Tenebrae

By Rolo b. Cena
The Gulf Files
07 August 2011

Riyadh , Saudi Arabia – Shortly before the Ramadan started, seven members of the elite Philippine Marines were killed in fierce fighting with the Abu Sayyaf in the jungles of Sulu; five of them were beheaded. As far as I can recall, in 2007, ten Marines were also beheaded by the same Muslim factionalists.

Ramadan is the ninth month of the Islamic calendar which lasts for 29 or 30 days. It is the month of fasting in which participating Muslims are expected to refrain from eating, drinking and engaging intimacy with their partners during daylight hours. This month is also intended to teach Muslims about the following virtues: patience, spirituality, humility, forgiveness and submissiveness to God.

For the Islam, beheading is the punishment for committing serious crimes against Qur’an and against the Arabic government. Incidentally though, those Marines were not criminals; they were protectors of the country where they, these bandits, are living and are offered a better life after scavenging for an ideology only they can succumb.

Shortly before Ramadan, five noble Filipinos were beheaded in defense of their country, of their allegiance to the Philippine flag, of their commitment to their family and loved ones. On that very same day, a new breed of hatred and vengeance, frustration and despair, separation and disunity were born.

Along with those five Philippine Marines died the virtue of patience these breed purport to behold during the month of fasting. It is the same patience those heroes profess to exemplify in the depths of the treacherous jungles of Sulu and Basilan; the same virtue their brothers claim in the badlands of Iraq.

Along with those five Philippine Marines died the virtue of spirituality these breed claim to practice during the month of fasting. It is the same spirituality those Christians walk that became the living foundation of their service to the Country. It is the same spirituality manifested by Cardinal Sin in calling all the faithful to march to EDSA in the hope of toppling a tyrant without shedding any blood.

It is the same spirituality that brought an Irish priest in the hands of these bandits; the same spirituality that brought American couple missionaries Martin and Gracia Burnham to the country and being kidnapped by the same group in 2001; the same spirituality that killed the former and saved the latter.

Along with those five Philippine Marines died the virtue of humility these factionalists claim in utter disregard. It is the same humility those humble Marines project whose preponderance makes them distinct and elite from all other forces armed to protect the Country. It is the same humility that makes these Muslim factionalists distinct and peculiar from their race; the same humility that their Qur’an and the Holy Bible preach.

It is the same humility that catapulted then former Pres. Corazon Aquino to power; the same virtue that raised her name to be the icon of democracy; the same humility Mahatma Gandhi professed in the height of protests against the aristocratic United Kingdom.

Along with those five Philippine Marines died the virtue of forgiveness these perpetrators believe they can manifest by way of beheading Christians. It is the same virtue of forgiveness Prophet Mohammad and Jesus Christ walked along the deserts of the chosen lands; the same forgiveness that Christ epitomized before His Roman and Jewish captors.

Along with those five Philippine Marines died the virtue of submissiveness to God these attackers exude to their fellow Islam that could lead to total world peace. It is the same virtue that has been guiding those heroes despite the order to kill the enemies of the state.

It is the same submissiveness to God that led all Christians in Iraq to a bizarre situation: being hunted or pushed out of their own homestead. It is the same submissiveness to God that puts the Islam in Israel to be discriminated by Christians.

Those Marines couldn’t do more than killing them in pursuit of national peace and unity for the country; those factionalists couldn’t do more than beheading them in defense of their ideology. Each party is trapped: a circumstance that sprung out of an ideological conflict, the same ideological conflict that rocked the Americas via 911, the same conflict that manifests in the badlands of Iraq and Afghanistan.

It is the same ideological conflict that gave rise to the first and the second global war. Can we ever stop this?

For as long as kingdoms rise against kingdoms, nations against nations, race against race, scenarios like this will never cease. Coupled with the same greed that originated from the Garden of Iraq (Mesopotamia) and Persia (Iran), war will always play its uncanny role in controlling the world: the prey tightly squeezed by the claws of its troubled marauders.

War is more than just an expression of ideology; war is greed!