November 7 is Sheik Karimul Makdum Day in ARMM

COTABATO CITY -- Five provinces will commemorate on Monday the 636thanniversary of the arrival in the south of Sheik Karimul Makdum who introduced Islam in what was to become the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM).ARMM Gov. Mujiv Hataman had earlier declared November 7 a non-working holiday in the provinces of Maguindanao and Lanao del Sur, both in Maguindanao, and in Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi to give his constituents ample time to observe the yearly Sheik Karimul Makdum Day.More than 80 percent of residents in these ARMM provinces are Muslims with different ethnic identities.Makdum, a Middle Eastern cleric, set foot in Bohe Indangan in Simunul, now an island town in Tawi-Tawi, in the 14thCentury to preach Islam.He built a mosque at Bohe Indangan, now the oldest Islamic worship site in the Philippines and, subsequently, established Muslim communities governed by leaders based on Qura’nic teachings on equality of men regardless of races, universal love and religious tolerance.From Bohe Indangan, the religion he espoused eventually spread through nearby islands that now comprise the towns in Tawi-Tawi and Sulu, the ARMM’s southernmost provinces.Soon after, a scion of the royalty in Johore in what is now Malaysia, Shariff Mohammad Kabunsuan, of Arab-Malay descent, arrived in Central Mindanao and propagated Islam in the mainland regions.Moro history says the blue-blooded Kabunsuan, also a preacher, was only to escape from political persecution by Dutch colonizers in Johore in late 14thcentury, but decided to preach and settle in his newfound homeland, where pagan inhabitants treated him will and eventually embraced Islam.From Kabunsuan’s lineage sprung the present-day Maguindanaon, Iranun and Maranaw royalties, whose prominent scions include Maguindanao Gov. Esmael Mangudadatu and members of his family.ARMM’s regional tourism secretary, Ayesha Mangudadatu-Dilangalen, will personally oversee the Sheik Karimul Makdum Day program in Simunul on Monday.Tawi-Tawi Gov. Rashidin Matba, Rep. Ruby Sahali, officials of the ARMM’s Bureau of Cultural Heritage and Simunul Mayor Nazif Ahmad Abdurahman are to help facilitate the event. The Sheik Karimul Makdum Day will also signal the start of the week-long commemoration of the ARMM’s 27thfounding anniversary.The ARMM was created via a plebiscite in 1989 to grant Muslim communities an autonomous self-governing political outfit with an executive department under the ministerial control of the Office of the Regional Governor and a law-making body, the Regional Assembly, touted as the Little Congress of the region.Dilangalen, who was appointed by Hataman only recently, said they have lined up various cultural activities to highlight the 27thanniversary feast of the autonomous region.