‘Maybe we failed in making Muslims, Christians understand each other’

“Maybe we failed in making Muslims and Christians understand each other. We are sorry for that. We are not perfect but we will try to improve our leadership of moral values.”
This is according to the Bishops-Ulama Conference (BUC) on a report by cbcpnews.com on the BUC’s 41st assembly in Harmony Village, the Silsilah Dialogue Movement headquarters in Sinunuc, Zamboanga City, November 13-14.

According to the report posted at the cbcpnews website, BUC wants to go to the bottom of the issues confronting rebel movements and the national government by offering itself to act as convenor of peace negotiations between the two groups.

Fresh from the standoff that resulted to the displacement and death of some civilians last September, Zamboanga has been chosen by BUC as the venue for the assembly in the hope of promoting Muslim-Christian dialogue, which they already started since 1996 when BUC was formed.
“We offer ourselves to negotiate. We have no police powers. We can only get the groups together to talk,” BUC said, as stated in the report.

BUC also issued a statement entitled “Dialogue and Hope: Key to Peace” after the assembly that wants to restore peace in the war-torn part of Mindanao.

The BUC condemned the attack of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) saying it is “inhuman, unchristian, un-Islamic and therefore unacceptable and contrary to the teachings of our respective religious faiths.”

BUC asks why the Philippine government did not honor and fully implement the 1996 Peace Agreement between the Philippine Government and MNLF. Aside from that, they also ask why the Claim for Sabah is not included in the Framework Agreement between the present administration and Moro Islamic Liberation Front.
BUC is also wondering why there is division between MNLF and MILF who both profess as followers of Islam and yet they are not united.

BUC is headed by Archbishop Emeritus of Davao Fernando R. Capalla, Prof. Salipada Tamano of Ulama League of the Philippines and Bishop Danilo Bustamante of the Protestant Churches. Some 22 Catholic, Protestant and Muslim participants all the way from Cagayan de Oro, Lanao, Cotabato and Pagadian joined the assembly in Zamboanga City. (@dcherald)