Philippine jihad update. From AP, with thanks to DC Watson:
MANILA, Philippines — A bomb hidden in a trash can exploded on a ferry in the southern Philippines as it was loading passengers Sunday morning, injuring at least 30 people, including nine children, military officials said. The region had been on alert for terror attacks.The M.V. Dona Ramona was docked at the wharf at Lamitan, on the island of Basilan, around 7:30 a.m. local time as it prepared to depart for nearby Zamboanga. At least six people were badly burned, including a soldier.
The south is the homeland of the country's Muslim minority and a decades-old separatist insurgency.
This was a jihad attack by the jihadist group Abu Sayyaf: Abu Sayyaf behind Basilan ferry explosions--military chief
THE ABU Sayyaf is behind the bombing of a passenger ferry in Basilan province over the weekend that left 30 people injured, Armed Forces Chief of Staff Lieutenant General Generoso Senga said Monday."That is the consensus of all investigative agencies that are handling the case. That is the initial conclusion," Senga told reporters at the military headquarters in Camp Aguinaldo.
Jihad is "inner struggle...."
A Muslim friend of mine (she's from the Philippines) was recently explaining me that the Muslim rebels in the Phillipines turn to jihad because of being oppressed by the central government. She asserted that the fact that the government pays Muslims too little for the goods they manufacture (in comparison to the export price) is what gives rise to their discontent and forces them to turn to terrorism, for they have no other avenue to express themselves.
Yeah, right. As the story above demonstrates, this claim is completely mendacious. Why didn't they bomb the so-much-hated government, then? Why is it always the civilians who have pay the price? And, above all, why is jihad not limited to the Phillipines and its teachings are being widely admired even in the countries that are completely Islamicised and that experience no 'Imperialist oppression'?
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dolphin, CAGE co-founder.
http://www.acage.org