Jihad And The Moro Islamic Liberation Front In Mindanao

By Author: Arnold Alderite
Total Articles: 4
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Is the call of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front in the Philippines within the principles of the true meaning of Jihad.
I come from Mindanao where five percent of its population is composed of Muslims of diverse ethnicity. This is something for me. As a Christian, I have experienced living with them. It was difficult for me to understand their manner of living and customs. It was perfectly all right with me. But when the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) in Mindanao, a conglomerate of separatist group of Muslims, started to hostage and bomb innocent civilians away and justify it in the name of Jihad, I began to become more confused understanding the word. While the situation in Mindanao became worse than ever, my own understanding of Jihad has been more clouded by biases. It is along this objective that I wanted to make my own inquiry as to the real meaning of this word. This paper is divided into two parts: First part is the discussion on Jihad. I would utilize and cite some authorities in order to know the meaning of the word. My analysis would be carefully intertwined along the presentation. The second part ...
... of the paper would eventually lead to analyzing the activities of the MILF vis-à-vis the ideals and principles of Jihad. Each section of this paper would be introduced by a categorical question to guide me in my discussion. What is the basis of Jihad? For me, the best way to understand the meaning of a word is to understand the basis of its existence. Knowing what the word means identifying its literal and closest translation and to find where it is being anchored. According to Islam.Net Jihad is defined as "a sincere and noticeable effort (for good); an all-true and unselfish striving for spiritual goodness." Based on my readings, there are two forms of Jihad: internal struggle and external struggle. The internal struggle means the daily struggle of oneself to be good. This is called Jihad fi sabeel Allah or the struggle in the path of God. It could be interpreted therefore as a struggle towards oneself -- the struggle to be good, in words, actions or deeds. For example, when I do my prayer, go to temple, do good, then I am doing Jihad. It is the self-purification. It is a constant daily struggle to do well and avoid sin or amr bi al-ma'ruf wa nahy 'an al-munkar. According to Kaltner (1999), "Jihad comes from an Arabic root whose primary sense refers to the act of putting forth effort to achieve some objective, [such as] the effort each person must exert in order to live his or her life as a good Muslim and avoid the temptation to sin." The literal translation of Jihad is that it is "a sincere and noticeable effort (for good); an all-true and unselfish striving for spiritual goodness." It is interesting to note however that many dictionaries supply a lot of definitions on the word. Mostly it is now commonly considered to mean 'holy war.' But, I would not utilize it as my starting definition. I personally believe that it is merely a form of misinterpreting Jihad and merely puts the word under a bad light. I would be explaining this misguided definition later. The second basis for Jihad is the use of physical force or fighting. It means every Muslim must reach out to anyone outside himself, whether he is Muslim or not. It is his obligation to show his responsibility to others and guide then to the path of Allah. For example, it is a Muslim's obligation to show others their misdeeds, and bring them to the right path. Based on my own understanding, guiding others to right path could be done in two ways: one is through "soft persuasion" and the second is "strong persuasion" or persuasion by force. What do I mean by soft persuasion? Soft persuasion includes those ways wherein one tries to show others the path to Allah by means of words (preaching) and writings (literary). For example, in order to show to others the path to Allah, he must utilize the might of his speeches or writings. He is able to encourage others to exercise Jihad, which is directed within oneself. The second type of persuasion in Jihad is the utilization of force. For example, when words and writings fail, one maybe able to go to the extent of utilizing one's physical force (al qitaal) in order to prove one's point and achieve justice. For example, when one person's dwelling has been plundered and his rights as a person has been trampled by others, then it is his obligation to wage Jihad, which would utilize force in order to get what is due him. This could also be applicable to nations. When a particular state or country is being attacked or invaded, then Jihad may be called upon. As Perrazo (2003) considered, the only circumstance under which Jihad might utilize the use of warfare is when it is only a defensive response to an attack. Moreover the Islamic Online gave the foundation of launching a Jihad only on two accounts: First, when in self-defense, especially when Muslim Ummah are being attacked. Second is when another state is oppressing a portion of its people. Therefore, in my own analysis, the second type of Jihad, which is a struggle to persuade others to the path of Allah by allowing the use of force, has now been the root cause of many misinterpretations. This has become the interesting part of the issue. The subjective element of the interpretation could be shaped by one's frame of mind, environment (culture and society), and even ethnic affiliations and so on. For example, a Muslim guerilla in Mindanao or in Aceh may have a different interpretation of the struggle to fight under given circumstances. Even scholars and cause-oriented groups fashion their own interpretation of the word in order to justify their own cause - be it political, military, cultural, religious or personal in nature. The error however is based merely not only in limiting and thwarting the most noble and pure intention of the word. What happen is simply trying to do act and make the definition later on rather than the other way around. No wonder why you see people blasting innocent civilians away and interpret it as a form of Jihad. For example, the Ahlus Sunnah Wal Jamaa'ah Association in Australia has been strongly insistent that Jihad does not involve daily struggle rather it is only al qitaal. The group gave the linguistic origin of the word to be al-Juhud and al-Jihaad which is "to sacrifice to ones utmost according to a person's ability with strength, in order to obtain the beloved or to avert the hated." Does Jihad mean 'Holy War?' According to Hassan (2001), there has been a misinterpretation by many scholars to equate Jihad with "holy war." This also verified by the Islamic Organization who contends that Allah has never been promoting Jihad by means of war. Islam promotes peaceful means in order to bring order in the society. Fighting is only a last recourse when there is not anymore a possibility of eliminating oppression but by force. In Surah 22, verses 39-40 of the Koran, it is stated:"Permission [to fight] is granted to those who are being persecuted, since injustice has befallen them, and GOD is certainly able to support them [with victory]." They were evicted from their homes unjustly, for no reason other than saying, "Our Lord is God." If it were not for God's supporting of some people against others, monasteries, churches, synagogues, and masjids [mosques] - where the name of God is commemorated frequently - would have been destroyed. Absolutely, God supports those who support Him. God is Powerful, Almighty. Under the above category, I could see that the first requisite for utilizing al qitaal is only when there is an imminent oppression. In this case, when force is employed it is merely because of self-defense and not to ultimately to initiate fighting. Therefore the only war condoned by the Quran is a war of self-defense. In Surah 4, verses 74-75, it is stated:" Those who readily fight in the cause of God are those who forsake this world in favor of the Hereafter. Whoever fights in the cause of God, then gets killed, or attains victory, we will surely grant him a great recompense. Why should you not fight in the cause of God when weak men, women, and children are imploring: "Our Lord, deliver us from this community whose people are oppressive, and be You our Lord and Master." The second requisite for utilizing force is to guarantee that there should be no mere brutal and barbaric atrocities of any human being. This goes to say that civilians should not be included in the attack, on the condition that they do not attack, provoke or share directly in the war. The third requisite is that Muslims may never initiate hostilities, and God forbids aggression [2:190]. While the fighting continues, Muslims must dedicate themselves wholly to the war in order to bring things back to normal as quickly as possible, but the second the enemy sues for peace, hostilities must cease. [2:192] The Misinterpretations on Jihad Jihad does not actually mean war. Allah does not allow war. However, since many gave their own interpretations, the real meaning of the word tended to have been loosened. More often accounts of Western invasions and aggressions to the Muslim world intensified even more the position that the Jihad largely deals with a struggle to fight the invading forces and to bring an end to an injustice. The most recent examples we could get are the US led invasions on Afghanistan and Iraq. Because of this the military concept of struggle in Jihad had been called for and utilized in order to boost the morale of many Muslims. Along this area, Jihad had been as an avenue to pursue once nationalistic interests over religious. They tend to consider Christians, Jews and any Muslim leaders seen to be too pro-Western and thus a threat to their interests. This has never been a new phenomenon. According to Philps (2001), historians say that the concept of Jihad as war died out during the flowering of Islamic civilization, but was awakened by the arrival of the crusader armies in the 11th century. Since then Jihad has focused on defending Islam from the assaults of the Christian powers or the godless communists who ruled the Soviet Union. Therefore, I could not blame many Muslims for utilizing Jihad to justify their cause because of the history of oppressions coming from the Western World. The sad thing however was the Western World has been so much identified as a form of religious conquest. Because of this, many Muslims today have turned themselves to become successful practitioners of Jihad interpreted with the political and military objectives. As a matter of fact, the United States capitalize on the word Jihad when it helped the Afghans took up arms against the Soviet army when it took over the country in 1979 and drove them out 10 years later. It was interesting to note that the Afghan mujahideen - it means those who wage Jihad - were hailed in the West as Cold War freedom fighters. Surprisingly, the militant Palestinians in the Gaza Strip during the 1970s, the PIJ-Shiqaqi faction, currently led by Ramadan Shallah in Damascus, are tagged as terrorists since they have been fighting for the cause of Palestine. It should be noted however that what forced these Muslims to wage war and misuse the principles of Jihad is because of the imminent oppressions to their land. A classic example is the Israel-Palestinian conflict. Sheikh Faysal Mawlawi (2003) Deputy chairman of the European Council said that Jihad in the Cause of Allah against the Zionists who usurped the Palestinian lands and forcibly expelled the Palestinians from their own homes is an individual duty or Fard `Ayn on every capable Muslim in Palestine and its neighboring Muslim countries. The reason for that is to unify the stand in resisting the aggression launched by the Zionists who usurped the blessed land. Thus, Jihad is an individual duty on Egyptians, Syrians, Jordanians, Lebanese as well as all Muslim Arabs and non-Arabs till the Jewish occupation is brought to a halt. Personally, I think the call for Jihad by the Palestine in this sense may prove to be in the right tract. I am sure various accounts in the history of the Muslim world could attest to this. The Moro Islamic Liberation Front and Jihad Calling for Jihad has been the prevailing call of many oppressed Muslims in the East. I believe the Palestinians may have the proper cause to do Jihad. However, there may have been groups that justify their wrongdoings under the struggle for Jihad. The Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) in Mindanao (southern part of the Philippines) has been struggling in the name of Jihad. They also justify their cause and objectives under it. The question it whether under the principles of Jihad are the MILF actions within the Jihad's values? What is the founding principle of their Jihad? The Moro Islamic Liberation Front started as a factional group after Hashim Salamat, its founding chairman, denounced the ways its mother group, the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) made a bargain to create an Autonomous Region for Moslem Mindanao (ARMM) in 1996. More so, when Nur Misuari, his contemporary official in the MNLF, became the governor of the region, Salamat started to create his own party, the MILF. As of the moment, the group boasts its 12,500 active armed members. Under the MILF, the call for the Islamic State in Mindanao was resurrected. Salamat outlined the group's objectives, such as to 1) make supreme the Word of Allah, 2) gain the pleasure of Allah, 3) strengthen the relationship of man with his creator, 4) strengthen the relationship of man and man, 5) regain the illegally and immorally usurped legitimate and inalienable rights of the Bangsamoro people to freedom and self-determination, and 5) establish an independent state and government and implement Shari'ah (Islamic Law). Salamat justified the struggle of the group as a result to the Philippines' illegal usurpation of their legitimate rights for freedom and self-determination of the Bangsa-Moro people. For them, they were the legitimate native inhabitants of the islands of Mindanao, Basilan Sulu and Palawan, independent hundreds of years before the Spain and the United States colonize the country. He also claimed that the United States helped the Philippines to create the newly created imperialist puppet succeeded in her plot to annex the Bangsamoro homeland when she was granted independence by the USA in 1946. For Salamat, the Philippines has inherited and developed a deep hatred against Islam and the Muslim people. The MILF group has not recognized the Philippine government in Mindanao to be legitimate, and they do not consider themselves Filipinos, instead Bangsa-Moro. In a separate interview with Salamat, he claimed that the MILF group is stronger; ready to take up arms. The group had already acquired more sophisticated arms and trained more people to fight. According to Salamat, the Bangsa Moro consultative assembly attended by more than two million people vowed to arm their own selves. Salamat revealed that they are in the third phase of their Moro Jihad. The first phase was during the Spanish Invasion (1521-1898) 377 years; the second phase, against the American colonizers (1898-1946) 47 years; and against the Philippine crusade (1970 - present.) This has been the clear guideline of the group to wage an all out war against government of the Philippines. The MILF Jihad: An Evaluation I would like to go back to the question whether the Jihad of the MILF is justifiable? Is it going along the principle of the Jihad posited by Islam? To answer these questions, there is a need to evaluate the actions by the MILF vis-à-vis the principles of Jihad initially presented. In order to carefully evaluate, I would like to go back to the two justifications to justify the launching of Jihad. First, there should be an element of self-defense or oppression. Second, no barbaric atrocities should be launched to innocent civilians, and third, there must be an avenue for conflict settlement and peace. Self-defense and oppression have indeed been the two favorite words of Salamat and Ed Kabalu (spokesperson of the MILF). Whenever there is an attack perpetrated by the groups, which slaughtered innocent civilians, they always tried to consider it as a form of self-defense and retaliatory measures to the offensive military strikes. MILF has been launching a series of attacks not only to military posts but to civilian communities as well. So far, more than ten bombings were attributed to the MILF group. In Davao City alone, the recent airport and seaport blasts killing and injuring around 200 civilians have been attributed to them. Then they tried to justify these acts as a form of self-defense. Although it has to be taken into considerations that most of the perpetrators of the attacks to civilian communities were the deployed station commanders whom according to Kabalu, they do not have control of. In this case, the actions by their field commanders are seen in the context of their own free will and volition to launch the attack. The objective to destroy is imminent, however the justification of the act to be in line with the principle of Jihad is rather obscure. The third requisite goes for the avoidance of hostilities and aggressions. Simply there reasons for their acts of atrocities have been borne out of their quest for an independent state in Mindanao. The government has earlier accommodated the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) and thus formed an autonomous region in Mindanao. When Salamat did not gain the attention but Misuari, he made his own faction group the MILF and resume the call for an independent state resurrecting the issue all over again. As earlier provided, if the enemy looks for peace, hostilities must cease. It could be recalled that the MILF once negotiated with the government in 1997. But for Salamat, it was aimed to expose the Philippine government's deceptive design during the negotiation process. This particular rationale reflects their assumption that the Philippine government was not honest in helping the Muslims in Mindanao. When the government was busy trying to solve corruption problems (such as the embezzlement of funds by government leaders, including Misuari), the MILF group became busy recruiting Muslims to join his cause. There were even speculations that the MILF was only utilizing the cease fire period to give them more time to train and recruit young Muslims (16-60 years old) in the area. As of today, efforts by the government to win their sympathy and calls for peace and dialogues have proven futile. Although, they have been calling for ceasefires on the others, they are seen to be attacking towns and military posts within these periods. House national defense committee chairperson Congressman Prospero Pichay said peace talks with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) are proving futile and the government should finally decide on branding the Muslim secessionist group as a terrorist organization. He said "all indications" showed the MILF, which had been embroiled in intense fighting with government troops since Feb.11, are "terrorists." The documents seized form a fallen rebel camp in Pikit, North Cotabato showed the MILF was "definitely strengthening their arsenal" by buying mortars and rocket propelled grenades.. One idea traces back to the group's objective shifting from "negotiating" to "destabilizing" and "humiliating" the Arroyo government in which the group believed to be identified with the American interests. The group has been a witness to what happened to the Moro National Liberation Front (MLF) did. It views earlier efforts by the previous group to be useless especially when it just ended up MNLF's key leader, Nur Misuari, to be charged with corruption and mismanagement of government funds. This time they become paranoid to any government negotiations. Ironically, despite the rhetoric ultimatums made by the Philippine government, and the tactical truce made by the MILF the seems to be a deadlock in this sense. Conclusion It is true that "Muslims are called by the Qur-an and the example of the Prophet of Islam to struggle for peace through all available means. However the struggle being brought forth by the MILF is a politico-military one, i.e., under the guise of Jihad. It has already alluded into the principles and values of the real Jihad when they started to kidnap civilians to be used as human shield, bomb civilians and attack towns in the region. They are merely doing terrorism activities. It should be remembered that Jihad does not bear any action relating to terrorism. It is to be emphasized that terrorism against the innocent civilians, whether through aggression or suicidal means, is under no circumstances permissible in Islam. Islam encourages the oppressed people to struggle for their liberation and it commands other Muslims to help those who are oppressed and suffering, but Islam does not allow, under any circumstance, terrorism against non-combatants and innocent people. Terrorism is not Jihad, it is Fasad (mischief). It is against the teachings of Islam. They are indeed examples of people who use their twisted arguments to justify terrorism for their causes, but it has no justification: Allah says: "When it is said to them: 'Make not mischief on the earth,' they say: 'Why, we only want to correct things.' Indeed they are the mischief doers, but they realize (it) not." (Al-Baqarah: 11-12). References Dixon, Jeff What Does Islam Say about Jihad, Holy War? Touch and Change.Com, Available. Online 06/06/03. Garrido, Marco The Evolution of Philippine Muslim Insurgency, Asia Times, March 6, 2003. Online. Available 05/03/03. IISCA: The Meaning of Jihad: Both from Linguistically and from the Shariah,2003 Annual Dawah Conference, May 2003, Available. Online 05/27/03. Islam Online Net, Ask About Islam, Available. Online 05/30/03. Islamanswers.net: What is the Meaning of Jihad? 06/05/03. Perrazo, John. The Meaning of Jihad, Frontpagemag.com. November 2002, http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=4758> 06/05/03. Vantage Point: Meaning of Jihad Gets Lost, October 11, 2001. 06/05/03. Philips, Alan How God's struggle became a war, Available. Online 05/04/03. Terrorism Resources, Available. Online 05/06/03. Islam Online: Is it an obligation to join Jihad in Palestine. Available. Online 05/06/03. Interview with Hashim Salamat, 23rd issue of Nida'ul Islam,, March 14, 2003. Online. Available. 05/4/03/ Salamat Hashim Speaks The Muslim separatist rebel leader wants ‘The East Timor Formula,'" AsiaWeek, Volume 26, No. 12, March 31, 2000, Online. Available. 05/4/03. Mahmood, Kazi Interview: Hashim Salamat, Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) Leader, Islam Online. Islam Org, February 07, 2001, Online. Available 5/5/03. Sheikh Abu Zahir, The Moro Jihad: Continuous Struggle for Islamic Independence in Southern Philippines, Islam Org. Online. Available. March 14, 200305/4/03. MILF raids Zambo town, seizes mayor's family, Suntar, Available. Online 06/05/03. Solon Orders Government to Decide on MILF Terror Tag, Inq7. March 14, 2003. Net. Online. Available. 05/04/03. US Warns Against U.S. Citizens To Use Caution in the Philippines," CNN. March 7, 2003. Online. Available. 05/5/03. About the Author Currently a Monbukagakusho (Japanese government) scholar; about to finish his second masters degree in International Relations (IR) in Japan. His first masters degree program was on public administration (MPA) focusing on the area of Social Capital Formation of the Families of Overseas Filipino Workers. He hopes to achieve a greater understanding on international labor migration in particular, taking into consideration an assessment of Philippine Labor Migration. His current thesis is on the socio-economic security of Overseas Filipina workers in Hong Kong, Malaysia, Japan and Singapore. His current courses in the International University of Japan (IUJ) prompted him to have a better understanding and perspective on the diverse issues in the field of peace, security, and international relations.