RIYADH, 8 November 2006 — The case of a young Filipino Muslim woman who was caught holding hands with her non-Muslim boyfriend in Riyadh has brought to the fore a serious disagreement between leaders of the Batha Islamic Guidance Center in Riyadh and Muslim religious leaders from the southern Philippines.
It all happened at the Batha, a popular hangout of expatriates in the capital, during Ramadan. Unknown to the lovers, a group of Mindanaoans were watching their every move. When they started holding hands, the “big brothers” pounced on the unsuspecting man, beating him black and blue.
Arab News gathered that in the commotion that followed, do-gooders at the Batha center intervened and tried to help forge an amicable settlement between the parties involved.
It was not clear how this particular case that took place during the holy month ended, but some Mindanaoans in Batha said that this was not the first time workers from the center have tried to settle cases involving Muslim women and their non-Muslim lovers.
Some cases were reportedly settled in favor of the non-Muslims in an attempt to attract them to Islam. In some instances, those who agreed to embrace Islam were assisted into marrying the Muslim women they love.
According to the Mindanaoans, while they have no doubt about the good intentions of the center’s workers, the practice only causes more problems because most of the time the marriage rituals happen without the permission of the woman’s parents in the Philippines.
During a dialogue with leaders of the Batha center recently, Filipino Muslim Ulema and community leaders explained that many Muslims in Mindanao, particularly the Maranaos and Tausugs, still believe that their women are only for Muslims. They believe this is a Qur’anic injunction and whoever breaks it tarnishes the very pride and dignity of the Muslims.
“You are committing a big sin,” one of the elders who works in a Saudi Court accused one of the preachers at the Batha center during the dialogue. “You are supposed to bring those people to court so that they would be punished accordingly,” he said in Arabic.
Propagator Ibrahim Yusoph, who graduated from a school in Libya, also explained: “Any assistance in legalizing a marriage contract of this type may not serve the interest of both parties because even if they are officially married here, when they go back to the Philippines they may be executed by the women’s parents. In most instances, the wife will not show up to her parents.”
He added: “This (the execution) is not right since the man changed his religion, but traditionally it is unacceptable.”
Unfounded Allegations
Sheikh Nooh ibn Nasser Al-Qareen, the director of the Batha center, rejected the charges against his group as unfounded. “Our work here is mainly for Islamic propagation and we don’t arrest people or perform marriage rituals here,” Al-Qareen said. “Only Saudi courts can legalize marriage contracts.”
He instead blamed Filipino Muslims for not fulfilling their responsibilities in educating their countrymen on the fundamentals of Islam.
Turning the tables on the Ulema and community leaders, he said: “Look, it is sad to say that your fellow countrymen, mostly from Mindanao, are selling illegal and pirated CDs in Batha.”
“They are not only tarnishing the image of Muslims in Mindanao but they are causing harm to Islam as well. They don’t represent Islam at all,” he added.
Al-Qareen cited a member of a big Moro (Filipino Muslim) organization as the one who provides and facilitates marriage contracts and gets paid for that. He also mentioned the Philippine Embassy, apparently referring to the alleged “fixers” there who sell fake marriage licenses mostly to unfaithful husbands and wives.
Al-Qareen further advised Filipino Muslims in the Philippines to stop sending their women to work abroad. “Islam clearly forbids a Muslim woman from traveling alone. Allowing women to work in a faraway land without her guardians exposes her to any man, fellow Filipinos regardless of their religion, Bangladeshis, Pakistanis, even Saudis,” he said.
Al-Qareen said most of those involved in this sort of misdeeds are runaway maids or workers. He claimed that some Filipinos are responsible because they encourage their countrymen to leave their Saudi sponsor when they get higher offers.
“What others do here is when they come to know about a certain maid working for SR700 a month, they encourage her to run away and work with them for SR1,000 a month,” he said.
Yusoph, the propagator, agreed that the increasing number of Filipino Muslim women working abroad is a serious problem back home. He said many parents die without seeing their loved ones, while others silently try to forget their daughters who dishonor the family by marrying without permission.
Converts
During the meeting, Ilias Muwa, an engineer and community leader, also raised concern that there are certain groups who are “very actively influencing Muslims into a certain agenda.” He cited the so-called London boys in Jeddah, who are said to be targeting Muslim women.
“We don’t have anything against our brother converts who freely adopt Islam as their new religion but this must not be used by unscrupulous countrymen as an excuse to prey on our Muslim women,” he said.
Abu Nihad, another engineer, lamented that some apparently embrace Islam as a ticket to exploit women.
He noted that some of these “opportunists” use their new religion as a license to marry more women.
He also told of a convert who sheltered a runaway Filipino Muslim maid and took advantage of her vulnerability.
“After impregnating the woman, he dumped her at Bahay Kalinga,” Nihad said, referring to the shelter maintained by the Philippine Embassy for distressed Filipino women.
Ken Mapandi, also an engineer, expressed concern that sponsors are not implementing strict measures preventing their women employees, especially Muslim ones, from going out without escorts. He said sponsors should double-check the marriage contracts in the possession of those living outside because some of them are not legally married.
He told of a Muslim woman from Lanao who claimed to be married to a fellow Filipino. When the supposed husband visited her at the workplace because she was sick for two days, the hospital owner asked the man out of curiosity to show him his iqama. The owner immediately detected something wrong because the man’s iqama was that for non-Muslims while her employee was a Muslim. The couple are in jail awaiting punishment.
This reporter was approached sometime ago by a trailer driver who described himself as a new convert and a former soldier in the Philippines who wanted to seek guidance about the possibility of marrying his Muslim girlfriend from Lanao del Norte.
The man admitted being a fugitive after committing a crime back home by killing two of his colleagues in the army. He was hoping that marrying his Muslim girlfriend after embracing Islam could save him.
A check with the Islamic Center where he pronounced his “Shahadah” showed that the man did appear before the center once and never came back. He was supposed to have attended classes that never even took place.
