Kirra Kimbrell History 1000C November 29, 2012 Islam in the Philippines On October 15, 2012 in the Philippine

capital of Manila, the Philippine president Beningo Aquino signed a peace treaty with the countrys largest Muslim rebel group the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF). These negotiations towards peace mark the end of a forty year conflict between the Muslim region Sulu-Mindanao in the southern Philippines and the northern Philippine Christian areas. The region of Sulu-Mindanao has been fighting for autonomous control of their area and through the newly enacted peace deal; they will now have such control over this area, which was recently renamed Bangsamoro. The Muslim leaders of Bangsmoro will now have greater economic and political power as well as help for the impoverished communities in the region and more access to natural resources; they will also begin to disband private armies and rebel groups and phase in a new Bangsamoro police unit which will be managed by the Muslim political leaders of this area. (BBC) The religious and political conflict that has been plaguing the Philippines for the past several decades has its roots as far back as the European colonial period of the area. During the Spanish colonization of the Philippines, Spain was able to take control of the northern region of the Philippines because it was an area in transition the people of this region took to Spanish domination of the area and were easily Christianized. The southern areas of Sulu-Mindanao, however, resisted Spanish control and Christianization; Spain had no direct control of these areas during colonial times despite various attempts. (Federspiel, pp 340-345) These southern areas

where predominantly Muslim and had been so since the late tenth century when Arab merchants began passing through the region on their way to China. ("Muslim Mindanao") They lived under the political control of the sultanate and had since the first Sultan of Sulu Paduka Mahasari Maulana al-Sultan Sharif ul-Hashim gained political control of the region in 1450. (Lingga, pp 2) The Spanish interest in colonizing these southern areas succeeded only in driving the Northern and Southern Philippines apart a divided centered on religious differences. In 1889, after the signing of the Treaty of Paris during the end of the Spanish-American War, America gained control of the Philippine Islands, including the area of Sulu-Mindanao. The Americans also received resistance from the local Muslims and the American presence there was heavily unwanted. However, after a realization that the Americans were only interested in political control and maintained no interest in Christianizing the Muslims of this region, some progress was made and American leaders in the Southern Philippines were able to implement some social programs for the betterment of the area. (Federspiel 345-356) However, American forces also tried to integrate Filipinos from the north and south which ultimately caused social unrest and consequently conflict among the differing regions. The social unrest that arose from the suggested integration was not the only primary cause of the Islamic Conflict in the Philippines, the isolation of Muslims from northern Philippine development also contributed heavily to the rise of separatist movements. (Lingga, pp 5-7) ("Muslim Mindanao") In 1924, the Muslims of the Sulu-Mindanao region began legally lobbying for their independence. In February of that year, the leaders of the Muslim community signed a document known as the Declaration of Rights and Purposes in which these leaders stated that they would rather remain an unorganized territory of the United States than become a part of the newly

forming Republic of the Philippines. (Lingga, pp 8) Sadly, for the Muslim population, these requests were ultimately ignored. When the Americans relinquished control of Sulu-Mindanao to the Republic of the Philippines in 1946, the Muslims in the area began once again to seek autonomous control. The area is predominately Sunni Muslim and although the Muslims within this region tend to identify themselves with the larger Sunni Muslim population located in other parts of the world, they are still the minority in the Philippines. This religious pride is the only unifying factor for the thirteen indigenous ethno-linguistics groups living within this region, however, since the advent of Islam in the Philippines, it has been enough to amalgamate the region. (Lingga, 1) Because of the unification that Islam provides in the Sulu-Mindanao area, traditionally the importance of the rule of the Sultan over this area was great. With the arrival of American dominance, however, the political role of the Sultan diminished and local power over this region began to diminish, heavily contributing to the modern day political discord. (Federspiel 352-356) The Philippine government, upon the creation of the Republic, also played a part in the creation of the unrest. Through political moves to try and promote the integration of all Philippine peoples, the government encouraged Northern Christian Filipinos to move south reducing the area inhabited by Muslims significantly. In more modern times, the Philippine conflict is comprised of clashes between the Philippine government and three main groups of Muslim seperatists the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF), the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), and the Abu Sayyaf. These groups first arose from the failure of Muslims to legally obtain independence and the frustration of radicals in response to massacres and atrocities being committed against Muslims

living in Sulu-Mindanao during the early 1970s. The MNLF was the first Muslim separatist faction with the two others breaking from it because of secondary differences. (Molloy) The MNLF is a separatist organization founded by Nur Misuari in 1971, for the purpose of establishing an autonomous Muslim nation. The often violent efforts of this organization yielded several temporary results throughout the history of the conflict. (BBC) Over the course of 20 years, from 1976 to 1996, the Philippine government and the MNLF negotiated the Tripoli Agreement which essentially granted the MNLF the right to be autonomous within the confines of the Philippine Republic. Therefore in 1989 to comply with the Tripoli Agreement, President Aquino enacted laws that helped to establish semi-autonomous control in predominately Muslim regions. These laws gave several regions more localized control and grouped them into the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao. (Lingga 9-12) Many members of the MNLF however, were unhappy with the provisions of the Tripoli Agreement and in 1977 they split from the movement founding the Moro Islamic Liberation Front. This movement aimed to restore the original object of obtaining a separate Muslim State in the Sulu-Mindanao region. The governments response to these separatist movements was declared by President Ferdinand Marcos in 1977 paralleling the rise of the MILF. His statement concluded that the government considered all Muslims, even those involved with rebel groups to be citizens of the Republic of the Philippines. This statement was based on those in political office and did not take into account the interests of the Muslim minority. It merely suggested that because there were Muslims in political positions locally in Muslim majority areas and because there were a few national political figures that were Muslim, that Muslims were represented and therefore an active part of the Republic. (Molloy 822-833)

In response to the governments ignorance of the unyielding desire for Muslim independence, Muhammad al-Hassan a Muslim spokesman summarized the Muslim plight in Sulu-Mindanao:
We [Moros and Filipinos] are two different peoples adhering to different ideologies, having different cultures, and nurtured by different historical experiences. We have contradistinct conceptions of sovereignty. The Filipinos believe that sovereignty resides in them, but we believe that sovereignty belongs to God alone. The political, social, economic and judicial institutions they inherited from the colonizers, organized on the basis of the separation of spiritual and mundane aspects of life, are incongruous with ours which are established on the postulates that life is a unity, God is the Sovereign and man is His vicegerent. Our culture, imbued with Islamic beliefs, tenets and principles, is diametrically in contrast with what is known today as Filipino culture which is the amalgamation of the residues of the colonizers cultures. Our art, architecture, literature and music have retained their Asian character [which] is not true [of] theirs.

His comparison of the differences in culture between the Filipinos and the Bangsmoro people serve to illustrate why the frustration of maintaining Philippine rule prevails in Muslim dominated areas. (Lingga 6-7) The separatist movements therefore, remained active in the Southern Philippines continually seeking autonomy not under the Philippine Republic as provided by the Tripoli Agreement but total autonomy, a return to the control of the sultanate as before 1946. In 1996, the rift between the Filipinos and the Muslims again came to the forefront. The Philippine government had been using military power and war tactics against the Muslims of the SuluMindanao region for over twenty years. Although meant to calm the insurgencies by the separatist movements, this war activity resulted in the deaths of over 100,000 people. Of those 100,000, a fifth of those dead were unarmed civilians women, children, nonradicals who simply lived in areas where conflict was prevalent. (Eder 317-332)

This high death toll contributed to the interest in negotiating peace talks between the MILF and the Philippine government. Beginning in 1997, and lasting until another breakout of war until 2000, the Philippine government and MILF, under the supervision of Indonesia sought to reach an agreement as to the state of the Sulu-Mindanao region. But once again, the ensuing peace did not last. In 2000 and again in 2003, the Philippine government sent military forces into attack the Sulu Mindanao region displacing millions of local Muslims. Again peace was called for and the president at the time Gloria Arroyo once again pushed for talks to help ease and end the conflict in this region. (Lingga 7-8) These peace talks would not only fulfill the desires of the separatist movements but would also appease the general Muslim population of Sulu-Mindanao. Both the civil society and traditional leaders of the area have been continually advocating for the legal allowance of independence in Bangsmoro; both groups have pleaded to the United Nations for a supervised referendum to determine if the Bangsmoro people should be rewarded their independence. (Eder 317-332) Overall, the government response to the Muslim plight in Bangsmoro has been one of indifference and neglect. The government has chosen to write the issues of as being those of slow economic development or cover them up underneath military ventures all the while doing nothing to promote the welfare of the local Muslim population. The Muslim population has remained generally positive, seeking autonomy and self-determination as the answer to reconciling their political agenda with their values and way of life. The newly gained autonomy comes as a result of years of effort and will hopefully serve as an end to the four decades of violence that have plagued the Bangsmoro region.

Bibliography Eder, James F. "Ethnic Differences, Islamic Consciousness, And Muslim Social Integration In The Philippines." Journal Of Muslim Minority Affairs 30.3 (2010): 317-332. Historical Abstracts. Web. 27 Nov. 2012. Federspiel, Howard M. Journal of Southeast Asian Studies, Volume 29, No. 2 (Sep., 1998), pp 340-356. Cambridge University Press, Department of History, National University of Singapore. Historical Abstracts. <http://www.jstor.org/stable/20072050>. Web. 20 Nov. 2012. Lingga, Abhoud. Bangsmoro. Institute of Bangsmoro Studies. Muslim Minority in the Philippines. Malaysia: , 2004. Print. <http://www.muslimmindanao.ph/islam_phil/muslim minority.pdf>. .Muslim Mindanao. Asian Institute of Journalism and Communication, n.d. Web. 27 Nov 2012. <http://www.muslimmindanao.ph/Islam_phil.html>. Molloy, Ivan. "Revolution in the Philippines: The Question Of An Alliance Between Islam And Communism." Asian Survey 25.8 (1985): 822.Historical Abstracts. Web. 27 Nov. 2012.