Brothers and sisters

There was trepidation in Metro Manila yesterday as Muslims held rallies to protest what they described as government harassment. A major concern: all the tiangge or flea markets, including the biggest one in Greenhills, San Juan might be shut down by the angry Muslims. Goodbye to cheap apparel from China, Louis Vuitton knockoffs, bling bling and pirated DVDs of The Passion of the Christ.

A convoy of vehicles drove past the Greenhills shopping center yesterday morning, bearing streamers calling for an end to the persecution of Muslims. The vehicles included a number of BMWs. The presence of those expensive cars – did they have politicians as passengers? – added to the surreal quality of a protest action that started early yesterday and counted among its leaders action star Robin Padilla, who converted to Islam while incarcerated at the national penitentiary.

Did non-Muslims feel the pain of their Muslim brothers and sisters? Judging from reactions yesterday, I don’t think so. Seeing the protest action unfolding on TV was like watching a movie, with Robin as the star. And as I’ve written, a key concern was whether the tiangge remained open yesterday.

Are Christians in denial about the terror threat? I don’t think so. Filipino Christians, at least in Metro Manila, have needed no spiritual guidance in avoiding religious stereotyping or blanket condemnation of Muslims. There are bad eggs in every faith. The only question is whether the rotten eggs are being protected by their right-thinking peers, or whether something is being done to take out the rot.

And so despite the bombing of the Light Rail Transit in December 2000 by Jemaah Islamiyah, the attacks on malls and the kidnapping and decapitation of Christians by the Abu Sayyaf, we live in peace with our Muslim brothers and sisters.

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But there’s no escaping it: every major terrorist attack in this country has been perpetrated by Muslims. By terrorism I mean attacks on civilians in furtherance of some cause, no matter how twisted. The attacks and their perpetrators might have been denounced by non-violent Muslims – the type that I believe is in the majority – but that still does not negate the fact that the perpetrators were invoking their faith in their attacks. Denying this fact is foolish for any government tasked to keep the citizenry safe.

This being the case, any law enforcer with a modicum of common sense will train his sights on the Muslim community in trying to ferret out terror suspects.

The best and quickest way to weed out the rot in their community is for Muslims to cooperate in the campaign against terrorism. The threat is real and the threat is deadly.

For its part, the government can enjoy this cooperation better with a bit more circumspection in law enforcement methods. Filipino Christians often complain about abusive cops and lawmen’s heavy-handedness. The sensitivity to the ways of law enforcement is magnified several times in the Muslim community.

Other governments grappling with the terror threat are faced with similar problems. As counterterrorism measures are implemented around the world, security officials are now looking into an emerging trend: the use of women to sow terror. This could pose a big problem when dealing with Muslims.

I don’t think any sane government would want it said that it is singling out a particular community in counterterrorism operations. But what can you do when every suicide bomber and hijacker, from the US to Spain to Saudi Arabia, Africa and Indonesia, is invoking the same religion?

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Still, prudence will go a long way in dealing with the Muslim community. Intelligence gathering and surveillance must be as unobtrusive as possible, particularly when dealing with a community that feels singled out in the anti-terror campaign. The Pinoy cops’ favorite short cuts in law enforcement, the penchant for planting evidence and trumping up charges can only boomerang on a nation that is under dire threat.

In case you’re wondering about Robin Padilla’s sudden militancy, nope, he’s not running for any elective office. He’s protesting mainly because his driver is one of several men arrested by the police on charges that they are Abu Sayyaf terrorists.

Four of the suspects were positively identified yesterday by several people kidnapped by the Abu Sayyaf from Palawan and Malaysia’s Sipadan island. Now you can force suspects to confess to everything including, as we like to say, the murder of national hero Jose Rizal, but it’s hard to fake the rage of crime victims. And those victims looked sincerely and honestly mad as hell at their former captors. So those four suspects must be the genuine articles, particularly Alhamser Limbong, alias Kosovo, who is accused, among other things, of beheading American hostage Guillermo Sobero. Congratulations to our lawmen, and may you catch many more crooks.

We’re still waiting to be convinced, however, of the terrorist links of the two others, one of them Robin’s driver. And skeptics who see a spinmeister in every corner of the Arroyo administration may never be fully persuaded of the existence of a plot to launch a "Madrid-level" terrorist attack in Metro Manila.

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For her meeting last night with the protesters including Robin, President Arroyo changed into a Muslim-inspired top. This is one community she needs to win over. Even before the furor over special ID cards for Muslims and the latest Abu Sayyaf arrests, people already believed that the Muslims were overwhelmingly for her rival Fernando Poe Jr.

During the meeting, the President could not commit to the release soon of Robin’s driver. Robin, on the other hand, would not commit directly to supporting the President’s candidacy. He was for the government, he said, and he went with the choice of the man who gave him conditional pardon, former President Fidel Ramos. And Ramos is for GMA, isn’t he?

Were the Muslims convinced about the government’s case against the Abu Sayyaf suspects? The best way to persuade the Muslim community that it is not being persecuted is by presenting an airtight case against any terror suspect who invokes Islam as his cause.

When such a case is presented, the nation would appreciate a condemnation of violence from those who describe Islam, their faith, as a peaceful, tolerant and beautiful religion.