Zambo folk to mark Ramadan with fear, rights group avers

No thanks to ongoing military operations there, the Muslim community will observe “with fear" the holy month of Ramadan starting Sept. 13. The Philippine Alliance of Human Rights Advocates (PAHRA) said this Friday as it lamented the holy Islam month there will be met with “anguish and pain." “While historically it is looked forward with excitement and piety by the whole Islam world, today it shall be met with anguish and pain with its hounding blows of discrimination, terror-suspicion, virtual policy of degrading and inhuman treatment as a people of faith. In Zamboanga Peninsula, it shall be observed with fear in a situation of total military offensives and debilitating effects of evacuation," it said in a statement. It called on all warring parties to let up war as the Holy period of supplication for our Muslim brothers and sisters is observed. The group also called for the government and Moro Islamic Liberation Front to go back to the negotiating table and bear witness to the situation of people affected by war in designing plans for lasting peace. Likewise, it called on religious groupings and churches to engage in truthful interfaith dialogue. PAHRA said that as of Friday, some 50,000 individuals have been displaced in Basilan and Sulu alone. “Classes are disrupted, economic activities are halted, social services are more found wanting. People are dying as the month-long fasting is approaching. Threats to life and further violation of human rights are even more expected as the newly appointed Secretary of National Defense, Secretary Gilbert Teodoro Jr., unleashed his arrogance to mount massive military operations even during the Muslim Holy month of Ramadan," it said. The group said it is “incomprehensible" that such orders are issued “with ease" when the government is barking on national unity and peace processes. Even peace negotiations between the Philippine government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) are stalled because of last month’s beheading incident. “It does not provide justification that the whole Muslim populace of the Philippines have to suffer and provided with apprehension to peacefully observe religious rituals and practices in the light of their faith. It is a display of government’s insensitivity to highest degree that while the period calls for examination of conscience, war, bombs and soldiers’ marches are made as background to the prayerful mood with God or Allah," it said. PAHRA stressed religious tolerance is enshrined in the 1987 Constitution, whose Bill of Rights calls for equality in promotion, protection and fulfillment of basic civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights. “Be it be Moro, Lumad or Filipino settler, no one shall be subjected to discrimination by virtue of sex, age, belief or religion," it said. - GMANews.TV