Imagine the thrill and excitement of finally getting away from your hum-drum boring life and setting out in the world to make a difference. Where will you go and what will you do? Why not travel to Mindanao to help out your Islamic brothers in the war against the Crusaders?
A video released by Al Hayat in September 2017 featured a Singaporean foreign fighter in Syria calling on people to “Join the ranks of the Mujahidin in East Asia, and inflict black days upon the crusaders. Otherwise, make your way to Sham [Syria], Khurasan, Yemen, West Africa, and Libya.”
What is certain is that the recent number of attempts by Europeans is unprecedented. Although only a handful of Europeans have succeeded in the journey, the risk that this is the start of a larger trend should be a concern for the Philippines, nearby nations, and Europe. A more internationalized and radicalized conflict will be more dangerous for the Philippines and the foreign fighters’ own home countries, while helping provide ISIS with a reliable overseas branch at a time where they are suffering setbacks elsewhere.
Certainly the growth of ISIS in Mindanao including the influx of foreign fighters SHOULD be a concern for the Philippines but it's kind of not because publicly AFP Chief Galvez has consistently downplayed the threat of ISIS calling ISIS claims of responsibility for attacks in the Philippines "
propaganda." Only reluctantly and behind closed doors at a budget meeting did he acknowledge that ISIS is any sort of threat.
“The greatest threat that we have now is really ISIS,” said Galvez during a budget hearing on Wednesday.
https://www.rappler.com/nation/210709-deadly-bombings-demonstrate-isis-tactics
The Duterte administration was so happy about the win in Marawi that both they and the public think that victory spelled the end of ISIS in the Philippines. But such is not the case. The fact that a local ISIS cell was able to take and hold Marawi for 5 months continues to be a major propaganda point for ISIS.
While a physical loss for ISIS, with the death of almost 1,000 fighters including the emir, Isnilon Hapilon, and many other key commanders, the Marawi fight suddenly thrust the Philippines into the spotlight amongst ISIS supporters. The demonstration that ISEA had the ability to seize an entire city was a great success for them, showing off a capability that few other ISIS branches have achieved.
This effect was boosted by the large volume of propaganda produced during the battle including Amaq statements, photosets, and short videos detailing the fighting.
The tenth edition of Rumiyah, the group’s monthly magazine, was subtitled
“The Jihad in East Asia” and contained multiple articles focusing on the Philippines.
https://thedefensepost.com/2018/09/12/philippines-isis-foreign-fighters-europe/
On the surface, the operation in Manchester seemed to confirm what so many analysts had been asserting for some time now: that with the loss of territory in Iraq and Sham, the Islamic State would shift its focus towards carrying out attacks on Crusader soil. What many of these analysts failed to admit, however, is that losing territory was nothing new for the Islamic State. The loss of most of its territory in the wake of the Sahwah initiative in Iraq did not lead to its defeat. Rather, it only led to the Islamic State regrouping, redoubling its efforts, rekindling the flames of war, recapturing every inch of territory it had lost, and expanding into Sham, Sinai, Khurasan, and multiple other regions around the world, regions where no one would have expected that the mujahidin would take control and establish the rule of Allah.
So it came as no surprise when, several thousand miles from Manchester, the soldiers of the Khilafah in East Asia stormed the city of Marawi in the southern Philippines on the island of Mindanao, chased out the local police and the military, and raised the banner of the Islamic State in a scene reminiscent of the liberation of Mosul from the Ra di murtaddin and their Crusader allies. The victory came several weeks after Rodrigo Duterte, the Crusader taghut of the Philippines, admitted that the situation in the southern part of the Philippines was giving him a headache and making him lose sleep.
This taghut came into power believing that he had the ability to negotiate with the “Islamist militants” in the southern region of the Philippines, particularly those in his own homeland of Mindanao, in the hopes of bringing an end to their jihad and subsequently expelling the American forces present in the Philippines. But when the soldiers of the Khilafah repeatedly demonstrated to him that they only negotiate with their enemies using bullets and bombs, he was reduced to begging the mayors governing the Muslim areas in the southern part of the country to help him deal with the mujahidin, while simultaneously threatening to impose martial law in their areas if the problem wasn’t tackled. Then, when the soldiers of the Khilafah stormed the city of Marawi, he held to his promise and imposed martial law, sending in his military to try to regain control of the city, with the mujahidin subsequently massacring dozens of his Crusader soldiers and kindling a new front in their war against kufr.
The reality faced by the Crusaders today is that despite their claims that the Islamic State has been weakened, the mujahidin’s ousting of the Crusaders and their puppets and their attainment of consolidation in the land can come as quickly and unexpectedly in any region of the earth, just as they did previously in Mosul, and their strikes in the heart of the Crusaders’ strongholds in the West will continue to occur just as suddenly and unexpectedly as occurred in Manchester. For just as Allah expelled the disbelieving Crusaders at their first gathering and mobilization in Iraq, it is He who will expel them from the lands of the Muslims in the Philippines and cast terror into their hearts in their own strongholds in the West.
Such is the boast from ISIS about the Jihad in East Asia. They will continue to fight and Allah will expel the Crusaders and kufr. Remember when Duterte said this:
The terrorism problem is wholly Islamic. "Islam" is what the "I" in ISIS stand for! Time and again Duterte and the AFP and the Philippine government in toto have shown their incompetence when it comes to dealing with the threat in Mindanao. This week has been no exception.
Duterte said that martial rule, which has been in place since May last year, has been a deterrent against crime.
“It has lessened criminality by a large and the only way to do that is to conduct a survey amongst the people of Mindanao. The political leaders, they can call them,” Duterte said in his nationally televised exchange with Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Salvador Panelo in Malacañang.
First of all conducting phone call surveys is no way to measure crime. Second and most importantly the purpose of martial law is to put down rebellion and not to fight crime.
The President shall be the Commander-in-Chief of all armed forces of the Philippines and whenever it becomes necessary, he may call out such armed forces to prevent or suppress lawless violence, invasion or rebellion. In case of invasion or rebellion, when the public safety requires it, he may, for a period not exceeding sixty days, suspend the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus or place the Philippines or any part thereof under martial law.
http://www.officialgazette.gov.ph/constitutions/the-1987-constitution-of-the-republic-of-the-philippines/the-1987-constitution-of-the-republic-of-the-philippines-article-vii/
Has Duterte reclassified terrorism as not a crime? Terrorism continues in Mindanao.
Besides clashes with armed groups IED's continue to cause destruction and sow fear in the region.
Four IED's exploding in less than a month. More ISIS tactics? Likely yes. With the way things are going more should be expected.
At the same time, as ISIS grows and as both ISIS and the NPA continue to fight the AFP, many have given up the fight.
With all the fighting that happens in Mindanao it seems the AFP might have killed the wrong people this week.
Colonel Gerry Besana, public affairs officer of the Western Mindanao Command, said the incident was a “legitimate” encounter led by Task Group Panther under Lt. Col. Samuel Yunque and Capt. Michael Asistores of the Scout Ranger.
Besana said more than 100 bandits under Radulan Sahiron clashed with the troops around 1:30 p.m. on Friday.
He said seven Abu fighters were killed, six wounded, including an Abu Sayyaf sub-leader Hatib Hajan Sawadjaan.
Out of 100 bandits only 7 were killed. Here are their alleged corpses:
None of those men look like Abu Sayyaf fighters. It could be that they were in the wrong place at the wrong time or that they were assisting Abu Sayyaf with whatever they were doing. Child soldiers are not unknown in the Philippines.
242. The United Nations verified the recruitment and use of 30 children (6 girls, 8 boys, 16 sex unknown) by armed groups. 16 children were used as human shields by BIFF in a single incident; 6 were recruited and used by NPA; and 8 by the Maute Group. Children were recruited and used for combat, as part of medical squads, as cooks and to extract gunpowder from firecrackers. The United Nations received additional unverified reports of the large-scale recruitment and use of children by the Maute Group during the Marawi siege and of nine children recruited by NPA, indicating that the actual number of violations is likely higher. Some of the children were reportedly killed in combat.
http://undocs.org/en/s/2018/465
That report is dated 16 May 2018 and the data is from last year but the trend remains the same. It was only last year that MILF released the child soldiers in their ranks.
"This is something that started eight years ago," she said. "It required a lot of ground work, a lot of investigations, a lot of re-education, not just of leaders of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, but also of parents who have had their children exposed to combat."
In 2009, the group signed an action plan with the UN to end the recruitment of child soldiers, a practice that extends over generations.
Some of the children fought on the front line with the group, but the majority performed tasks as couriers and support staff.
Richard Heydarian, a professor of political science in Manila, told Al Jazeera it is important to remember that many of these child soldiers were born into the conflict.
"We have to keep in mind that this is not like South Sudan or Sierra Leone ... where you have these children ripped apart from their family and forcibly coerced to become child soldiers," he said.
"Many of these children are actually very much part of the fabric of the community that has been supporting the Moro Islamic Liberation Front."
That's great. The children are free, the BOL is passed, the next thing to do is vote and make sure the BOL is ratified by the people.
Majority of the 40,000-strong Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) are expected to enlist in the three-day special satellite voter’s registration conducted by the Commission on Elections (Comelec) starting on Tuesday, a rebel leader said.
“It is important for MILF combatants to register so they can (finally) exercise their right of suffrage,” he said.
After years of making Mindanao suffer with violence the MILF will finally get to exercise their right to suffrage. Isn't it wonderful? Who can't wait for the MILF terrorists to govern their very own province in Mindanao.
Surely peace is just around the corner.
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