Once Islam achieves a significant demographic, off comes the smiles and insistence on coexistence, replaced with intimidation and violence. It’s been seen throughout its history, one can almost set a watch to it. KGS

Bombing wounds 11 at Christmas Mass in Philippines

ArabNews: MANILA: A bomb exploded during Christmas Day Mass at a chapel inside a police camp in the volatile southern Philippines, wounding a priest and 10 churchgoers. The device was hidden in a ventilation window near the ceiling of the chapel, which is on the compound where the provincial police office is located in Jolo town on Jolo Island, Sulu provincial police said.

The island is a stronghold of Al-Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf militants, but it wasn’t clear who was responsible for the bombing. Investigators recovered parts of a cell phone they believe detonated the device. All of the wounded were civilians. One woman remained at a hospital for observation later Saturday, but police said one did not need hospital treatment and the others have been treated and sent home.

The Rev. Romeo Villanueva, 72, said a newly ordained priest, the Rev. Ricky Bacoldol, who was assisting him, was thrown off his feet by the blast impact and suffered a slight leg injury. “I was reading the Gospel. I was not yet finished when there was a loud explosion,” Villanueva told The Associated Press by telephone.

The roof over the front of the church collapsed and wooden beams and other debris flew in all directions. A portion of the ceiling shielded the organs from the blast, Villanueva said. About 50 people were inside the church but many more were arriving at the time, he said.

President Benigno Aquino III’s spokesman, Edwin Lacierda, said the bombing “violates the basic tenets of respect and peace of all who hold their faith dear.” He said there could be no religious or political justification for the attack. The Philippines is predominantly Catholic, but Christians are a minority in Jolo and nearby island provinces that are majority Muslim.

More here.