Filipino Muslims protest raid on Islamic center

1/14/2005 5:00:00 PM GMT

Source: AP

About 500 Filipino Muslims and their Christian supporters rallied near the presidential palace on Friday to protest a police raid on an Islamic center in Manila, where Filipino authorities claimed terror suspects were hiding.

Last week, police raided the Islamic center in the Manila Muslim enclave of Quiapo and arrested seventeen people. Two were charged and later freed on bail.

Police claimed at the time that they found homemade explosives and arms at the center and alleged that five of the 17 arrested people were related to a terrorist group.

However, those arrested accused the police of planting the evidence, but the national police chief Edgar Aglipay claimed that there was "strong evidence" against two of the suspects.

But Muslims were not convinced.

"The Muslim terror bogy created by the ... government to justify its war of terrorism has once again resurfaced, this time with new names," said Cosain Naga Jr., a spokesman of the Moro Christian People's Alliance.

Today, at least 500 people marched from a mosque in Manila the presidential palace, where they were stopped at a police barricade.

They were holding a banner that read "Concerned Muslims in Metro Manila against illegal arrests and discrimination," and they were chanting “Allahu Akbar" (God is great).