DAVAO CITY—The country’s Islamic scholars, including the house of jurisprudence in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), publicly announced they were mounting a counter ideological warfare against terrorist organizations, a month after the ARMM hosted the first Ulama Summit in Cotabato City.
Both the Ulama Council of the Philippines and the Darul Ifta, or the Fatwa Council of the ARMM, said they “are waging an ideological war against the spread of radicalism and extremism through a holistic approach in the Islamic teaching”.
“We are engaging all sectors to address the spread of religious extremism and radicalism in the country,” said Abdulmuhmin Alyakanie Mujahid, the executive director of the ARMM Darul Ifta, or Islam’s house of jurisprudence.
The Darul Ifta is the highest decision-making body of Islam in matters relating to Islamic doctrine and principles.
The ARMM’s Bureau of Public Information said last Thursday Islamic scholars in the island province of Basilan “forged several agreements with the regional and provincial governments, as well as with line agencies, to carry out multi-approaches to deny the spread of extremist ideology in their area”.
Muhajid said the move was an offshoot of the Ulama summit in Cotabato City in early May, when the ulama issued a declaration against terrorism, saying “it is haram, or forbidden and unlawful, to use Islam to justify or legitimize violent extremism and terrorism.”
The ulama also challenged themselves “to reeducate [their] constituents to rediscover Islamic faith for justice, compassion, harmony and peace.”
“It is imperative upon us all to cooperate and collaborate with the stakeholders in preventing and countering violent extremism and terrorism in its many forms and manifestations,” the declaration said.
Days before the Ulama summit, the Islamic State-linked Dawla Islamiya also issued its warning against them and their families. “To those who have ulama relatives, warn your parents, brothers and children not to attend the said summit because if something happens to them along the way or in the end, don’t tell us you were not warned,” the Dawla Islamiya statement said.
Mujahid said they were “engaging all stakeholders to overcome the challenges of extremism, as what is happening in Marawi City.”
“These extremist groups are using the creed of Islam. As a matter of fact, they are using the so-called 13 doctrines of Islam and citing verses of the Holy Koran in justifying their criminal and inhumane acts. We cannot and will not allow that,” he said.
“Our call is to fight against violent extremism and terrorism,” Mujahid said.
Also, the ARMM information office quoted one Alih Aiyub, secretary-general of the Ulama Council of the Philippines, as saying what they are employing “are multidisciplinary approaches in concretizing preventing violent extremism and countering violent extremism.”
He said they have identified “seven interventions” to address the threat.
“Ulama will handle the spiritual aspect to combat terrorism targeting the youth and winning the hearts and minds of those radicalized through sermons in the mosques and other means,” he added.
The educational intervention includes working “with educational institutions to provide a primer or module, as reference material, and train teachers for effective prevention of violent extremism among their students,” Aiyub said.
“Scholarships will also be provided on skills training for out-of-school youth by tapping the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority [Tesda] as a partner,” he said.
There would be psychological intervention, such as values formation to be carried out by local government units and the Department of Social Welfare and Development, targeting the youth sector.
“The program will also have a component for social intervention, which will help mold an individual to be productive and peaceful through trainings. This will also be implemented along with economic intervention, such as providing livelihood programs for the youth through government line agencies like the Department of Agriculture and Tesda,” Aiyub added.
They would also engage with the security sector “to shield the youth from being recruited by extremist groups and to provide peace and security in the community,”
Mujahid said.
The program would be piloted in Basilan, he said.
“We are going to implement it in the different parts of the region. We are piloting this initiative in Basilan. We would conduct an assessment and fine-tune it before implementing it in other provinces,” Mujahid added.
ARMM Gov. Mujiv Hataman said he instructed the Department of the Interior and Local Government in the ARMM to initiate forums for local government officials across the region to understand the complexity of the problem and how to combat it.
“When the masses, the religious leaders, and the political leaders are united to work together for the betterment of our society, we can succeed, Insha Allah,” he said.