Roots
Death and hope in the month of Ramadan
By Marifi Jara
QUELIMANE, Mozambique–Islam is on my mind.
One because Muslims are now observing the holy month of Ramadan. And recently, we have gotten local Pangasinan news with links to Mindanao and our Muslim brethren there.
Here in Mozambique, as in the Philippines, this religion was introduced and practiced by the people long before Catholicism arrived. But here, it has endured stronger and Muslims are by no means a minority group. The two countries have very different political histories — foremost is the heavy footprint of Communism here — and Mozambique’s past has proven to be more debilitating for the overall economy and social hierarchy. Nonetheless, their historical development here has not pushed their Muslim population to the margins, unlike how it has turned out back in the Philippines, particularly in parts of Mindanao.
The conflict in the south has recently hit home in Pangasinan up north.
The death of 1Lt. Dhell Jhun Evangelista, one of the 23 soldiers (the highest number of fatalities so far in the government’s so-called “war on terror” plus so many others wounded!) who died in a clash with the Abu Sayyaf group in Tipo-tipo, Basilan on August 12, was heartbreaking.
The Abu Sayyaf, more than 21 of their members reportedly died too in that encounter, is a bandit group and my heart does not exactly go out to them. But still, the very environment that bred these brigands was, is, shaped by the interlinked religious and economic conflict that wounds us all.
Evangelista was a son of San Quintin town. A young son at 25 who had a very promising future judging by the strength of character with which he dealt with the hard-up life he was born to. The Philippine Military Academy became his ticket to higher education and a career in life. But he did not merely pass the institution’s requirements; he proved himself to be among the best. He made his family, his hometown proud. (Read more in sundaypunch.prepys.com/archives/2009/08/24/basilan-hero-buried/).
Meanwhile, as San Quintin was mourning its child, preparations were being made in another part of Pangasinan for a project designed to help fishermen in Mindanao develop their knowledge and skills in aquaculture. Held at the Asian Fisheries Academy in Dagupan City, the project is particularly intended as a contribution to the peace initiative in Mindanao. The project name is great: Harvest of Hope.
Death. Hope. Such irony.
It’s midway through Ramadan now. Perhaps we, Muslim or not, should all be making some kind of fast, a bit of sacrifice, and plenty of reflecting on what we are doing wrong and what we can do right.
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