Dear Senator, Why Did You Have to Deceive Us?

Dear Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago,

Why did you have to deceive the Filipino people? Why were you misleading us?

You publicly said, last August 1, 2011, in your sponsorship speech for the RH Bill, that the Assembly of Darul-Iftah of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, the most authoritative body of Islamic clerics in the Philippines, supports the RH Bill as endorsed by some Christian churches. This is not so.

Part of Senator Santiago’s sponsorship speech for the RH Bill last August 1, 2011 seen in her newsblog.

Whereas it is true that the 2003 fatwah or religious ruling called “Call to Greatness” gives Muslim couples a free choice on whether to practice family planning, this does not at all imply that Islamic clerics constituting the top-ranking ulama, who are deemed to have the authority to issue opinions on matters facing Islam and Muslims, support the RH Bill. That is NOT JUST what the ulama from Central Mindanao said. You failed to mention, madam Senator, that the same fatwah, as told by Ustadhz Esmail “Mike” Ebrahim, spokesman of the Islamic group, last October 2010 to the Manila Bulletin, flatly rejects abortion and birth control as part of family planning. [1] The fatwah rejects birth control. Obviously, Madam Senator, the RH bill’s proposed birth control pills and other services are definitely not acceptable to Islam. You used in your speech a Muslim ruling to support your pro-RH stand where the same Muslim ruling is actually against your pro-RH stand. This is a clear deception, Madam Senator, and the Filipino does not deserve this.

Islam does not support the RH Bill. “There are so many verses of the Qur'an that state about pro-life [principles]," Eleem Said Akmad Basher, chairman of the Imam Council of the Philippines, told GMA News website. [2] 

Imam Padil Hassan of the Manila Muslim Community spoke against the RH Bill at the Filipinos Unite for Life rally last February 13, 2011 at the PICC Grounds. (An imam is the head of the Muslim community. The title is used in the Qurʾān several times to refer to leaders and to Abraham. [3])

Madam Senator, why did you have to twist things up? Why did you have to deceive the Filipino people?

 

_______________________

[1] OnIslam & News Agencies (2011). Filipino Faith Leaders Against Birth Control. onislam.net. Retrieved August 6, 2011 (Ramadan 07, 1432), from http://www.onislam.net/english/news/asia-pacific/453088-filipino-faith-leaders-against-birth-control.html

[2] Ibid.

[3] Merriam-Webster, Inc., “Imam”, in Merriam-Webster’s Encyclopedia of World Religions, 1999.