Members of the Islam community marched to the US embassy today in the capital Manila to condemn the killing and sea burial of Al Qaeda chief Osama Bin Laden.
Sympathizers and members of the religious group—which constitute about five percent of the country's population—began their march with a prayer at the the Golden Mosque in Quiapo district and walked toward the American territory where they met resistance by anti-riot police pushing them with shields, in a report by the Philippine Star.
The demonstrators left peacefully.
In a radio interview, demo organizer Yasin Ibrahim said they believe the sea burial by American soldiers of Al Qaeda leader was in violation of the Muslim tradition, which is allowed only if one died while on board a sea vessel.
Cleric Alim Jamil Yahya, chair of the Bangsamoro Supreme Council of the Ulama, led the memorial service and demonstration, denounced the 2 May pre-dawn "brutal killing" of the Al Qaeda founder.
He said burying Bin Laden's remains in the sea degraded his body.
Yahya added that although many Islam followers did not accede with Bin Laden's methods, they think of him as a martyr. They deem the slain leader to have fought for liberty against the abuse of "the satanic US hegemony."
Presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda told the group not to consider the terrorist as a hero.
A heightened security level was enforced in the country since the Abbottabad killings.
In a separate report, US president Obama said the US commandos who carried out the raid were "respectful of the body" of the slain terrorist leader when his corpse was buried at the sea.
Receiving worldwide criticisms, Reuters reported the American leader who is seeking reelection referred to the 11 Sept 2001 attacks on CBS's 60 Minutes show, "We took more care on this than, obviously, Bin Laden took when he killed 3,000 people. He didn't have much regard for how they were treated and desecrated.
"But that, again, is something that makes us different. And I think we handled it appropriately."
Details of this report here.
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