It has been awhile since we have seen this naked an attempt on the part of a jihadist group to get non-Muslims to deny what is before their very eyes. This group of Muslim converts in the Philippines says, Why, Islam is a religion of peace, and Muslims revere Christ! How could we have had bombs and planned to disrupt a Christian procession? We’re supposed to forget anything we ever heard of Osama bin Laden or Abu Bakar Bashir or a thousand others calling for jihad warfare in the name of Islam, and using copious passages from the Qur’an and Hadith to do it — and take these guys’ word that because they’re Muslims, they wouldn’t have done this. Note also that even the policeman announces that he is going to continue his investigation in order to capture all those who “give Islam a bad name.” Was he hired to defend Islam or to protect the people?
I read these things all the time, and nothing really surprises me anymore, particularly the brazen and bold-faced deception of apologists for the jihad, but this one takes my breath away. “Bombs, guns in raid ‘planted,’ says group,” from the Philippine Daily Inquirer, with thanks to the Informed Christian:
A MUSLIM group said yesterday it had two witnesses who would swear that police planted the explosives and guns to be supposedly used in an alleged Islamic terror plot to bomb the Black Nazarene procession.
Yusoph Ledesma, head of the Balik Islam Unity Congress, said the pair were preparing affidavits stating that police had found no evidence against the supposed plotters when they raided the Islamic Information Center in Manila last Friday.
Earlier, two top intelligence officials of the Philippine National Police had also questioned the existence of an alleged plot to bomb Sunday’s religious feast in Quiapo. The procession came off peacefully….
Senior Superintendent Rodolfo “Boogie” Mendoza, whose men carried out the raid, said police were hunting 320 other suspected Islamic militants, Agence France-Presse reported.
He said the 320 were believed to have undergone explosives training in the north of the country in 2002, most of them as members of the Rajah Soliman Movement, an organization of Islamic converts with alleged links to the Moro Islamic Liberation Front and the Jemaah Islamiyah regional terror network….
“The CIDG assures the public, particularly our Muslim brothers and sisters, that we shall continue to dig deeper into this case if only to go after those who give Islam a bad name, and thereby safeguard public safety and national interest,” Mendoza added….
Ledesma was among some 50 Muslims who picketed Camp Crame, demanding the release of the five detainees — Afgani Alonto, Muamar Adam, Leonardo Ricalde, Josefino Anor and Alian Napia.
“They’re not supposed to be there! They’re innocent!” an angry Penny Disimban, national president of the Asalaam party-list group, shouted.
Islam’s message of peace
Alonto, in particular, could not have been part of any terrorist plot, Ledesma said, adding that Alonto had gone to the Islamic center merely to volunteer his services as an instructor on Arabic and the Koran.
“He’s a highly respected Muslim leader,” Ledesma said. “He has long been propagating Islam’s message of peace and harmony.”
Relatives of those arrested said the accusation against their kin was unthinkable.
They said that Alonto, for instance, was among those who led a major anti-terror rally in Marawi City in 1994.
“How could anyone of them think of mass killing and on a big Christian fete when they know how Muslims revere Christ, whose miraculous birth is narrated in a whole chapter of the Koran?” said Alonto’s brother, Dr. Ahmad Domocao E. Alonto.
Media should check first
The Alontos are sons of the late Sen. Ahmad Domocao Alonto Sr., who authored measures in Congress calling for the “Filipinization” of the Moros and the minority tribes.
A group of Christian lawyers has volunteered to work for the release of Alonto, his relatives said.
In a statement issued in Marawi, the relatives of the Maranao Muslims who were arrested said the “finest thing the media could do is to verify or countercheck reports that tend to suggest that Islam or the Muslims themselves are anti-Christ, because this could fan animosity and it is not good for the communities and people who have spent the best of their times (doing) legitimate businesses.”
They said some of the arrested men were in mid-afternoon prayers when the raiders barged in.