Civic organizations have pooled resources in aid of displaced residents severely affected by landslides and floods wrought by Typhoon Paeng in Maguindanao.
On its 52nd anniversary, the Al-Muslimin Brotherhood/ Fraternity added its packages of kitchenware, utensils, foods and garments on a Sunday’s (November 14) relief operation for displaced families in Datu Odin Sinsuat deemed affected most by ‘Paeng.’
The activity followed the members’ assembly in Datu Gindolongan where the relief operation was planned, along with ceremonies for new members on Saturday.
The fraternity’s relief operation was initiated by senior members former Maguindanao Vice-Governor and Bangsamoro Parliament member Datu Midpantao “Datu Antao” Midtimbang; Datu Brahim Balabaran Gulam, principal of Sarilikha Village National High School; Datu Pendatun Pandita of Datu Guindolongan; Engineer Hadji Akas Basilan of the National Irrigation Administration; retired DSWD ARMM operations chief, Puasa Enok; Pandag Mayor Engineer Hadji Abdulkarim Langkuno; Bangsamoro Chamber of Commerce and Industry head Datu Haron Uko Bandila; municipal administrator Datu Nur Mamaluba; along with Hadji Pendatun Alim. Hadji Akmad Noor, and Hadji Ahmad Sakilan who have since retired from the Department of Finance in the national government.
The recipients were children and parents of families displaced from calamity-stricken villages and are incidentally, followers of different religions.
Some Moro individuals have raised on social media concerns that publishing good deeds might fall on a “Riyyah” which means an act of “overt or displayed extravagance,” as opposed to the Hadith and Gospel about the proverbial “left hand not seeing what the right hand does in deeds of charity”.
But Muslims involved in post-calamity aid and relief operations seek to reserve the “finest of intention (nia’h) for (the Creator’s) Judgment alone.”
Its founders in 1968 originally named the group “Al-Muslimin Alpha Phi Fraternity” in Manila. However, the assembly last Saturday adopted a resolution seeking to drop the Greek letters from its name, and permanently calls it “Al-Muslimin Brotherhood.”
Other members seek to draw a thicker line of distinction for the Al-Muslimin Brotherhood/ Fraternity from the old militant political movement in Egypt, Iqhuanun Muslimun which translates to “Muslim Brotherhood.”
Democratic institutions opposed to extremism have since blacklisted and referred to that militant group simply as the “Brotherhood.”
Members of the Al-Muslimin Brotherhood/ Fraternity have assured the public and state security institutions that this Philippine Muslim fraternity run by Maguindanaon individuals, has absolutely no association, and is neither connected nor affiliated to the political movement called “Muslim Brotherhood,” or the “Brotherhood” as is referred to in the context of democratic security institutions.
As the popular Moro artist Datu Khomeini Camsa Bansuan says, the Al-Muslimin Brotherhood/ Fraternity, is a potential platform for conflict management in this day and age of kinship-based rifts that are often stirred by divisive politics.