by Jose Torres Jr.

	In Quiapo, Muslim men pray at a mosque. [Rey de Jesus]

MAR AMORES was already in his late 20s when Islam caught his attention. Born to a traditional Roman Catholic family in Samar, in the Visayas, Amores was enraged by stories in the media about Moro bandits killing Christians in Mindanao. His hate pushed him to learn about the “enemy,” the Muslims.

“I wanted to discover what kind of people they are,” recalls Amores. He read history books and studied every available material on Muslims and Islam. After two decades of “discernment,” his hatred against Muslims turned into “understanding.” In 1999, Amores decided to change his name to Zulfikar Muamarjalil Amores, and became a Balik-Islam.

Muslims believe that people are born into Islam and converts are just “reverting” to their original faith. They are thus called “Balik-Islam” or Islam returnees.

“It was a long process,” Amores says of his return to Islam. He also says it became a “cultural liberation” for himself, and that his concept of God became clear and his view of life and society changed. “I learned discipline and became free from idols,” says Amores. “It’s a conversion from vices and sin to humbling oneself before God. It’s a personal discovery.”

But it has also been difficult. “It’s hard to be considered an apostate and live in a society dominated by Christians,” he says. He became the first Balik-Islam in his hometown of Calbayog. “I did not shout from the rooftops and declared that I was a Muslim,” he says. But his friends laughed at him anyway, and called him “bandit” and “Abu Sayyaf.”

“It shows how insensitive the majority of our society is,” says Amores.

These days, life has become even harder for Balik-Islam like him after the reported involvement of Muslim converts in terrorist networks. Chief Superintendent Rodolfo Mendoza, former intelligence group chief of the Philippine National Police, has even said, “The new wave of converts to Islam could prove more dangerous than established Muslim guerilla groups. Converts are ideal terrorists and they are eager to prove themselves worthy of their new faith.”

Those are words that Amores, whose latest act of daring consisted of having his head shaved clean, may find fault with. Yet he goes only so far as remarking, “It seems that Muslims themselves are the ones who hinder the growth of the religion.”

The police say they have the goods on some Balik-Islam-dominated organizations, which they say have links with international terrorist groups like the Al-Qaeda. They have also trotted out the likes of Marvin Geonzon — a Christian who became Balik-Islam in 1997, and who later confessed to being part of the same terrorist network responsible for the 9-11 attacks in the United States — to support their claims

Geonzon, now 26, had been convinced that converting to Islam would help him overcome his drug addiction. Invited by a Saudi national who befriended him, Geonzon attended an “Islamic school” where, he later said, subjects like jihad (holy war) and bomb-making were taught.

According to the police, Geonzon’s Saudi friend was Sheikh Hamoud Al-Lahim, who had connections with Mohammad Jamal Khalifah, a brother-in-law of Osama bin Laden, head of Al-Qaeda. Khalifah headed the Philippine office of the Saudi charity International Islamic Relief Organization (IIRO) from 1986 to 1994. Al-Lahim joined the IIRO in Manila after Khalifah left.

The police said the “Islamic school” that Geonzon attended in Pangasinan was actually a training camp for future terrorists. After his arrest in Zamboanga City in 2002, Geonzon admitted to being part of an Al-Qaeda cell in the Philippines. He also owned up to setting off a bomb in a Zam-boanga restaurant in October 2001 that killed six people.

Geonzon’s aunt said her nephew had “psychological problems.” But police claimed they found posters of bin Laden on the walls of Geonzon’s rented room, as well as a piece of paper listing targets of bomb attacks, blasting caps, and other bomb-making equipment. Still, they had to release him from detention in February last year, when the court found out the arresting officers did not have a warrant to search his apartment. He has made himself scarce since, and has not been seen since October 2002.

About six million of the country’s 84 million-strong population are Muslims. Records at the Office for Muslim Affairs estimate that more than 110,000 Filipinos have converted to Islam over the past three years. Balik-Islam groups, however, say converts have already reached a million in number.