TRIPOLI, Libya — Philippine Muslim leaders who participated in the World Islamic People's Conference (WIPC) 5th General Conference, led by Ustadhz Ahmad D. Nooh, on Wednesday condemned in the highest terms the beheading of a captive teacher in Jolo, Sulu.

Nooh, of Davao City and graduate of Libya's Quliatul Ad-Da'wah Al-Islamie (Islamic Call University), said there is not an atom of justification that can be raised for the beheading of an innocent human being.

"I condemned this killing of a person who was giving education to Muslims in Sulu," said Nooh, a Filipino member of WIPC.

Suspected Abu Sayyaff Group (ASG) bandits on the island of Sulu killed elementary school teacher Gabriel Canizares, on Monday, severing his head which they left near a gasoline station in dowtown Jolo and his body recovered hours later in Patikul.

Canizares, 36, a resident of Lower San Raymundo, Jolo, was principal of Kanague Elementary School Patikul. ASG bandits kidnapped him on October 20 and asked for P2-million ransom for his freedom.

With Nooh in the Tripoli conference attended by over 500 Muslim scholars, academics, thinkers and writers, among others, are Eid Kabalu, chief of the Civil-Military Affairs Department of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), Hatimil Hassan, a senior leader of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF), and Aleem Ameroddin Sarangani, president of MarkzoSshabab Al-Islamie Fil Filibbin, Inc.

Kabalu said the barbaric beheading of Canizares deserves the strongest condemnation.

"The MILF condemns in the highest possible term the beheading. This is against humanity and Islam's principles," said Kabalu.

"It is the MILF policy to reject such kind of action. We condole with the family and fellow teachers of Gabriel Canizares," the MILF military spokesman said.

In heaping condemnation at the senseless killing of a teacher, Hassan said the beheading and such other instances of violence in Mindanao could be partly because of the deterioration of the 1996 final peace agreement (FPA) between the government and the MNLF.

"I am appealing to the government to resume the Tripartite Meeting and revive the Joint Monitoring Committee which can help in addressing violence," said Hassan. (The tripartite talks is for the review of the FPA.)

Sarangani said Islam means peace and has nothing to do with the criminal acts of some Muslims.