21 May 2017•Update: 22 May 2017
By Hader Glang
ZAMBOANGA CITY, Philippines
A Daesh-linked terrorist group has released a statement threatening Filipino Muslim clerics if they support the government’s anti-terror campaign, a senior government official said on Sunday.
The group sent the threatening e-mail to the officials of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) before the regional anti-terror summit started, Laisa Masuhud Alamia, ARMM government executive secretary, said in a statement issued to local reporters on Sunday.
“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,” said the terror group "Dawlah Islamiyah" which had pledged loyalty to Daesh and support for the terror network’s objective of forming a global Islamic caliphate.
The group also claimed that ARMM Governor Mujiv Hataman had been using the Ulamas for his personal agenda.
Hataman had said that terrorism and security-related problems in ARMM have been hampering economic growth, and the support of religious leaders are pivotal to community-based initiatives towards sustainable development and against terrorism in the region.
Meanwhile, Lt. Gen. Carlito Galvez, Jr., commander of the Western Mindanao Command, said, “security is a shared responsibility that needs sustainment of partnership between the different stakeholders, security sectors, the local government units, the academe, and religious sectors, and others to defeat the threat of terrorism in Southern Philippines.”
Philippines Daily Inquire quoted Noor Hafizullah Abdullah, interior secretary of the ARMM government, as saying that Filipino Muslim leaders should not be cowed by the threat.
“Good must prevail over evil and we have to unite to protect our communities from the threat,” Abdullah said.
