in market places take not only the infidels but innocent children who have no idea what is being an infidel in the first place.
now don’t argue that the bombings of terrorist lair in afghanistan also includes innocent civilians because those were not made in the name of christianity, but by politics.
most americans are appalled by the “collateral damage” everytime a bomb is exploded in any part of this world, but we have yet to hear a collective condemnation of terrorist attack of non-combatants by their fellow muslims.
but as hyden said, you may worship Muhammad and your own God just as long as you do not condemn others who do not.
Don’t blame God for terrorism
http://blogs.usatoday.com/oped/2009/11/column-dont-blame-god-for-terrorism.html?loc=interstitialskip
no one is blaming God for terrorism. we are just appaled on how some muslim fundamentalists interpret their Koran as a battle-cry to slay the non-believers.
you confuse bandits with moslems.
shall all christians be held responsible for a timothy mcveigh?
shall all caucasians be held responsible for a timothy mcveigh?
i get it already. those who do good deeds are muslims and those who did not do good deeds are non-muslims and probably christians and cia agents.
no civilian casualties in Iraq, Afghanistan, Palestine, etc., bombings by or under the tutelage of US government? Oh come on jcc! nakatoka ka lang kasi sa CNN.
It is my pleasure to inform my countrymen. What enemies they are facing.
Most Muslims are good. But, there are some fumdamentalist, like any
other religions. Christians included. They think, they are saving
you from hell. And gain favor from their God. If they can spread
their gospels. By any means; terrorism, wars, deceits included.
Both Islam and Christianity are guilty of horrible crimes, then as now, past and present.
Religious claims are all lies.
Belief in a non-existent entity is delusional.
Do away with religion.
Imagine a world without religion.