Muslim Netizens Defend President Duterte After He Was Criticized For Wearing Boots Inside Grand Mosque

On September 11, 2017, President Rodrigo Duterte visited Marawi again, for the fourth time since the war begun. This time, not to visit the injured soldiers but to take back the places that were used by the Marawi camp as well as the strongest defense post of the Marawi soldiers.

One of the places that was turned into a battleground was the Islamic Center or the Grand Mosque. What was supposed to be a good-willed visit came back as a controversy when Communications Secretary Mocha Uson posted a video documenting the President. All good intentions aside, what the media noticed was that the president and his company did not remove their shoes when they entered the Mosque.

People were quick to condemn Mocha for not respecting the place as she must have as a woman. But no matter how quick they are to judge the president and Mocha, netizens who understand the real meaning of their visit came to the rescue. Even Muslims came to defend the president and said that the only time you remove your shoes is when you visit to pray.

Here are some comments that defended the president.

Netizen and Duterte follower Krizette Laureta Chu also aired her defense on Facebook where she called on her Muslim brothers and sisters to enlighten her if it was indeed disrespectful what the president did when he visited the Mosque.

Some of her followers who are Muslims came to explain that it was not disrespectful and they were not offended. One even said that what the former President Erap Estrada did before when he went inside a Mosque and ate pork was more offending. 

Furthermore, Mocha Uson herself issued an apology to those who were offended. But she made sure to explain that what GMA News and TV 5 were reporting are not true.

She took a clip from GMA's News and gave her statement there. The news said she was taking a selfie, she said the selfie incident was in the camp outside and the Mosque incident was when they were asked to seek shelter as the fires and the war itself can be heard nearby.

In the end of the video, Mocha called out the media and said not to twist news just to have something to report.

"Wag sana baluktutin ang storya para magkaroon ng balita."

This was coupled with a clip of the President giving his statement about what happened. After explaining what really happened, the president said not to draw any inferences as they did not mean to disrespect any religion.

"Do not draw unpleasant inferences because nobody wants to dishonor a religion." 

Source/s: News5, Mocha Uson, Krizette