From IslamOnline, with thanks to Twostellas:
MANILA, A controversial memorandum by the Justice Department on monitoring Filipino workers returning from the Middle East, students coming back from Pakistan and reverts to Islam as an anti-terrorism measure, drew fire from the country’s Muslims as well as migrants’ watchdogs.
Note the use of the term “revert” rather than convert: IslamOnline here reflects conventional Muslim belief that everyone is born Muslim, some turn renegade, and some return.
“It is profiling and discriminatory. It saddens us because once again the Muslims, particularly the reverts, are being labeled as terrorists and bombers”, Amirah Ali Lidasan of the Moro Christian People’s Alliance told IslamOnline.net.
“Filipino Muslims feel insulted with the issuance of the memorandum by Secretary Raul Gonzalez. It teems with discrimination against us,” Lidasan added, asserting that the directive is reinforcing the existing anti-Muslim phobia.
She charged that the memo speaks of the state policy of discriminating
against the believers of Islam.On March 30, Sec. Raul Gonzalez tasked the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) and Bureau of Immigration (BI) to monitor the entry of Filipino workers coming from the Middle East, especially Saudi Arabia, and even students from Islamic schools in Pakistan.
He defended his memo as being “necessary because intelligence reports show that some converts become Muslim extremists and terrorists when they returned to the Philippines.”
Filipino Muslims have complained of being wantonly tagged as “terrorists” and criminals, particularly in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks.
They say there is a brewing Islamophobia that has hit places around the world including the Philippines, which has an estimated Muslim population of 10 million.
Right. Never mind that “intelligence reports show that some converts become Muslim extremists and terrorists when they returned to the Philippines.” These are just “Islamophobia.” What’s that? They might protect the Philippines from future terror attacks? Who cares?