French Legion of Honor group to rebuild Tawi-Tawi mosque

The prestigious French Legion of Honor association led by elected co-presidents French Ambassador Gerard Chesnel and former Speaker Jose de Venecia announced they will rebuild the first Muslim mosque in the Philippines built in Tawi-Tawi in 1380, some 141 years before the arrival in 1521 of Spanish colonizers.

In their joint announcement Chesnel and De Venecia said it is a “small humble project but it symbolizes Christian-Muslim solidarity in a strategic isle of the Sulu Sea where Islam began in the Philippines. It is a dramatic expression as well of Philippine and French foreign policy.”

The recipients of the French Legion of Honor traditionally awarded by the President of France elected as co-presidents Ambassador Chesnel and De Venecia, who also announced they will work with the National Historical Institute’s Ludovico Badoy and Rep. Nur Jaafar to refurbish the tomb of Sheik Karimul Makdum and instill appropriate markers in Tubig, Indangan, Simulmul, Tawi-Tawi, facing the Borneo island of Sabah.

They had their first multi-sector conference recently with the NHI and Jaffar.

The Makdum Mosque Foundation under its president M.A. Bayo will work with the French Legion of Honor Association, the NHI, the Tawi-Tawi governor and congressman and leaders of civil society to finish the project in April or May 2009, introduced by French business leader and association vice president Louis Paul Heusaff.