Muslim preachers denounce violence in Philippines

MANILA, Oct 23 (Reuters) The spiritual leader of the Philippines' largest Muslim rebel group warned against reviving conflict today as followers feted the end of the fasting month of Ramadan with dawn prayers and automatic gunfire.

A recent spate of bombings has threatened a fragile 2003 ceasefire between the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and the government of the largely Catholic country but Ustadz Omar Pasigan warned against violence.

''It is haram (forbidden) for us Muslims to kill without any reason, even if the target is an unbeliever,'' said Pasigan, Grand Mufti on the southern island of Mindanao, where around 3 million Muslims celebrated Eid al-Fitr. Other clerics echoed his words.

Last week, police charged MILF leader Ebrahim Murad in absentia for his alleged role in three bombings that killed seven people and wounded more than 30 in the south, angering his followers and threatening long-running peace talks.

Security officials had previously blamed members of Abu Sayyaf, the Philippines' smallest and most violent Muslim rebel group, for the attacks, which came during a long-running offensive against Abu Sayyaf's leadership.

The MILF has accused some local politicians of fabricating evidence against Murad to derail stalled talks on creating an enlarged Muslim homeland in the south and end a conflict that has killed more than 120,000 since the late 1960s.

The Philippines has declared Tuesday, Oct. 24 a holiday to mark Eid al-Fitr but Filipino Muslims, who refer to the festival as ''Hariraya Puasa'', celebrated today.

A police spokesman in the southern city of Cotabato said small weapons had been fired illegally to mark the end of Ramadan but nobody was reported hit by stray bullets.

Firing guns is a commemorative ritual in the Philippines, a trigger-happy country where police estimate around 330,000 illegal firearms are in circulation.

In Manila, a jailed Muslim leader who led a failed rebellion in 2001 was given a few hours to pray at a mosque in the capital.

Hundreds of Muslims chanted ''Allahu Akbar'' outside the mosque as Nur Misuari asked them to support peace efforts in the south, hoping the government would allow him to go to Saudi Arabia next month to meet the Organisation of the Islamic Conference.

The OIC called three-party talks with the Philippines and another rebel group, the Moro National Liberation Front, to look at the implementation of a 1996 peace agreement granting autonomy to Muslims in the south.

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