The Muslim Religious Leaders (MRLs) play a key role in advocating for peace and good governance in ARMM based on the teachings of Islam. MRLs can make a difference in popularizing Islamic values and virtues as core ingredients of good governance.

The Selected Khutba: Sowing seeds of good governance in ARMM

In 2005, LGSPA worked with Ustadz Ahmad Ali Bud, then Dean of the Southern Philippines Center for Islamic Teaching and Training of the Mindanao State University in Tawi –Tawi, in developing Khutba (Friday sermon) guidelines on Islamic values in support of voters’ education. Seven Friday sermons were developed by Ustadz Ali Bud in consultation with other Muslim scholars covering the seven Fridays of the 45-day ARMM election period. With support from LGSPA, he discussed these guidelines and its use for the Friday mosque worship homily with the masjid preachers. Soon after, Ustadz Ali Bud received encouraging feedback on the Friday sermons given at the mosques from listeners of his weekly radio program.

 

To further enrich the work on the Khutba, LGSPA facilitated a series of consultations and brought together five principal muftis from the provinces of Sulu, Basilan, Tawi Tawi, Lanao del Norte and Maguindanao. Inspired by Ustadz Ali Bud who has since passed away, the five muftis organized themselves into the Assembly of the Da’rul Iftah, built on this important and innovative work and with their shariah aides developed a one-year set of Khutba guidelines. In February 2008, the Selected Khutba: A Guide to Social Development for the Muslim Communities in the Philippines was published. The collaborative process of developing the Selected Khutba is indeed a breakthrough for the MRLs in ARMM. It is an expression of more strengthened and concerted efforts of five principal muftis, who come from different ethno linguistic backgrounds, to undertake advocacy on the teachings of Islam that significantly promotes peace and good governance.

 

Three provincial khutba launches were conducted and spearheaded by the MRLs in the provinces of Tawi-Tawi, Sulu and Lanao del Sur in 2008. Reminiscent of the feedback Ustadz Ali Bud received from his radio listeners on the applications of the Khutba in their lives, the three provincial launches generated positive reactions from stakeholders on how the Selected Khutba Guide could be used by the different participants. The academe and the private sector articulated the need to integrate the Khutab on leadership and good governance in school curricula. The CSOs and the youth sector reinforced the need for leadership by example and more meaningful volunteerism. In Lanao, stakeholders raised the need for governance to be free from graft and corruption. In Bongao, a woman judge spoke about the importance of consulting women and the important role women play in leadership and peacebuilding. In all three provincial launches, there was also an articulation of the strategic value of public education and media advocacy for responsible and transparent leadership based on the teachings of Islam to create a demand for good governance in ARMM. The Governor of Sulu encouraged the CSOs to proactively engage in promoting good governance and demand for transparency, efficiency and accountability from local officials after listening to the Khutba presentation, certainly a challenge that the CSOs will take on.

 

And to localize the dissemination and use of the Selected Khutba, translations in five local dialects are underway through the support of LGSPA.

 

The MRLs: Advocates of Peace and Good Governance

 

Increasingly, the voice of the MRLs is resonating strongly. In March 2007, the Secretary of the Department of Foreign Affairs of the Philippines, in his speech, The Three Pillars of Philippine Counterterrorism Policy, before the Conference on Counterterrorism in Jakarta, Indonesia, cited that  “recently, Muslim religious leaders in ARMM together prepared a series of talks to denounce terrorism as un-Islamic.”

 

On September 28, 2008, an article in the Philippine Daily Inquirer (PDI) quoted Aleem Mahmood Polangi, the mufti of Lanao del Sur and member of the Assembly of Da’rul Ifta, disowning the news that a call for a religious war was made in a Friday mosque prayer sermon on September 19, 2008. Mufti Polangi, referring to the Selected Khutba, asserted that none of the 48 Khutba or Friday sermons for the year call for an armed jihad and that the topics of the unified Islamic sermons for September 2008 focused on Peaceful Conflict Resolution in Islam.

 

At the end of the Ramadan on September 30, 2008, a synchronized celebration of the Eid’l Fitr was held in designated areas in Cotabato City and Parang in Shariff Kabunusan. The celebrations spearheaded by the Da’rul Iftah used the Selected Khutba on Peaceful Conflict Resolution in Islam to call for peace and end of hostilities in Central Mindanao which has displaced half a million people to date.

 

Increasingly, the MRLs are able to craft relevant and timely messages for peace and good governance. They have participated in promoting responsible voting and issued public statements condemning electoral fraud during the 2007 local elections and the ARMM elections in 2008. They launched a renewed call for the Muslim People’s Right to Fairness, Accountability and Transformation for the Welfare of ARMM in partnership with the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV) during the August 2008 elections.

 

The MRLs are making their voices count. They have taken on an active part in defining the kind of governance ARMM needs. It is the hope of the MRLs that the renewed awareness of the teachings of Islam that promote the universal principles of peace, righteous leadership, consultation and good governance will contribute to shape governance in a way that will achieve genuine change and improve the lives of the people in ARMM.

 

The Muslim Religious Leaders: Engaging in Good Governance
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