In this April 1, 2018 photo, residents on top of their jeepney take photos of destroyed buildings during a visit to their homes at the main battle area in Marawi City. The US Department of State has issued travel advisory Level 4 for the war-torn city due to the threat of civil unrest and terrorism.
AFP/Ted Aljibe, File
Shattered Marawi a tool for jihadist recruitment
Ron Lopez (Agence France-Presse) - May 23, 2019 - 11:19am





"The narratives (to join IS) used to be about the Middle East and the plight of Muslims around the world," said Mouhammad Sharief, who co-founded a support group for Marawi's youth.

"Now it's closer to our hearts because the narrative is Marawi," said 32-year-old Sharief, who was himself displaced by the fighting.

Marawi is symbolically important because it is the Muslim capital of the nation's south, which has been locked in a cycle of poverty and extremism as separatist insurgencies have raged for decades.

It is all the more significant as IS works to maintain a presence via its global affiliates following the fall of its self-proclaimed "caliphate" in the Middle East.

IS regularly claims responsibility for killings of Philippine government troops and took credit for the January bombing of a Catholic cathedral during Sunday mass that was the nation's deadliest attack in years.

Duterte's orders

The organization has links to local extremist networks, including the kidnap-for-ransom group Abu Sayyaf, that have long operated in the Philippines' restive south.


"The government needs to be concerned about the threats of ISIS attracting young (locals) because of the ongoing resentment from the failure to rebuild and general anger over the destruction," analyst Sidney Jones told AFP.



"This will be used as an example again of government discrimination against Muslims and the government neglect for the responsibility of rebuilding Marawi," said Francisco Lara, an adviser with peace group International Alert.


"We are following the guidance and instructions of the president that he will see to it that Marawi will rise as a prosperous city again," Eduardo del Rosario, a retired general overseeing the rebuilding efforts, told journalists this week.

"We... are all undertaking the task given to us as per instruction of the president," he added.

Though President Rodrigo Duterte has tried to portray himself as sensitive to the Philippines' Muslim minority, he has sent mixed signals about Marawi.


"I don't think that I should be spending for their buildings. People there have a lot of money," he said in reference to Marawi in an April speech.

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