The Battle of Marawi is an ongoing conflict that started May 23rd between Philippine government security forces and affiliated militants of ISIS. Extremists have essentially taken over the Philippine town of Marawi, home to 200,000 people, and the situation is dire.
Take what happened to Norodin Lucman. He’s a 61-year-old Muslim retiree who took it upon himself to hide Christian friends and neighbors at his home during the siege. As the Los Angeles Times reports, “Militants were torching homes and schools, freeing prisoners, taking hostages and waving Islamic State flags. The militants had stopped another group of cell tower workers and demanded that they recite the Shahada, a Muslim proclamation of faith. Marawi is predominantly Muslim. But the men were Christians from nearby cities. They failed the test. When one tried to escape on his motorbike, the militants shot him dead. Amid the chaos, the nine others managed to flee to Lucman’s house.”
At this point, Mr. Lucman was hiding more than 30 Christians at his home, and it was only a matter of time before ISIS found him out. “I’ll die first before you do,” he told his Christian friends. Thousands of people tried to flee the city, but the extremists had set up roadblocks on the bridges. They were picking out Christians and slaughtering them.
Mr. Lucman eventually figured out when the extremists were sleeping and managed to help his Christian guests escape. “There are many cases of Muslim employers who died because they were protecting their Christian employees,” recounted Mr. Lucman. “It’s so sad. Because after my breakthrough, some people tried to do it themselves, and they failed.”
For more on Mr. Luchman’s harrowing account, be sure to CLICK —
