There are people whose bigotry is so deep-seated that no amount of reasoning can move them. They are so thick-skinned and rabid in their beliefs that they live in a world of their own, oblivious to others’ outlooks. They don’t realize that they hinder society’s aspiration for a better social order.

The case in point is what happened to Muslim students at Saint Michael’s College in Iligan City, a growing metropolis touted as a melting pot of people of diverse races, religious creeds, and cultural upbringing in a harmonious environment of “unity in diversity.”

Here, racism reared its ugly head.

The tale is verbose, but we abridged it due to space limitations. As narrated by her brother, who works at the National Commission on Muslim Filipinos, a brave young girl, Sitti Nor Yasmin Adiong Lomondot, 14, is a Grade 8 student at SMC, a Catholic school run by the RVM Sisters.

Sitti and nine classmates were fasting, it being Ramadan, and they did not want to miss a prayer. They found a vacant classroom and prepared to perform the Duhor or noon prayer. While donning her “mukna,” a prayer raiment, Sitti was summoned to the office of the school’s Disciplinary Officer, a woman.

She was asked why she was wearing a “mukna” and told to call her classmates. The school official then berated them, saying (rough translation), “Why are you praying here? Don’t you know that this is a Catholic school? You should have enrolled in Marawi. You have no respect for us. This is not your house or church... you are not allowed to bring your mukna and prayer carpet.”

Sitti narrated that she had to break her fast because of fear and nervousness,  a panic attack, and hyperventilation, and that she had to drink water.

Sitti’s brother, in a social media post, reminded the erring official that she had violated DepEd Order No. 32, series of 2013, on the protection of the religious rights of students, and DECS Order No. 53, series of 2001, entitled Strengthening the Protection of Religious Rights of Students.

The discrimination likewise ran counter to the United Nations Charter, the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, and many other agreements.

Likewise, it violated the equal protection clause enshrined in the Philippine Constitution (Art. 111, Sect. 1), which simply means that you cannot treat people differently based on their station in life or religion.

Moreover, the provision on the guarantee of the free exercise and enjoyment of religious worship without discrimination (ibid, Sect. 5) and Republic Act 10627 or the anti-bullying in school and workplace law and other relevant laws were violated.

Sitti’s narration is heart-wrenching, and one cannot help but feel revulsion over the school official’s rude and condescending demeanor.

We doff our hat to Sitti, who is royalty being a scion of one of the noblest and politically influential families of the Royal Houses of Lanao. The family will not take the insult sitting down and is preparing administrative, civil, if not criminal, suits for the insult and humiliation Sitti suffered. It is an affront to the religion of peace, Islam and should not be countenanced.

We would like to believe that this is an isolated case and not an institutional policy but a deviant of a “cog in the wheel.” But just the same the academic institution should be called out and warned of administrative, if not criminal, sanctions for being complicit in the transgression. SMC should mete out the corresponding penalty unless it admits that the reprehensible act is one of the values promoted by the school.

Let those who are callous in their insolence bear the brunt of their social misdeeds. The rest of us can live without them. 

amb_mac_lanto@yahoo.com