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January 16, 2006
Philippines: EU To Sponsor Islamic Courts
A report from Italy's AKI states that in the southern region of the Philippines, money from the European Union will be used to establish a judicial process that will integrate the national secular legal system with Sharia law, or Islamic jurisprudence.
Created in 1996 from island provinces and the former province of Cotabato on Mindanao, the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), includes Maguindano and Lanao del Sur on the large island of Mindanao, and the island provinces of Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi. It appears that this region, which has a high Muslim population, is to be the target of the EU project.
The EU programme will also seek to further integrate the Sharia judicial process with the secular legal system applied elsewhere in the mostly Christian country of 80 million. Some 4.6 percent of the population is Muslim.The region is currently in a state of uncertainty, with Muslim secessionists on Mindanao island, such as the MILF and MNLF who have been attempting to create a separate Muslim state since the 1970s.The EU programme will be implemented in conjunction with the Philippines' government- owned Mindanao Economic Development Council, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) as well as Mindanao's government.
The situation is complicated by members of Islamist terror group Abu Sayyaf, who have been active on the island of Jolo in Sulu, and also on Tawi-Tawi. Abu Sayyaf have links with Jemaah Islamiyah, and are suspected of hiding JI fugitives in the ARMM, near Cotabato. On Wednesday, the Sultan of Maguindanao was shot dead by unidentified assailants.
The money from the EU will be partly spent on seminars to train court staff, in a project which "reinforces the civil and judicial rights of the local population."
If the entire community were Muslim, perhaps Sharia may seem acceptable, but from the examples of countries like Malaysia, where Sharia jurisprudence and secular jurisprudence attempt to coexist, non-Muslims often find themselves dealt with in the Shariah system through mixed-faith divorces etc and other family-based issues, and do not feel they have been treated fairly.
The implementation of Sharia jurisprudence in the same courts where non-Muslims also seek justice seems a recipe for friction, particularly with the current situation of fear and unrest in the region. Some of the communities are not Muslim at all. Cotabato City, for example, opted in 1989 not to become part of ARMM, but lies on its border. It has a population which is 60% Christian.
Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at January 16, 2006 8:05 PM
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