Islamic Terrorists in the Philippines

Bienvenido Macario sends me a story from the Boston Globe, of which here is the opening passage "Guerrilla group vows to kill US troops
By Indira A.R. Lakshmanan, Globe Staff, 1/29/2002
AMBOANGA, Philippines - Abu Sayyaf rebels, saying they could quickly draw thousands of fighters into their ranks, are vowing to kill the American ''invaders,'' as they term the troops sent to assist the Philippines in its attempt to snuff out the vicious criminal gang.

Abu Sulayman, who described himself as a spokesman for Khadafy Janjalani, leader of the Muslim group, said in an interview that the rebels who have taken hundreds of civilians hostage and beheaded scores of others are waging ''a noble struggle'' to liberate Muslims in the southern Philippines from colonization and Christian domination.

For more than 300 years now, the Muslims in the Philippines have faced and fought numerous invaders, foreign and local. "Praise be to Allah that they were not successful in their version of the Crusades,'' he told the Globe by telephone, in the group's first interview since the US troop deployment was announced."

Bienvenido is from the Philippines, and he believes that the nest fight against Islamic terrorists should begin there. Perhaps it has. Here is a country which they threaten, and where the West has a good base for fighting them. Were they to succeed, their terrorist network, which has plans for Singapore and other Southeast Asian countries, could spread out from Indonesia. where a fight is going on similar to that in the Philippines. Indonesian Islam was moderate in the past, but even that is threatened. Indonesia is far from being a small country, so the struggle in Timor is just as tiny sample of what might be involved. Even a moderate Indonesian government might hesitate to cooperate with the West against the extremists. Good WAISer Don Emmerson is a leading expert on Indonesia, and he has certainly been following all this with care. We would be grateful if he would share his views with us.

Ronald Hilton - 1/29/02