Wednesday, October 25, 2006
Maxey: Prayers and gunfire
By Ram Maxey
Bar None
LAST Monday, thousands of Filipino Muslims celebrated the end of their fasting month of Ramadan with prayers for genuine peace and development in Mindanao, punctuated by volleys of GUNFIRE.
Gunfire? Yes, gunfire.
I remember a poem back in high school that went thus: "I shot an arrow into the air, it fell to earth I knew not where; for so swiftly if flew, the sight could not follow it in its flight."
Good thing nobody was killed or hurt by the bullets fired into the air and fell to earth nobody knew where. I just cannot fathom the incongruity of the sound of gunfire amid prayers for peace and development. Gunfire is almost always associated with anger and belligerence. I like to believe though that what our armed Muslim brethren did last Monday was an expression of joy, a celebration of an important event in their lives. Amen to that.
But it was a grim story over in Iraq, where Eid al-Fitr was also observed with prayers in thousands of mosques along with gunfire and bombs in the streets.
This time though the bullets were not fired into the air but horizontally at perceived enemies. Gunfire in staccato with exploding bombs killed 44 people, including 15 Iraqi policemen (25 other cops were injured) in an ambush of a police convoy. A series of bombs ripped through a Baghdad market and bakery packed with holiday shoppers, killing at least nine people and injuring dozens of others. A day before, a massive bicycle-bomb and mortar attack on an outdoor market killed 19 and wounded scores in the city of Mahmoudiyah, just south of Baghdad.
A happy ending to the Iraq story is nowhere in sight. Muslims are killing Muslims, along with a smattering of foreigners thrown in. It's a modern day tragedy on a large scale.
We can thank our lucky stars the Philippines is not anywhere like Iraq. The government is still talking to Muslim separatists on how to solve the current deadlock in peace negotiations.
Best of all, the last time our Muslim brethren fired thousands of rounds of ammunition, which was last Monday, their guns were aimed at the sky. The only danger there lies in the action of the law of gravity on the slugs. There is always a possibility that one would land on somebody's head. Still, that's a small price to pay in the name of peace.
For Bisaya stories from Davao. Click here. (October 25, 2006 issue)
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