MANILA - Filipino Muslims are opposed to their government’s attempts to win a seat on the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC), the Philippines’ largest Muslim rebel group said on Wednesday. “This is simply an insult added to injury,” said Khaled Musa, deputy head of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front’s committee on information, in a statement posted on the separatist group’s Web site.
Musa said ManilaÂ’s effort to get observer status in the OIC could be considered a direct affront to Muslims in the southern Philippines, where fighting between government troops and Muslim rebels has killed more than 120,000 people since the late 1960s. | "We don't want those infidels in our private club! They're icky! And they might learn our secret handshake." |
But some Filipino diplomats have complained that the OIC was only listening to the complaints of Filipino Muslims, represented by the countryÂ’s oldest Islamic rebel group, the Moro National Liberation Front, arguing the government of the largely Roman Catholic country should also be heard.
The OIC, a group of 57 Muslims states, sent a five-member delegation to the Philippines last week to try to save a 1996 peace deal with Islamic rebels after intense fighting erupted in the south last year. Insurgencies by four Muslim groups and communist rebels have devastated communities and delayed development of the PhilippinesÂ’ resource-rich south since the late 1960s.
On Wednesday, the OIC mission headed by Egyptian diplomat Sayed Kassem el-Masry released a joint statement with the Philippine government, saying the peace pact needed to be reviewed amid complaints Manila reneged on its commitments. |