Islamic clerics ‘excommunicate’ Cotabato car dealer’s abductors

COTABATO CITY — In an unprecedented move, local Islamic clerics handed down a fatwah (judgment) the other day, "excommunicating" the kidnappers of a car dealer snatched here early last week.

Cotabato City Mayor Muslimin Sema, chairman of the Regional Development Council, said the fatwah was issued during a dialogue, which he presided over, on how the Muslim religious community can help authorities locate Norman Sia, who was abducted by three men during a road test of a Kia Pride he was selling them.

"The judgment is that these kidnappers are un-Islamic and, therefore, helping them keep Mr. Sia captive would be a mortal sin," Sema said.

For the past two days, reports have been circulating here that Sia, a car sales agent surviving only on meager commissions from his deals, was being held somewhere at the boundary of Pindulungan and Talitay towns in Maguindanao.

"The top core of the local Islamic community has given the nod for righteous Muslims to neutralize these kidnappers at will," Sema said.

Sia went missing after the road test. The Kia Pride was later found near a department store in Tacurong City.

Sources from Tacurong City’s religious and political communities said Sia is being held captive by followers of a certain Tilaka and Sindatu, both henchmen of Tahir Alonto, who heads the notorious Pentagon kidnap-for-ransom gang.

Sema said local Islamic leaders are worried about the repercussions of the recent kidnappings in Central Mindanao to the ongoing peace talks between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).

Sema, secretary-general of the Moro National Liberation Front, said anti-kidnapping operations and the resulting "undue showdowns" between military and rebel forces in remote areas, are irritants to the cordiality of the peace discussions.