Sourcesand Marawi attack meant to impress potential foreign sponsors

LANAO DEL SUR — The incursion of the Dawlah Islamiya into Marawi City is meant to project the local terror group's strength by eradicating so-called hypocrites and non-believers, sources said.For the outlawed fanatical group, no other place can be a better takeoff point for Islamic revivalism than Marawi City, whose 92 barangays comprise the only Islamic City in the predominantly Catholic Philippines.The ranks of theDawlahIslamiya, which started as theMauteterror group five years ago, is now filled with members of a faction in the AbuSayyafled byIsnilonHapilon, who is from the island province ofBasilan.Evacuees from Marawi City, among them Islamic theologians, remain puzzled on what emboldened the leaders of the Dawlah Islamiya, the siblings Omar and Abdullah Maute, and Hapilon to attack their barangays and hoist there the flag of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria.Some of them are certain, however, that the group is keen on gaining media mileage not just to show off their ability to sow terror but also to impress potential funders in the Middle East. Obviously it was a propaganda ploy. Their calculation was that they would gain something very big from it, said a Lanao school official who asked not to be identified for security reasons.The source is one of many education officials and clerics the Maute brothers slandered in public on many occasions for disagreeing with their self-styled interpretation of teachings in the Qur’an.In terms of propaganda, Marawi City could be the most ideal launching spot for the Dawlah Islamiya’s planned expansion to other parts of Mindanao.The city has both historical and religious value to the ISIS-inspired, propaganda-savvy Dawlah Islamiya.It is in Marawi City, originally known as Dansalan, where the Americans erected in the 1900s the kilometer zero landmark for all roads in Mindanao, from where arterial networks now crisscrossing the region started from.It was also there were 189 Maranaws from different noble clans crafted on May 18, 1935 the Dansalan Declaration urging the United States of America not to include Mindanao as a constituent area of the Philippines should the US government grant its independence. Even before the outbreak of the May 23 hostilities in Marawi City, the Maute brothers were already lambasting in fiery speeches what were for them un-Islamic practices of residents in Marawi City.These practices, as they mentioned, were usury, or the 5-6 cash lending scheme, unreported cases of incestuous rape, extramarital affairs by some leaders and the moderate views of most clerics in Marawi City.Local residents said the terrorists do not adhere to Islamic principles on respect for non-Muslims and non-Islamic worship sites. They have absolute disregard of the Islamic principle of `no compulsion in religion.’ They label non-Muslims as kuffars and moderate Muslims who disagree with their religious principles as munafiqs, said a close relative of Omar and Abdullah.The Arabic term munafiq means hypocrite while kuffar refers to a non-believer, or a non-Muslim.Local officials and sources in the academe said they never thought the supposedly timid Maute siblings were to become fanatical extremists whose reign of terror would cause death and destruction in Marawi City. The group had previously occupied a part of their hometown of Butig in Lanao del Sur.Omar and Abdullah were employed in the United Arab Emirates and, while there, studied Islamic theology in Syria, Jordan and in Egypt before returning to Butig.They first organized the Guraba jihadist bloc five years ago, which the military named the Maute terror group that eventually evolved into what is now the Dawlah Islamiya.