MILF won’t fight for IS, focuses on Bangsamoro

From the Manila Standard Today (Sep 15): MILF won’t fight for IS, focuses on Bangsamoro

THE Moro Islamic Liberation Front is more concerned with establishing Bangsamoro than going overseas to fight for the Islamic State in the Middle East, a ranking official said on Sunday.

“We have no part in that,” MILF Vice Chairman for Political Affairs Gadzali Jaafar said in a telephone interview when asked on Sunday about Filipinos jihadists going to the Middle East to fight for the terrorist Islamic State.

“We are innocent in that aspect, but it is possible that there are Filipinos fighting for the ISIS,” Jaafar said. “If indeed there are [Filipino jihadists in IS], it is voluntary on their part because they believe  in what the ISIS is fighting for.”

It is not the first time Filipinos have been reported to have gone abroad to fight in a jihad, or holy war.

Some members of the MILF and the Moro National Liberation Front are known to have trained during conflicts in Libya,  according to military sources who asked not to be identified.

In the 1990s, an undetermined number of Filipinos also fought in Afghanistan and came in contact with the brand of Islamic fundamentalist espoused by al-Qaeda and similar groups. Upon their return to the Philippines, the jihadists formed the Abu Sayyaf, the military sources added.

The Abu Sayyaf and the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF), a breakaway group of the MILF, have recently vowed allegiance to the IS in video clips uploaded on the Internet.

“For us, the threat is not in the two groups’ joining the ISIS. Their number(s) (are) too tiny to be felt and make a difference,” the MILF said in an editorial posted on its website.

“The threat really comes from the extremism espouse(d) by the ISIS. Ideas are contagious and infectious.”

But the MILF, Jaafar said, has already condemned extremism and vowed to stop the spread of their “virus” into the Southeast Asian nation.

“The MILF condemns barbarism and savagery whether done by other groups including the ISIS or even by its (MILF’s) own members,” the MILF editorial added.

“Frankly, it is the power, moderating line, and influence of the MILF that hinders the birth of a truly strong radical group.”

The MILF also said a planned Muslim autonomous region that is the centerpiece of the peace deal would be a bulwark against the ideology of the Islamic State.

Jaafar also doubted that IS is represented in the country and was able to recruit Filipinos to their cause because the MILF would have heard of it.

But he did say that Filipinos may have gone to IS on their volition because of their beliefs. “They were not recruited... [and] I firmly believe that no MILF rebel went to Syria or Iraq to fight for IS, ” Jaafar said.

Jaafar made the remarks after the government admitted on Friday the existence of a confidential memo on terrorist recruitment activities here.

The confidential memo on “Countering the threat of foreign fighters,” a copy of which was obtained by the Interaksyon news site, dealt with the possible involvement of Filipino fighters in Syria, two of whom were supposedly killed in March.

http://manilastandardtoday.com/2014/09/15/milf-won-t-fight-for-is-focuses-on-bangsamoro/