The “lesser” one at that. Apparently all the blood shed so far — including the displacement of 130,000 Filipinos recently — was but a warm up; or maybe it was simply an external manifestation of the “greater” jihad? At any rate, once again, MILF, true to its jihadist pedigree, engages only in finger-pointing. “Maranao warns of “˜Jihad” over deal with MILF,” by Efren L. Danao, for the Manila Times, August 15:
A Muslim tribal leader warned on Thursday that there would be a “holy war” or jihad if a memorandum of agreement on ancestral domain between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) was scrapped.
Hadji Abdullah Daliding, a Maranao, issued the warning at the Senate inquiry into the memorandum of agreement conducted by the Committee on Peace and Reconciliation headed by Sen. Jamby Madrigal and the Committee on National Defense headed by Sen. Rodolfo Biazon.[…]
Daliding’s warning came as Mayor Lawrence Cruz of Iligan City and Mayor Celso Lobregat of Zamboanga City said they had received death threats. Both, along with Vice Gov. Emmanuel Piñol of North Cotabato province, are the staunchest opponents of the memorandum, which seeks to take away a number of their barangay units (villages) and place them under the supervision of the Bangsamoro Juridical Entity.
Cruz said the death threats came from the MILF, while Lobregat refused to elaborate. They said Piñol had also been receiving death threats.[…]
The Maranao leader insisted that the memorandum of agreement is for peace, and appealed to the senators to help “avert a war.” He charged that local officials are opposing the memorandum because they have selfish interests.
Or, as Muhammad so poetically put it, aslam taslam: “Submit, and you will have peace.”