Arab missionary Sheikh Karimul Makdum came to the Philippines in the year 1380 and introduced Islam to the people of Simunul island in Tawi-Tawi. He also built the country’s first-ever Islamic house of worship, a mosque now named after him in Barangay Tubig Indangan, where his grave is also located.
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By EDD K. USMAN | Twitter: @edd1819 | Instagram: @bluestar0910 | Facebook: SDN — Scitech and Digital News
COTABATO CITY (SDN) — As the Bangsamoro Ministry of the Interior and Local Government (MILG) headed by Minister Naguib G. Sinarimbo continued fulfilling the delivery of the “dividends of peace”, another Municipal Hall Building is about to be completed.
This time the construction, said Sinarimnbo, spokesman of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM), is on Simunul island, one of the municipalities of the province of Tawi-Tawi. The province which is located in Southern Philippines also serves as a transit point for Filipinos traveling by sea to Sabah, which is still being claimed by the heirs of the Sultan of Sulu and North Borneo.
The new town hall is intended to help Simunul, a previous recipient of an SGLG (Seal of Good Local Governance) Award, enhance its performance even more, said the MILG chief.
“The Municipal Hall project in Tawi-Tawi’s historic island municipality of Simunul is nearing completion. This infrastructure project, funded by the Bangsamoro Appropriations Act (BAA) Contingency Fund 2020, is part of the Ministry’s Local Government Facilities Development (LGFD) Program, which aims to improve the services of constituent local government units in the BARMM,” said Sinarimbo.
He explained that Islam was first introduced in Tawi-Tawi, the Philippines’ southernmost province, and is known as the “Cradle of Islam”.
In the year 1380, an Arab trader and Islamic propagator Sheikh Karimul Makdum arrived on the island province and introduced Islam to the natives. He also built the country’s firstand oldest Islamic house of worship, now called the Sharief Karimul Makdum Mosque in Barangay Tubig Indangan on Simunul island. Its two massive wooden posts are still standing inside the mosque which recently was rebuilt and rehabilitated.
The then President Benigno S. Aquino III declared the Masjid Sheikh Karimul Makdum a National Historical Landmark through Republic Act No. 10573 (which he signed). Now, the historical mosque has become a must-see for Muslim believers and other history buffs.
The Bangsamoro region, established in 2018 by the Bangsamoro Organic Law (BOL) to implement the 2014 Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro (CAB), is made up of the provinces of Basilan, Lanao del Sur, Maguindanao del Sur, Maguindanao del Norte, Sulu, and Tawi-Tawi, the cities of Cotabato, Lamitan, and Marawi, as well as the 63 barangays or villages dubbed Special Geographic Area (SGA) that voted “yes” in a plebiscite in February 2019 to be under the BARMM jurisdiction.
According to the Philippine Atlas has 4,404,288 people. It has 116 municipalities: Basilan, 11 municipalities; Lanao del Sur, 39; Maguindanao, 36; Sulu, 19; and Tawi-Tawi, 11. Its component cities are Cotabato (the regional center and capital) in Maguindanao; Lamitan in Basilan; and Marawi in Lanao del Sur. (✓)
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via reports from MILG