ZAMBOANGA CITY: Sharif Julabi, regional chairman of the separatist Moro Islamic Liberation Front, sits beneath a poster listing the 99 names of Allah and explains why the expansion of the Bush Administration’s war on terror to the southern Philippines could backfire.

“The claim is that (the US is) going after the Abu Sayyaf,” says Julabi, referring to a 60 member Muslim kidnap-for-ransom gang that the US is helping to pursue on Basilan island, “But ... we think they’re looking for a justification to go to war with us.”

Zamboanga City on Basilan, the staging ground for the US operation, is shared by other wings of the MILF who are fearful of the US operation as well. It is shared by farmers, who worry about being caught in the cross-fire; and it is shared by leaders of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF).

Local leaders warn it’s a situation that, if handled badly, could inflame simmering Muslim resentment against the center and create a fresh generation of Muslim radicals who harbour a grudge against the US.

Ben Loong, a Muslim businessman and community leader in Zamboanga, worries about a spiral of violence.

In addition to its 60-odd members on Basilan, the group has about 150 more members operating in the neighbouring Sulu archipelago.

While the Abu Sayyaf aren’t popular, the MILF are widely viewed as fighting a legitimate struggle for the political and economic rights of the region’s Muslims, who make up about eight per cent of the Philippine population. The Spanish called them Moros after the Muslim Moors of North Africa.

The scholarly Julabi, who is responsible for the MILF troops in southern Mindanao and in the smaller islands to the south, calls the military’s claims “fabrications to destroy our reputation. I don’t deny that some of our cadres received training in Afghanistan in the past. But that was with the CIA!”

Some Muslim leaders here wanted the US to make Muslims a state when the Philippines won its independence, and Julabi says his organization is still interested. “Make us a state, like Hawaii,” he says.

Failing that, the MILF would like a referendum on independence or autonomy within the Philippines similar to the UN-sponsored vote in 1999 that led to East Timor’s independence from Indonesia.

“The US supported the East Timor referendum, but not us. The only difference I can see between the two situations is that they are Catholics, and we’re not.”—Dawn/The Christian Science Monitor News Service.