Conflict stole chance for Muslims to observe Eid’l Fit’r in Mindanao

COTABATO CITY, Philippines — Thousands of moderate Muslims cannot perform an Eid’l Fit’r rite at the capitol of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao due to a possible attack by outcast Islamic militants.

Neutral Muslims in the city and nearby towns have performed peacefully for decades the yearly Eid’l Fit’r “sambahayang,” or congregational prayer, at the ARMM parade ground here.

Siblings Omar and Abdullah Maute are rabidly hostile, even before their fanatical Dawlah Islamiya group laid siege in Marawi City on May 23, to members of the ARMM’s regional peace and order council (PPOC) for being vocal against their religious malpractices.

The Eid’l Fit’r marks the culmination of the Islamic Ramadan fasting season, which comes right after the sighting of the new moon by Islamic scholars, expected either on Saturday night or on the next day.

Muslims fast at daytime during the Ramadan as an obligation and in keeping with the five pillars of the Islamic faith, which include belief in Allah, praying five times a day facing the direction of Makkah in Saudi Arabia, giving of zakat (alms) to the poor and for those who can afford the cost of travel, performing the hajj even at least once in a lifetime.

ARMM Gov. Mujiv Hataman said on Saturday that he cancelled the Eid’l Fit’r activity inside the 32-hectare regional government center in Cotabato City due to mounting threats of sabotage.

Hataman, presiding chairman of ARMM’s inter-agency regional peace and order council, said they cannot put at risk the lives of thousands of worshipers while inside the regional capitol compound

“Terrorists have absolute disregard for Islamic teachings on respect for life. They attack people, Muslims and non-Muslims alike, to show capability to harm the hapless and most vulnerable to them,” Hataman said.

Officials in Lanao del Sur and its provincial capital, Marawi City, are emotional about not having had a solemn Ramadan due to the trouble the Dawlah Islamia instigated.

The siege of Marawi City by terrorists led by the Maute brothers and a spiritual figurehead of a faction in the Abu Sayyaf, Isnilon Hapilon, displaced more than 200,000 villagers.  

The spokesman of the Lanao del Sur provincial crisis management committee, Assemblyman Zia Alonto Adiong of ARMM’s Regional Assembly, said on Saturday that terrorists have robbed them of the chance to observe Ramadan undisturbed as they did in decades past.

“The conflict also stole from us the chance to go out and do Eid’l Fit’r outdoor prayer and celebration in our homes. These are very strong centuries-old Maranaw traditions,” Adiong said.

There is no sign yet of an end to the recurring gunfights between government forces and members of the Dawlah Islamiya scattered in villages in Marawi City.

Adiong said fasting at daytime in evacuation sites is difficult.

“I heard so many evacuees have no way but forego with an obligation that they have peacefully complied with in years prior. The conviction to abstain from food and drinks during the day is there, so overwhelming, but the condition in evacuation sites are dire and uncooperative,” Adiong lamented.

Even the mayor of Cotabato City, Cynthia Guiani-Sayadi, was also forced to ban the evening tours on vehicles of moderate worshipers to chant “allahu akbar” using public address facilities right after the local Darul Iftah (House of Opinions) announces the closure of the Ramadan fasting month.

The restriction is meant to prevent exposing local Muslims to dangers when they go out for their so-called nighttime “mobile takbir,” also a decades-old tradition.

Guiani-Sayadi has appealed for patience and understanding among her Muslim constituents for the security measures essential in protecting them from harm.

Guiani-Sayadi also assured that her administration, the local police and the anti-terrorism Army-laed Joint Task Force Kutawato are in full control, contrary to circulating text messages warning of imminent dangers and alleged sightings of terrorists in some barangays here.

Hataman and Guiani-Sayadi had separately insinuated that the drastic changes in the security situation in Mindanao, as a consequence of the Dawlah Islamia’s religious adventurism, are causing the peaceful, neutral Muslims inconvenience.

“As moderate and peace-loving Muslims, we believe that sometimes we need to get hurt for us to rise and bounce back as better Muslims,” Hataman said.