Source: Associated Press
By JOEAL CALUPITAN and AARON FAVILA
MARAWI, Philippines (AP) — Muslim residents of a southern Philippine city devastated by last year’s bloody militant siege celebrated the Islamic holiday of Eid al-Fitr on Friday in gunfire-riddled mosques while many whose homes were leveled by the fighting prayed in tent shelters.
A few thousand people walked past burned homes to Marawi city’s landmark, the pockmarked Golden Mosque, to celebrate the three-day feasts marking the end of the holy month of Ramadan. In an evacuation center elsewhere in the lakeside city, the homeless prayed in the open for an end to their misery.
“What happened to us is very painful because not only our livelihood was destroyed, even our faith in Islam was destroyed, the future of our children was destroyed, everything was destroyed,” Soawair Saripada told The Associated Press.
Categories: Asia, Eid-ul-Fitr, Philippines, The Muslim Times