Kato victimizing Muslims

A “JIHAD” at the height of the most holy observance of the feast of Ramadan? This sounds unthinkable in our understanding of the Islamic faith. But then the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) of MILF renegade commander Ameril Umra Kato had staged what they claim to be a “holy war” to avenge the death of a comrade.

The BIFF waged a simultaneous attack on several military and police outposts in several towns in Maguindanao and North Cotabato, sending thousands of Muslim villagers to government-attended evacuation sites. They captured two soldiers who, in the belief that with the Ramadan season arms are silenced, were traveling to Cotabato City in civilian clothes, only to be misled, captured, tortured and mutilated. The incidence signaled the simultaneous attack on army detachments in at least four towns in Maguindanao and two in North Cotabato.

Muslim leaders condemned the assaults that were launched while Muslims in the country were observing the Ramadan fasting season. Kato himself is a Saudi-trained cleric.

So far, the most incensed condemnation came from MILF’s vice chairman for political affairs, Ghazali Jaafar. He said: “[T]here is no wisdom in the assertion by the BIFF that it is waging a jihad because the holy war is not meant to give misery to civilians and cannot be waged just for the purpose of retaliation.” The Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), according to Jaafar, has long branded and condemned Kato as “bughaat,” an Arabic term for recalcitrant, stubborn or abusive.

Acting ARMM Gov. Mujiv Hataman and Maguindanao Rep. Simeon Datumanong said the attacks are deplorable. They issued the statements amid the mournful cries of Muslim evacuees who denounced the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Movement and its BIFF combatants and demanded that a “fatwah” be immediately issued on them and that they be excommunicated for their acts which are contrary to the Islamic faith.

It is unfortunate indeed that the misery of Muslim Filipinos is being perpetrated from within and from one who claims to be promoting Islam. However, the recent developments involving the group of Kato and the similar terroristic operations of Abu Sayyaf bandits (who also banner themselves as champions of Islam) argue against their Islamic “assertions.” Not only are their actions un-Islamic, they themselves do no have any political ideology even as they claim to be freedom fighters.

Jaafar is correct in every sense. On the other hand, we see the atrocities perpetrated by BIFF on Muslim communities as a desperate move to derail the peace negotiation between the MILF and the government, which we expect to come to fruition soon.