No #Sharia for Bangsamoro minorities, Philippine legal experts say

Muslim legal experts have assured Christians and other minorities that religious freedom will be respected in the proposed Bangsamoro region in the southern Philippines island of Mindanao. The establishment of the Bangsamoro, an autonomous Muslim region, is part of the peace deal signed by the Philippine government and Moro rebels last year to end a five-decade old insurgency.

"The proposed Bangsamoro is not even a separate state, much less an Islamic State," Ubaida Pacasem, head of the legal department of the National Commission on Muslim Filipinos, said July 9.

Christians and other religious minorities living in Mindanao — a predominantly Muslim region — have voiced fears they could be subjected to sharia law when the region gains autonomy.

Rodjipay Mangulamas, president of the Bangsamoro Shari’ah Lawyers League of the Philippines, said sharia law would respect religious differences in the region.

"The bottom line here is that the Bangsamoro government is neither about Islam nor about establishing an Islamic state," he said at a recent forum in Cotabato City.

"It's about respect for the long-sought Bangsamoro aspiration for self-determination and freedom from oppression and discrimination," he added. The Philippine government also offered assurances to religious minorities on July 9.

http://www.ucanews.com/news/no-sharia-for-bangsamoro-minorities-philippine-legal-experts-say/73904

The important lesson that we must take is the struggle to achieve the autonomy or an independent state will never really protect the blood and basic rights of Muslims. As happened in Gaza where “two-state solution” becomes a solution with hundreds of resolutions that have been signed over the years, but STILL failed to protect the blood, land, property, and the rights of Palestinian Muslims.

So we should say that the solution of autonomous or independent state is NOT WORTH solution at all to be championed by Muslims because it only creates false hope and places the fate of the Muslims and their lands in the clutches of the western imperialist power. On the other hand such a solution is not derived from Islam, but from Western imperialist interests as a continuation of 'colonization' of Muslim lands in their clutches.

In the context of Southern Philippines, the mode of granting of autonomy is essentially just a "democracy trap" that is often used by western imperialists specifically to annexing the southern Philippines region which is very rich in natural resources, crippling the movement of Islamic movement groups, and taming Muslim Moro to become more moderate and pragmatic thus believe that democracy is the ideal tools for Islamic struggle. Surprisingly, some Muslims still put hope into a solution like this. Muslim leaders in particular do not feel guilty by relying kuffar and foreign parties to resolve the problems faced by Muslims.

(Fika Komara)