DAR AL HARB - PHILLIPINES: A PHILLIPINO MOSLEM TAKES ADVANTAGE OF HIS USAMA BIN LADEN RESEMBLANCE, RUNS FOR OFFICE

Vote for Bin Laden? 'Peacemaker' Uses Bizarre Strategy to Win Votes in Philippine Election

MANILA, Philippines — Philippine elections are largely a battle of name recall, so Agakhan Sharief has chosen a moniker that will surely capture the attention of voters well beyond his backwater southern province — Usama bin Laden.

Unlike the world's most-wanted terror suspect, Sharief is known by many in Lanao del Sur province as a peacemaker who has helped broker truces when sporadic clashes have erupted between government troops and Muslim insurgents.

Sporting an 18-inch long beard, turban and a neck scarf similar to that worn by bin Laden in TV images, the 35-year-old Sharief has been campaigning frenziedly for a seat in Lanao's legislative council in May 14 elections.

Posters bear his real name with the explosive moniker plastered in the middle in big, bold letters: "BIN LADEN."

He owes his nickname partly to President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, Sharief said.

After attending a peace-and-order meeting led by Arroyo in Lanao in 2002, Sharief asked the president to pose for a souvenir picture with him. Somebody in the crowd jokingly told Arroyo that he was known around town by the infamous nickname.

"Oh, I see, the young bin Laden of Mindanao," Sharief quoted Arroyo as saying. The crowd erupted in laughter and applause.

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WOOOHOOO ! ! !

Usama Bin Laden, the moslem hero...


Pertinent Links:

1) Vote for Bin Laden? 'Peacemaker' Uses Bizarre Strategy to Win Votes in Philippine Election