REASSURANCE VS. VIOLENCE. Ustad Muhammad Najeeb Razul (left) greets other Muslim leaders in Cebu in an event recently held at the Archbishop's Residence in Cebu City. Razul on Monday (Sept. 9, 2019) said they are doubling their vigilance so as not to make Cebu at the receiving end of spillover of violence by extremists in southern Mindanao. (File photo/John Rey Saavedra)
CEBU CITY -- An Islamic teacher on Monday reassured authorities here that Cebu will never be at the receiving end of violent extremist spillover as they are doubling their vigilance amid the explosions in Isulan, Sultan Kudarat and Indanan, Sulu over the weekend.
Ustad Muhammad Najeeb Razul, teacher of Islam and mufti or Islamic jurist in Cebu, said the Muslim community in Cebu has been working closely with the Philippine National Police (PNP) and the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) in preventing violence in Mindanao from spilling over to Cebu.
“We are working closely with the PNP and with the AFP. Dili mi maka-afford nga kanang mga extremist mobuhat og ngil-ad dire sa siyudad. Naa atong mga anak dire mang-eskuwela, naa dire ang negosyo (We cannot afford to let extremists do something harmful to the city. We have children who are studying here, we have businesses here),” Razul said in a radio interview.
Razul admitted that many Muslims from Mindanao have attempted to come here but they would quickly ask them to return to the southern Philippines.
According to him, the Muslim community in Cebu would not tolerate such an act nor provide aid to those who would take shelter here, stressing that they (the Muslims here) have been in peaceful co-existence with the Cebuanos, most of whom are members of the Catholic Church.
He said Muslims from Mindanao who wanted to come and live here were properly screened.
Razul suggested what he believed was the best way for the national government to stop the violent extremism that cost the lives of innocent civilians in different areas of Mindanao.
“My suggestion for the BaSulTa (Basilan, Sulu, and Tawi-Tawi) is to organize a task force comprising the integrees from the defunct Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) who are still actively serving with the AFP and put them in the area with only a mission to crush the extremist rebels lurking in the area,” Razul said in Cebuano.
The integrees, he said, have an ample knowledge of the terrain, especially in the island of Sulu, and they are known to belong with the warrior tribe, Tausug.
The Islamic scholar here said that the national government should also continue consulting with former MNLF chair and governor of the defunct Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), Nur Misuari, on the means to quell violent extremism in southern Mindanao.
Razul believed that Misuari still has a clout in the area.
He said the intelligence report from Malaysia and the warning from the Foreign Ministry of Turkey that Islamic State (IS) fighters from the Middle East are now in southeast Asian countries, including the Philippines, have now been “validated” with a series of bombings.
Razul expressed dejection on the report that past explosions involved foreigners or foreign-looking suicide bombers, including women.
On Sunday, a woman suspected to be a bomber was killed after she allegedly attacked a checkpoint of the Philippine Army in Sulu. Seconds later, an explosion happened but there was no reported casualty on the side of the military.
The Indanan attack followed an explosion at a public market in Isulan, Sultan Kudarat that wounded at least seven people last Saturday. (PNA)
