Silsilah Forum Marawi’s 2^nd celebration on World Interfaith Harmony Week (WIHW) 2020 with the theme “Celebrating Dialogue towards Harmony” happened on February 03, 2020 in an open area Golf Course inside Mindanao State University Main Campus Marawi City where the ground zero zone can be seen. Internally Displaced Persons (IDP’s), faculty and Silsilah Alumni joined the celebration. The program started with an ecumenical prayer given by Nelson Jimenez followed by the singing of the harmony song. Opening remarks, orientation on Silsilah Dialogue Movement and the background and recognition of World Interfaith Harmony Week celebration (February 1 to 7) was given by the Muslim coordinator Asrifah U. Paudac giving emphasis on the theme of WIHW 2020 celebration about the importance of dialogue in having and establishing harmonious relationship in a world, community or place where differences in religion, culture, beliefs, traditions and others exist. The participants then individually shared their experiences and journey living inside Marawi City. Participants shared that they have stayed in Marawi for a range of 30 years and more and had experiences on threat and discrimination (both Muslims and  Christians) but as time went by, they started to encourage themselves to engage in dialogue to resolve conflicts and misunderstandings and this made living in harmony and peace with their neighbors (Muslims and Christians) possible. Through dialogue, they have established respect, love and good “family – like” relationship in their communities.

Special messages were given by Ms. Jamilah – Aisha Sanguila and  Prof. Abubacar Ali. Prof. Abubacar shared that “it is good to hear stories from both sides, and as a Muslim living in Marawi this is very important as some shared experiences on discrimination and threat that they have experienced before with some of my fellow Muslims and vice versa but not all Muslims and Christians are bad. It’s good to know that majority have established good relationship with each other here in Marawi City. A harmonious relationship full of respect, forgiveness, love, acceptance which all started in a dialogue”.

Solidarity prayer then happened where in participants formed huge circle and offered a prayer for peace, healing and reconciliation for all people of Marawi. Participants offered their individual prayers of peace in silence followed by lighting their candles and placing it in a symbolic pail of water. Closing message was given by Mr. Godfrey Mordeno, the Christian coordinator and highlighted that “Sama sa kalayo sa kandila, mag continue pud ang atong mga commitment in participating and encouraging ourselves into dialogue in order to understand each other more and establish the harmony and peace that we want. The program ended with all participants singing the harmony song by heart. Calendars and lunch were then distributed to the participants.

“What we only need is to understand each other, to eliminate these biases and discrimination through acceptance and this emphasizes why dialogue is important, why engaging ourselves in actively participating in an interfaith dialogue is needed to deepen the understanding of each other’s differences, to respect, to love and have genuine peace. Indeed, when there is dialogue, living harmoniously in peace is possible”