Mindanao, Muslim leaders appeal for calm over anti-Islam film
Manila (AsiaNews) - Elders and Muslim
religious leaders, are appealing to the Muslim community in Mindanao and in the
Philippines,
inviting the faithful to remain calm. The warning follows a wave of protests
against the anti-Islam film that has sparked attacks on U.S. embassies
in the world and demonstrations in many Arab and Muslim majority nations, with
dozens of deaths and injuries. Sheihk Jamal Munib, president of the National Ulema
Conference of the Philippines
(Nucp), based in Zamboanga, warns the people, lest they be drawn in by "agitators",
who exploit the legitimate protests - called a "religious duty" - to foment
"violence [...] contrary to the personality, behavior and style of the
Holy Prophet [Muhammad]."
The appeal by the Muslim leaders was brought to AsiaNews' attention by the Muslim-Christian Silsilah movement, active
in the southern Philippines
since 1986 and advocate of dialogue between the government and Islamic rebels
of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF). The movement is focusing
particular attention on the anti-Islamic film, for its profanity, provocative content
and that reactions that it has produced. To stop the violence, the leaders of Silsilah are promoting
"constructive thinking" to find new ways of forging peace and
dialogue together.
In this context, the conference is part of the Al-Ma'had Moro Islamie
Institute, where the Islamic leader Sheihk Jamal Munib not only treated the
issue of attacks triggered by the film "Innocence of Muslims," considered
blasphemous to the Prophet. He also called for a joint effort to press civil leaders
to build a just and humane society, "where Christians and Muslims can
co-exist" in peace.
To "avenge" the broadcast of the film that offends
the figure of Muhammad, on 11 September, an armed group attacked the U.S. consulate in Benghazi
(Libya).
In the attack, Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three of his co-workers lost
their lives. The protest against the film has since
spread to other Muslim countries in the Middle East and North Africa, as
well as in India, Pakistan and Indonesia, the most populous Muslim
country in the world.
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