Hostility between MILF, BIFF faction escalates

MAGUINDANAO, Philippines — The animosity between the Moro Islamic Liberation Front and a local Islamic State-inspired group escalated Thursday after both declared each other irreconcilable adversaries.

The group of Esmael Abdulmalik, which uses the flag of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria as its banner, warned the MILF of more attacks to avenge its losses in encounters with its Task Force Ittihad.

Abdulmalik drew criticisms from central Mindanao’s Muslim communities for accusing the MILF of collaborating with a “kuffar” government by engaging in peace talks with Malacañang.  

The term kuffar (plural for kafir) is Arabic for unbelievers, or those who do not believe in Allah and in the divinity of Mohammad, the progenitor of Islam.

Abdulmalik, leader of a third faction in the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters, also challenged the MILF to a debate on which group personifies the southern Moro sectors.

With the help of the military, the MILF’s Task Force Ittihad killed 26 followers of Abdulmalik in a series of encounters the past four weeks in keeping with its 1997 ceasefire accord with Malacañang binding both sides to cooperate in neutralizing terrorists and criminals in conflict flashpoint areas.

Abdulmalik, a radical cleric who hails from Sharif Saidona town in Maguindanao, started as a commander in the BIFF, but bolted last year and established his own group in the fashion of ISIS.

He announced on camera that members of the MILF, which has a larger, well-organized military wing, the Bangsamoro Islamic Armed Forces has compromised their being “mujahideen,” which means freedom fighters, by conceding to a settlement of the Mindanao Moro issue with a non-Muslim government.

He also warned the MILF of more attacks to retaliate for its continuing offensive that forced him and his men to scatter in different towns in the second district of Maguindanao.

“The MILF sided with a government of people who are `kuffar’ and that is un-Islamic,” Abdulmalik said on video his group circulated via social media.

Sheik Abu Huraira Udasan, grand mufti (preacher) of central Mindanao’s Darul Iftah, also known as House of Opinions, emphasized in a taped message Thursday that Abdulmalik’s group is propagating an ideology absolutely in contrast with Islamic teachings on universal love and respect for religions and sanctity of life.

“This is a violent BIFF breakaway group. The Moro National Liberation Front did not declare war against the MILF when the MILF broke away. The MILF also did not declare war against the MNLF after that sensational split,” Huraira said.

The MILF splintered in 1980 from the MNLF, which forged a peace deal with the government on Sept. 2, 1996.

Udasan, who studied Islamic theology in the Middle East, said it is Abdulmalik who has turned away from Islam for his practice of persecuting non-Muslims and for advocating public enmity toward sectors that do not adhere to his revolutionary ideals.

The MILF launched its campaign against Abdulmalik and his men after six botched attempts to hoist, on camera, the ISIS flag on strategic spots inside government-recognized guerilla enclaves.

Imam Wahid Tundok, chief of the MILF’s 118th Base Command, said Thursday that the BIFF’s attempted display of the ISIS flag in areas covered by their interim ceasefire pact with Malacañang was meant to attract potential funders in the Middle East.

“Abdulmalik may already have initially obtained money from benefactors in the Middle East that are spreading an extreme kind of religious ideology and that he wants the funding sustained,” said Tundok, also a foreign-trained Islamic missionary.

Tundok and Huraira had separately said there was nothing wrong with the MILF’s having forged two compacts with Malacañang, the Oct. 15, 2013 Framework Agreement on Bangsamoro and, subsequently, the March 27, 2014 Comprehensive Agreement on Bangsamoro.

“Islam has very profound teachings on peace-building for mankind’s sake. Our religion tells us to reciprocate with enemies who seek peaceful settlement of any misunderstanding with us regardless of whether they are Muslims or non-Muslims,” Tundok said.

Tundok said Abdulmalik and his men are also actively inciting Muslims in areas where they operate to hate non-Muslims.

“That is absolutely against the teachings of Islam,” Tundok said.

Tundok said residents in areas where the group of Abdulmalik tried to raise the ISIS flag were dislocated as a consequence of such religious adventurism.

“Was that something Islamic? No, that was not. Prophet Mohammad never fought wars in defense of land, people and religion in populated areas to avoid collateral damages,” Tundok said.

He said the conflict between the MILF and the group of Abdulmalik escalated only after his men killed five Task Force Ittihad members using a powerful improvised explosive device in Barangay Andavit in Salibo town last month.

“There is no reason for us to stop the campaign against this group which is creating a bad image of Islam,” Tundok said.

The Maguindanao provincial police said the MILF already lost 16 guerillas in internecine clashes with Abdulmalik’s group since August 1.

The Army’s 6th Infantry Division and the Tactical Operations Group 12 of the Philippine Air Force are supporting the ongoing operation of the MILF against the third BIFF faction led by Abdulmalik.

The two other larger BIFF factions, one led by Imam Bongos and the other by Imam Karialan, have distanced from Abdulmalik and his followers after the MILF's Task Force Ittihad started running after them.