Roflo, Vanessa Rose M.

History 3N B4-1 WF 3:00-4:30pm September 28, 2011 Reaction Paper: Ang Bagong Buwan The war between Christians and Muslims are all started because of a land (Mindanao). The Muslim rebellion in Mindanao and its effect on civili ans. It is the war in Mindanao during the presidency of President Joseph 'Erap' Estrada. One day, a village composed of many Muslim families are atta cked by the vigilantes. Many houses are burned. Unfortunately, Ibrahim-the son o f Ahmad and Fatima was killed because of the stary bullet during the devastation . Fatima broke the news to Ahmad that their son was already dead. Ahmad is a doc tor in the certain hospital in Manila. He prefers to be simple, happy, and a pea ceful life. He goes back to the place where he came from. He strived hard for th e sake of his family that are left. His brother, Musa have different principle in his life, he wants to have a war against all the Christians that did not beli eve (Kaafir). He also trained his son Rashid to become a Muslim warrior to fight for Mindanao. Ahmad convinces his family to bring to Manila to escape from the war but his family rejected it. Musa, don't want to escape because he want to co ntinue fighting. Farida, Musa and Ahmad's mother don't also want to go there be cause he is afraid to the government. Fatima, want to fight for his son and othe r bloodties because of the chaos that the vigilantes have done in their family. Musa with his son, Rashid bombed a marketplace near a police station. Francis, a Catholic boy, is separated from his parents during the confusion and follows Ra shid. Rashid grudgingly takes Francis with him and introduces him to his co-vill agers. Francis goes wherever Ahmad and his people go. Francis and Rashid, at the ir very young age, are the personification of the rival Christian and Muslim who find themselves prejudiced against each other because of ignorance. Ahmad with his co-villagers evacuated and traveled to the place of Datu Ali, Farida's trus ted friend. In his new role as the leader, discovers the pain and suffering that innocent people have gone, and still, go through just because they find themsel ves in the middle of a war that they didn't forget for the rest of their lives. Ahmad learns more about his own people. He learns about how the government takes them for granted. He learns about how the Moro, as a people, strive to fight fo r their rights and liberty. Ahmad also learns that in his veins still runs the b lood of a Muslim and offers the ultimate sacrifice. After leaving the village th e AFP convoy is traveling down a road with the Muslims who have agreed to be rel ocated sitting in the backs of the trucks. All of a sudden the convoy is ambush ed by MILF guerillas. An intense firefight ensues with the refugees scattering i nto the nearby forest. Ahmad and Francis manage to make it back to the village a nd tell the news of the ambush. The AFP will naturally assume that the village s et up their soldiers. Everyone in the town must flee but the imam-Datu Ali refus es to leave. Ahmad becomes the new leader of the group and he must lead a group of mostly women and children through rugged terrain to safety.After hiking for s everal days the group enters a small village that has been the site of a massacr e. Dead bodies are everywhere. Just then Ahmad hears two men talking in a nearby shack. They appear to be two AFP soldiers and they are drunk. They are laughing about all the Muslims they have just murdered. In a rage Ahmad approaches the t wo men silently. He takes out his pistol and shoots both men at point blank rang e. Ahmad is a doctor, sworn to uphold the Hippocratic Oath and do no harm, but h e has just killed two men in cold blood. Farida, who is elderly, is exhausted an d cannot walk.They rig up a stretcher to carry her but she becomes progressively worse. Eventually she dies and yet another senseless tragedy is added to the fr uits of the current war. The group stops near a river and a boat arrives carryin g MILF soldiers. When he hears the news about his mother's death he tells Ahmad

not to worry, that it is Allah's will.