By FRANCIS T. WAKEFIELD
The head of the Marawi Crisis Management Committee said active community participation is needed to defeat the rise of violent extremism in the country.
In a statement, Zia Alonto Adiong said Muslims and non-Muslims need to unite to prevent a repeat of the Marawi conflict that claimed the lives of more than 1,000 people as with the destruction of billions of pesos worth of properties.
“Active community participation must be encouraged to compliment the efforts of our state forces in curbing transnational crimes such as the recent terror attack in Marawi,” Adiong said.
“Parallel efforts between the security sector and civilian populace must be a continuing process in order to respond effectively and efficiently whenever threats of terror attacks emerge,” he added.
To defeat radicalism, Adiong said communities in the country must stand united against violent ideology and dismiss terrorism as an act against the Islamic faith.
He added crimes committed against innocent people on the pretext of a religious war must be condemned in form and substance.
“On the other hand, Christian majority in this country must also reinforce this effort by ensuring that any faith outside the doctrines of Catechism is not a proclivity to commit crime,” Adiong said.
“This way, we prevent the rise of Islamophobia, which in many cases evolve into bigotry, discrimination and even murder as in the case of the self-confessed, ultra-religious, armed Christian group called the Ilaga in the ‘70s,” he added.
Adiong said before the armed conflict in Marawi broke out, they were already familiar with the humanitarian crisis happening in Raqqa, Mosul and Aleppo.
“However real the images we saw on news reports about ISIL atrocities in these Middle Eastern countries, it still didn’t come to us as an immediate security concern. It was a distant reality until the Marawi Siege happened,” Adiong said.
“We now realize the threat is real. It is on this shared responsibility and understanding as citizens of this country, Muslims and Christians alike, that in order to keep our communities safer and more secure, we shall bridge religious gap and work towards defeating a common enemy,” he added.