Bangsamoro grand mufti urges unity vs extremism
MAGUINDANAO — The Bangsamoro grand mufti has urged Muslims and Christian to work together against Islamic militants defying Qur’anic teachings on unity and diversity.
“Islam is a religion of inclusivity, not exclusivity. It preaches association, not isolation. It is all about religious tolerance, not persecution,” an emotional Sheik Abu Huraira Udasan of the Bangsamoro Darul Iftah (House of Opinions) said on Thursday.
The 79-year-old Udasan, who studied Islam and Christianity in the Al-Azzhar University in Cairo and in religious schools in Jerusalem was main speaker in the Maguindanao provincial security, economic and anti-terrorism summit in Buluan town Thursday.
More than 3,000 moderate clerics and students of Islamic schools across Maguindanao’s 36 towns joined the summit, jointly organized by the office of Gov. Esmael Mangudadatu, the Army’s 6th Infantry Division and the office of Senior Superintendent Agustin Tello, director of the Maguindanao provincial police.
The activity, funded by Mangudadatu’s office, was also supported by the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, now a peace partner of the government.
Mangudadatu told summit participants he will provide President Rodrigo Duterte and Congress a report on the consensus reached at the two-day summit.
The event was launched exactly two days after Duterte announced the liberation of Marawi City from Maute and Abu Sayyaf terrorists who had laid siege to more than a dozen barangays there since May 23, sparking a conflict that lasted for more than four months.
Army officials acknowledged the support of the local Moro communities for the government's campaign against violent religious extremists, or VREs, trying to drive a wedge between Muslim and Christian sectors.
The security officials, led by Maj. Arnel Dela Vega of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division, told reporters they are also grateful to Maguindanao provincial and municipal officials who helped in the MILF’s government-sanctioned sevenweek offensive against a third group of the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters.
The main enclave of the Islamic State-inspired BIFF faction, led by radical cleric Esmael Abdulmalik, at the border of Maguindanao’s Salibo and Datu Piang towns, were taken over by MILF two weeks ago following deadly clashes that resulted in the deaths of more than a dozen of its guerrillas and of 28 militants.
Mangudadatu, who spoke lengthily during the second day of the summit, urged his constituents to help authorities monitor movements of VREs in their areas.
He also urged them to support the province's bid to have them enlisted, with just compensation, by the national government as “peace mentors” in areas vulnerable to infiltration by militants fomenting animosity to non-Muslims.
In their messages, Mangudadatu and the foreign-trained Udasan, grand mufti (preacher) of the Darul Iftah, narrated stories on chronicled examples of Islam’s progenitor, Mohammad, in rallying Muslims and non-Muslims together to help oversee the pioneer Islamic ummah (nation) he established in the ancient Arabian Peninsula, where Islam originated.