Philippine Jihad Update from the BBC, with thanks to JE:
At least five people have died and 10 others have been injured in an explosion on the southern Philippine island of Mindanao.The blast happened in a busy market in the town of Shariff Aguad, police said.
No one has claimed responsibility, but police said Andal Ampatuan, the governor of Maguindanao province, appeared to be the main target.
Mr Ampatuan, an ally of President Gloria Arroyo, was driving past the market at the time the bomb went off.
Four of those killed, including bodyguards and a former town mayor, were in the convoy. Police and army officials say the homemade bomb was hidden in a van and detonated as the motorcade went by.
Troubled island
Mr Ampatuan, who has survived several previous assassination attempts, wields a great deal of power on Mindanao, an island rife with Muslim and Communist rebels, as well as local warlords.
Mindanao is the heartland of the Philippines' small Muslim minority, but the majority of the country is Roman Catholic.
The country's largest Muslim rebel group, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), denied it was responsible for the attack. The group is now in peace talks with the government.
The military said there were indications the bombing was carried out by Jemaah Islamiah, a regional network of Muslim militants allegedly linked to al-Qaeda.
"Mindanao, an island rife with Muslim and Communist rebels, as well as local warlords."
One of the senior heads of the Filipino Communist rebels is in a Dutch prison. He has said on the record (from his jail cell) that he considers the Muslim rebels to be "brothers" in the same struggle.
This article sounds a little islamophobic to me. I think we all know that this had nothing to do with islam, but is a direct result of the Filipines foreign policy, and the racist attitudes of the native Filipinos toward muslims. We all know that terrorism is the result of poverty and racism, not religion. Hey, its a universal arguement isn't it?
Tropical paradise on Earth and what do these maniacs do?
Kill.
Islam's answer for everything.
Kill.
Oh no.
My brother's girlfriend is Philipino, and her mom just went to the Phillipines on Monday. I hope she wasn't near the explosion.
Regardless of the situation, the Islamic solution is to kill as many people as possible. It is this Islamic solution which creates Islamophobia. They have no one to blame except themselves.
Cant Gloria Arroyo figure out a way to get the Communists and Muslims to fight against each other? At least, that way, no innocent Filipino Infidel Capitalist blood gets shed.