Still Wednesday, still Janurary 7th, 2009 and it is now 12:34 PM here in the Philippines.
After the first leader, and founder, was killed the group began associating with other radical groups with similar agendas. They had always had a grudging cooperation with the far stronger MILF , but the MILF was more focused on an a convetionally fought and ethnically fueled struggle, which did not allow for very close contact with the far more radical ASG.
The Philippines though has always offered a great variety of armed groups. While the ASG was just forming in the mind of its founder in 1991, another Filipino who would figure largely in Abu Sayyaf was also reaching a personal watershed of his own.
Muslims make up only 5% of the entire population in the Philippines, but like in every other corner of the globe, conversions to Islam are outpacing any other religion by increadible lengths. A huge factor in this is the fact that the Filipino economy depends on Over Seas Filipinos, those Filipinos who leave hearth and home so that they might help their familys succeed financially.
Most of the time this means the Middle East, due to the ease in which visas can be procured and most of the time the Middle East means Arab Countries. Sometimes the conversions are due to financial realities, sometimes it is for love, and other times it is for purely religious reasons.
One such Filipino was Hilarion del Rosario Santos who was working in Saudi Arabia in 1991. It was there that Rosario has a religious awakening and formally converted to Islam, taking the name Ahmed Islam Santos.
Santos is but one of 200,000 Filipinos who have converted to islam only since 1980. They are collectively known as "Balik Islam." Islam as a religion believes that all people are naturally Muslim, even if the do not realise it yet. Ergo, when one converts it is actually a "reversion," a returning to their roots as it were. Additionaly, most in Balik Islam believe that all Filipinos were originally conscious Muslims and only became Catholic at the hands of violent Spanish Conquistadores.
While it IS true that Manila was an Islamic territory when Spain came upon it, it had only been so for less than 100 years. Islam only predates the Spaniards, in almost all areas of the country, by a mere 60 to 100 years! Muslim Filipinos are not any more Filpino than Catholic Filpinos but that is now how Muslims see it.
Returning home to Luzon, the island that is home to the capital Manila, Santos set about diving into the Islamic World with the zeal only seen in converts.
Some have posited that this is due to these new Muslims feeling that they must prove their sincerity, others feel that it is just due to the sudden realisation late in life and trying to make up for lost time. In any event, Santos was not alone and soon found himself leading a small but growing group within the Balik Islam community. This organisation was called "Fi Sabilliah."
Fi Sabilliah was not extremely radical but was meant to be, as the general theory goes, to be a farm camp of sorts for the prospective holy warrior. It was in Fi that Santos met his first members of what would be called, in 2001, "Rajah Soliman Movement." The name started out as a joke by Santos, Rajah Soliman being the Islamic chieftan who ruled Manila until overthrown by the Spaniards, and represents what the Balik see as the true Filipino.
Mindanao is the 2nd largest island in this nation of 7,107 islands, but is said to be the most heavilty populated of all with 18 million residents. It is not even mostly Muslim (although MOST Filipino Muslims DO live here), but is home to the ARMM (Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao), an autonomous Islamic region and as such is the capital of militant Islam in the region. Santos made his way to Mindanao where he took a second wife, who happened to be the
sister -in- law of two factional leaders of the ASG, one of whom was the noted Khadaffi Janjalani.
With major backing by ASG Santos orchestrated a plot to assasinate then and current Philippine's President Gloria M. Arroyo in 2002. The plot was unknown for years though, because of an inadvertant arrest of some of its major players in an unrelated investigation.
Still very much wanting to prove itself, RSM agreed in 2004 to undertake a major bombing which it would then share credit for, with ASG. in a country made up of many islands, stretching almost 1,000 kilometers north to south, ferries are the major mode of transportation. Philippine ferries are ocean going ships that often carry more than 1,000 passengers on trips taking up to 4 days over rough and very deep seas.
Choosing a Manila to Cagayan del Oro (Mindanao)ferry RSM deployed a bomber from the group's armed wing, "Khalid Trinidad Army" named after an early member who had been one of the first RSM members arrested by police who had been trying to arrest him for a minor terrorist act on Luzon.
Next, the group agreed to participate in a join operation with ASG AND JI, the Indonesian based terror group responsbile for the Bali Bombing. that operation was a simultaneous bombing of Davao City, General Santos City (AKA Gen San), and Makati outside of Manila. It took place on Valentine's Day 2005 and killed more than a dozen people.
A month later the group was again prevented from undertaking yet another assasination attempt on President Arroyo. In that operation JI's Omar Palek who had spent time with Santos on the latter's last trip to Mindanao contributed funds AND expertise but all for naught when the group's 600 kilograms of explosives were uncovered in Quezon just outside Manila, in what became known as the "Ermita Plot."
The Ermita Operation was just before yet another bloody plan was foiled, the so called "Holy Week Bombing" of that same year, 2005. After a run of terrible luck Santos was busying himself with his evangelising and with his assumed role as the media savvy spokesperson of the ASG.
Late in 2005 Santos was arrested where he remains today, along with most of his organisation. Thus far it is belived that ASG is dismantled but one can never tell with 200,000 odd "Reverts."
I will continue...
After the first leader, and founder, was killed the group began associating with other radical groups with similar agendas. They had always had a grudging cooperation with the far stronger MILF , but the MILF was more focused on an a convetionally fought and ethnically fueled struggle, which did not allow for very close contact with the far more radical ASG.
The Philippines though has always offered a great variety of armed groups. While the ASG was just forming in the mind of its founder in 1991, another Filipino who would figure largely in Abu Sayyaf was also reaching a personal watershed of his own.
Muslims make up only 5% of the entire population in the Philippines, but like in every other corner of the globe, conversions to Islam are outpacing any other religion by increadible lengths. A huge factor in this is the fact that the Filipino economy depends on Over Seas Filipinos, those Filipinos who leave hearth and home so that they might help their familys succeed financially.
Most of the time this means the Middle East, due to the ease in which visas can be procured and most of the time the Middle East means Arab Countries. Sometimes the conversions are due to financial realities, sometimes it is for love, and other times it is for purely religious reasons.
One such Filipino was Hilarion del Rosario Santos who was working in Saudi Arabia in 1991. It was there that Rosario has a religious awakening and formally converted to Islam, taking the name Ahmed Islam Santos.
Santos is but one of 200,000 Filipinos who have converted to islam only since 1980. They are collectively known as "Balik Islam." Islam as a religion believes that all people are naturally Muslim, even if the do not realise it yet. Ergo, when one converts it is actually a "reversion," a returning to their roots as it were. Additionaly, most in Balik Islam believe that all Filipinos were originally conscious Muslims and only became Catholic at the hands of violent Spanish Conquistadores.
While it IS true that Manila was an Islamic territory when Spain came upon it, it had only been so for less than 100 years. Islam only predates the Spaniards, in almost all areas of the country, by a mere 60 to 100 years! Muslim Filipinos are not any more Filpino than Catholic Filpinos but that is now how Muslims see it.
Returning home to Luzon, the island that is home to the capital Manila, Santos set about diving into the Islamic World with the zeal only seen in converts.
Some have posited that this is due to these new Muslims feeling that they must prove their sincerity, others feel that it is just due to the sudden realisation late in life and trying to make up for lost time. In any event, Santos was not alone and soon found himself leading a small but growing group within the Balik Islam community. This organisation was called "Fi Sabilliah."
Fi Sabilliah was not extremely radical but was meant to be, as the general theory goes, to be a farm camp of sorts for the prospective holy warrior. It was in Fi that Santos met his first members of what would be called, in 2001, "Rajah Soliman Movement." The name started out as a joke by Santos, Rajah Soliman being the Islamic chieftan who ruled Manila until overthrown by the Spaniards, and represents what the Balik see as the true Filipino.
Mindanao is the 2nd largest island in this nation of 7,107 islands, but is said to be the most heavilty populated of all with 18 million residents. It is not even mostly Muslim (although MOST Filipino Muslims DO live here), but is home to the ARMM (Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao), an autonomous Islamic region and as such is the capital of militant Islam in the region. Santos made his way to Mindanao where he took a second wife, who happened to be the
sister -in- law of two factional leaders of the ASG, one of whom was the noted Khadaffi Janjalani.
With major backing by ASG Santos orchestrated a plot to assasinate then and current Philippine's President Gloria M. Arroyo in 2002. The plot was unknown for years though, because of an inadvertant arrest of some of its major players in an unrelated investigation.
Still very much wanting to prove itself, RSM agreed in 2004 to undertake a major bombing which it would then share credit for, with ASG. in a country made up of many islands, stretching almost 1,000 kilometers north to south, ferries are the major mode of transportation. Philippine ferries are ocean going ships that often carry more than 1,000 passengers on trips taking up to 4 days over rough and very deep seas.
Choosing a Manila to Cagayan del Oro (Mindanao)ferry RSM deployed a bomber from the group's armed wing, "Khalid Trinidad Army" named after an early member who had been one of the first RSM members arrested by police who had been trying to arrest him for a minor terrorist act on Luzon.
Next, the group agreed to participate in a join operation with ASG AND JI, the Indonesian based terror group responsbile for the Bali Bombing. that operation was a simultaneous bombing of Davao City, General Santos City (AKA Gen San), and Makati outside of Manila. It took place on Valentine's Day 2005 and killed more than a dozen people.
A month later the group was again prevented from undertaking yet another assasination attempt on President Arroyo. In that operation JI's Omar Palek who had spent time with Santos on the latter's last trip to Mindanao contributed funds AND expertise but all for naught when the group's 600 kilograms of explosives were uncovered in Quezon just outside Manila, in what became known as the "Ermita Plot."
The Ermita Operation was just before yet another bloody plan was foiled, the so called "Holy Week Bombing" of that same year, 2005. After a run of terrible luck Santos was busying himself with his evangelising and with his assumed role as the media savvy spokesperson of the ASG.
Late in 2005 Santos was arrested where he remains today, along with most of his organisation. Thus far it is belived that ASG is dismantled but one can never tell with 200,000 odd "Reverts."
I will continue...