THERE was a time we could be complacent and think that terrorism was somebody else’s problem. Of course, there were many bandits in the jungles of Mindanao who kidnapped people—mostly foreigners—in exchange for millions of dollars in ransom, but these repugnant crimes were committed away from urban centers and far from Metro Manila. Except for the occasional attack—the Rizal Day bombing of December 2000 comes to mind—we felt safe and insulated from the senseless violence instigated by terrorist groups such as the Islamic State, also known as ISIS.
We shook our heads as Islamic extremists sowed terror in Paris, London, New York and other world capitals and thanked the stars that the terrorists took no notice of us.
But the May 23 attack on Marawi City, the biggest Muslim urban center in the Philippines, changed all that. Local terrorist groups acting on behalf of ISIS sought to establish a caliphate beginning with the capital of Lanao del Sur province and overran the city. The siege to retake Marawi continues into its fifth month, with a group of holdouts, estimated at 40 to 50, still keeping an undetermined number of civilians hostage.
Now comes the news that a Filipino jihadist, Russel Salic, was involved in a planned attack in New York City in 2016 during the holy fasting month of Ramadan.
The 2015 attack on the Bataclan concert hall in Paris and another on the metro in Belgium the following year served as inspiration for the planned killings in New York.
Multiple locations including New York’s subway, Times Square and some concert venues were identified as targets in the plot that was foiled by an undercover FBI agent, US authorities announced last week.
In Manila, the United States embassy confirmed that Salic, a doctor, was arrested in April 2017 in the Philippines after he and two other nationalities allegedly plotted attacks on New York City during the summer of 2016 in support of the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham.
The attacks were thwarted with the help of an undercover FBI agent posing as an IS supporter who communicated with the three plotters.
Salic is awaiting extradition to the United States. US prosecutors said he sent $423 to fund the New York attacks and promised to send more before he was arrested. The amount may sound trivial, but the death and destruction it might have wrought is not.
The US Justice Department said over the weekend that Salic had boasted that his country was “a breeding ground for terrorists.”
A Justice Department statement quoted messages sent by Salic to others involved in the plot in which he described terror laws in the Philippines as “not strict” in comparison to countries such as Australia and the UK.
“Terrorists from all over the world usually come here as a breeding ground for terrorists … hahahaha… But no worry here in Philippines. They dont care bout IS … Only in west,” he added.
Clearly, extremist terrorism is no longer somebody else’s problem. It is high time that the authorities, as well as the public, act accordingly.