CONTENTS:
I. Objectives and Aims of this Module
II. Topical Overview of Islam
III. Topical Overview of the Spread of Islam in the Philippines
IV. Topical Overview of the History and Development of Islam in the Southern Philippines
V. Suggested Assignments
VI. Bibliography
SUGGESTED AUDIENCE: Juniors and seniors (11th
-12th
grades) in high school
I. Objectives and Aims of this Module.
This module focuses on the topic of Islam in the southern Philippines and intends to reach a variety
of objectives. It will help students (last years of high school, 17-18 years old) to gain insight into
the complex situation in the southern Philippines today. It is therefore necessary to provide
information on three subaspects of this topic:
1) Insight into Islam and the religious context
2) Historical background of the spread of Islam
3) Economic and political implications for Muslims in a predominantly Christian country
Students will be provided with some general information concerning Islam as a religion, a way of
life, and a socio-cultural system. After a general definition of Islam, the six main rules of Islamic
religion are summarized.
Information about the historical background is considered necessary to understand the actual
situation today. The spread of Islam throughout the world occurred in two waves, which are briefly
mentioned. Then focus will be made on the spread and evolution of Islam in the Southern
Philippines. The module pays some attention to the question of which groups of people were the
pioneers of Islam in the Philippines, and how Islamization took place gradually. The economic
motivations of Muslim traders, the fortification of Islamic religion by teachers and politicians, and
the attractiveness of Islam to the common people are factors that are mentioned.
For the sake of clarity and consistency, six crucial historical eras or milestones have been selected.
For each historical period, a sketch of the situation is provided, along with answers to a set of
questions concerning the political, economic, cultural and religious organization of the lives of
Muslims in Sulu province, southern Philippines. These six eras are 1) the pre-Islamic period, 2) the
period of Islamization of the southern Philippines, 3) the period of Spanish colonial hegemony, 4)
the American colonial era, 5) the present era of Filipino independent society, and 6) the actual
circumstances today. Insight into the historical evolution of the Philippines is indispensable for a
better understanding of the situation today. Emphasis will also be placed on the interconnectedness of religious, political and economic
contexts. Questions that are thematized include, for instance:
1
1. How does Christianity relate to Islam in the southern Philippines?
2. How do Filipino native beliefs and cultural practices relate to Christianity as well as to Islam?
3. How does the economic situation of the Muslims compare with that of Christians in the
Philippines?
In an attempt to give information that sheds light on the historical development from different
perspectives, this module aims to encourage reflection, not one-sided and rash judgment. It also
aims to provide the students with insight that the ongoing conflicts in the southern Philippines are
far more complex than simply a confrontation for religious reasons. Economic and political
motivations from all parties, and above all an ambivalent relationship to western capitalism and
American economic colonization, should not be neglected.
II. Topical Overview of Islam
Islam is a religion that has its origin in Arabia in the 7th Century. Its origins are closely connected
to Judaism and Christianity, two other monotheistic world religions. It is younger, or newer, than
both Judaism and Christianity. The founder of the Islamic religion is the Prophet Muhammad, who
lived in the 7th Century. Muslims believe that Allah, the name for God in Islam, revealed his
wisdom and expectations to the Prophet Muhammad. All this knowledge, including the laws and
rules that have to be followed, are written down in the Koran, the name for the Holy Book in Islam.
It is important to know that the Islamic religion developed out of a feeling of social injustice.
Muhammad came from a poor family, and he defended the common people against the rich traders.
He was inspired to develop his religion by what he heard from Jews and Christians. He was a
religious leader and a politician at the same time. In addition to the original religious and social
message that he brought to his followers, he developed a set of rules and laws that were meant to
organize the political and social life of the Muslim people. That way, we can understand that
worldly power is legitimated by religious authority: God has said that the ruler must act thus and
thus. The religious and the political authority have to be in the hands of one and the same person.
It is the responsibility of the religious and political leader to see that all Muslim people follow the
rules correctly. Since the first forty years of the development of Islam during the seventh century,
the Islamic rules and laws have not changed.
Islam is a widespread religion found throughout Asia, Africa, the Middle East, Europe, the
Caribbean, North America, and Latin America. When the Prophet Muhammad died, his followers,
just as the Christians did, started to spread the new religion. The expansion of Islam occurred in
two waves. The first wave was the expansion of Islam out of Arabia to the Middle East, North
Africa, Spain, Central Asia, and later to parts of Eastern Europe. The second wave brought Islam
to Sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia. The coming of Islam in the Philippines is part of this
second wave. This is the part of history that we will be talking about.
But first, we have to look at some characteristics of Islam as a religion, a way of life and a cultural
system. Crucial to the religion of Islam is a set of rules and laws to be followed by all Muslims.
There are six main rules :
1. Muslims must pray five times daily with their face turned toward the Ka’bah, a holy cube
before the mosque in Mecca, in present day Saudi Arabia. The mosque is the name for the holy
temple of Islam. 2. Each year, Muslims prepare for a special celebration by holding Ramadan, a four-week period
of fasting between dawn and sunset. Muslims have their own religious calendar, and Ramadan
is the ninth month of this calendar with the specific date varying from year to year.
3. Each Muslim has to go to the Ka’bah in Mecca at least once during his lifetime. Only sick
people or those who cannot afford the journey for financial reasons are not obliged to go on this
pilgrimage to Mecca.
4. Each Muslim has to give alms to the poor.
5. The holy day for Muslims is Friday, just as for the Christians the holy day is Sunday and for
Jewish people on Saturday. Muslim men go to the mosque to pray on this day.
6. It is a necessity for each Muslim to overtly and publicly express the belief in Allah.
They have to say the words ‘there is no god but God, and Muhammad is his messenger’. The
aim of this pronouncement is to build an Islamic society. As we will see in our explanations on
Islam in the Philippines, and as we all know from the political context today, it is precisely this
feature of the Islam religion that gives birth to the concept of the Holy War or Jihad.
III. Topical Overview of the Spread of Islam in the Philippines
Today it is known for sure that Islam was present in Southeast Asia as early as 1400. One of the
places where Islam spread is the southern part of the Philippines, a group of islands which is
situated southeast from China.
Several groups of people have probably contributed to its expansion, and scholars argue about
which group was the most important one, the first one, etc. :
1. The Muslim traders were among the first people to bring the Islamic religion to the Philippines.
These traders established trading centers in Southeast Asia as their regular commercial stopovers
on their way to China. The traders intermarried with the daughters of local headmen.
2. In these trade centers, the need for Muslim education was soon felt. Muslim teachers and
missionaries were also among the first transmitters of Islamic religion. They came from the Arabic
region; for example, from Bagdad in Iraq.
3. The third explanation for the presence of Islam in the Philippines is a political one. This theory
holds that the conversion of the leaders of communities was important to spread the religion, the
local superiors forced the population to become Muslim.
4. Some scholars say, however, that local people were simply and spontaneously attracted to Islam
because of the beautiful rituals, stories and art work. Moreover, it is nice to have the feeling of
belonging to a larger community, to a group of equal people, the Muslim brotherhood or the
Ummah. Some scholars also say that Islam had respect for the local, native culture and religion.
IV. Topical Overview of the History and Development of Islam in the Southern Philippines
Below is a short overview of the history of Islam in the Philippines. This is important in order to
gain insight into the complex situation in which the southern Philippines is engaged today. Thus,
we will present information about the Moro people, which is the name for 13 groups of people
living in the southern Philippines. One of the groups discussed are the Tausug who live on the
southern islands of the Sulu archipelago. . Pre-Islamic era (300 BC – 13th
Century)
Moro live in small communities called banua. These banua existed independently of each other,
but they had contacts with each other to organize trade. There were three social classes in the
banua: the rulers (datu), the common people, and the servants. The Moro in this era had spiritual
beliefs: they worshipped stones, rivers, storms, lightning, spirits and others. This belief in gods and
spirits living in nature, animals, and things is called animism.
2. Islamization of the Southern Philippines (13th Century – 1571)
Islam began to spread in the southern Philippines during this period. There is no historical
evidence that the native people fought against the coming of a new religion. Many native practices
survived, and people found ways to combine Islamic religion with their own beliefs and practices.
The Muslims founded communities, called sultanates, and the chief of such communities was the
sultan. Islamic communities were founded in many coastal parts of the Philippines during this
period, including Manila.
Wars in Europe or in America are often fought in order to conquer land because land is precious in
that part of the world. In Southeast Asia, as the land was not densely populated during this period,
conquering people and bringing people to your domain was a strategy that was often used. The
Muslim sultanates in the southern Philippines, for example, went with their fleet to the northern
islands to find slaves to bring back to Sulu province. It is important to know, however, that slavery
in Asia was somewhat different from slavery in Europe or America. The slaves were called
banyaga, and although they were their masters’ property officially, in their social and economic
lives, it was often impossible to tell them apart from free persons. They were integrated into
society, and could also have property of their own. Children of the banyaga were encouraged to
adopt Islam and to marry Muslim Moro peoples from the south. When a banyaga girl married a
free Moro man, their children automatically acquired the social status of free people.
3. Spanish Colonization (1571-1896)
In 1571, the leader of the Muslims was killed in Manila, the present capital of the Philippines.
Manila, and eventually much of country, fell into the hands of the Spanish. They colonized the
Philippines for more than three hundred years. That meant that they took over the economy and the
political administration, and they brought their culture and also their religion to the people. The
Spanish colonizers practiced the Catholic religion and they wanted to make Christians of all the
people in the Philippines. They wanted to convert the people who believed in the native gods, as
well as the people who had become Muslim in the previous centuries. Therefore, the Spanish sent
a large fleet and an army of Filipinos who had become Christian to the Muslim sultanates in the
south. They fought with the Moro people, where they encountered strong resistance. The Spanish
colonizers and the Christianized Filipino army wanted to take over the Muslim trade centers and to
annex the sultanates to the Spanish colony. They also wanted to put an end to the piracy of the
Moro people. Between 1635 and 1663, they conquered the Sulu area. The Spaniards were better
equipped than Muslim Filipinos since they had steam gunboats in the second half of the nineteenth
century: it was a new, modern invention at that time and quicker on the sea than the other boats.
More and more Moro people were weakened during their resistance to the Spanish and some no
longer protested against the colonizers. More and more people in the southern Philippines began to
recognize the Spanish as the rulers of the country, and more and more Christian settlers came to
live in the area. The Spanish colonization of the Philippines ended in 1896 when the Americans
intervened. However, this did not mean that the Philippines became a free and independent country. The Americans were the next colonizers.
4. American Period (1896-1946)
Remember that the Spanish colonizers were Catholics. The Americans attempted to bond with the
Muslim people from the south, who at first considered the Americans to be their allies. However,
Americans also fought Muslim Filipinos to gain control. These facts are important if we want to
understand the political situation in the southern Philippines today.
The Americans encouraged Christian people from the northern Philippines to emigrate to Sulu and
other areas of Mindanao. They also gave people from the south the possibility of studying in
Manila, the capital of the Philippines, and taught them the modern, western ways of managing
politics, economics and social life. This was part of the American strategy for getting a grip on the
Islamic peoples of the southern Philippines. Unlike the Spanish colonizers, the Americans did not
try to enforce Christianity with violence. Instead, they tried to impose their ideas through the
education of some Moro rulers in the south. During the American period, other changes took place
in Moro society: slavery was abolished and highways, schools and hospitals were built. However,
the Moro people did not welcome this development. They felt that the Americans wanted to make
them inferior to the Filipino Christians, and they continued their resistance against colonization and
attempts to transform the Philippines into a western, capitalist country.
5. Independent Filipino Society (1946-today)
After the second World War (1941-1945), the Philippines became independent. They are currently
a republic with a president, and the predominant religion is the Christian religion. The Muslims
still feel threatened by the Christians, and resent that the southern Philippines is economically and
politically inferior to the north. From the 1950s onward, Muslims from all over the world,
including Saudi Arabia, have objected to the way in which the Islamic religion and way of life are
threatened in the southern Philippines. They want to make the Islamic community stronger and
they support them in a number of ways. Islamic governments give money to Muslim Filipinos that
they have earned from the petroleum trade with western countries, and they support the study of
Moro students in Saudi Arabia. They invite Moro leaders to Arabian conferences to discuss their
problems, and they continue to send Islamic missionaries to teach the Islamic religion in the
southern Philippines.
More and more, these countries not only support Islam, but they also strengthen the idea that it
would be good for the Moro peoples to become politically independent from the rest of the
Philippines. The feeling of Moro nationalism is consciously encouraged. From 1960, the Moro
people have expressed their wish to become independent, e.g., to secede from the Republic of the
Philippines. There are people who support the idea of an independent Moro nation and who want
to separate, as well as organize themselves into separatist movements or rebellion groups. In 1968,
a large group of young Moro soldiers were executed without any form of trial by the national army.
This incident was the start of a whole series of violent conflicts and fights between the goverment
army and the Moro separatists.
6. Situation today
The average Muslim Filipino community today organize to protect themselves against the bloody
conflicts between the Philippine army and more rebellious Muslim Filipino groups. The living
circumstances in some of these Muslim communities are not favorable at all. In Campo Muslim in
Cotabato City in Sulu province, for example, more than 70% of the households are without sanitary
comforts or running water. Fire and epidemic infections are a constant threat, and young children
often die of malnutrition and illness. Tuberculosis claims many victims as well. Campo Muslim receives no regular protection from the governmental police, and the people who live there feel
neglected and abandoned by the Philippine government. The Christian neighbourhood of the city,
in contrast, has paved roads and better services.
During recent years, the southern Philippines have become a site for violent terrorist actions by
separatist Muslim groups. One strategy that finances their activities involves putting the Philippine
government under pressure by kidnapping people. For example, Abbu Sayyaf and his rebels
regularly kidnap average Christian Filipino people, foreign western tourists (also Americans),
business people, and Catholic nuns. They also are responsible for bomb explosions that have killed
several people. Since January 2002, the U.S. Army has been in the southern Philippines to assist
the Philippine army in stopping the terrorists from these actions and to free the kidnapped and
imprisoned people. The presence of the U.S. Army is intended to make the region peaceful again,
but it is inevitable that it also triggers more violence. Many Filipinos dislike the American military
presence, because it reminds them of the period of American colonization of their country.
V. Suggested assignments
The suggested assignments are designed to facilitate the cognitive processing of the subject matter,
as well as student reflection on the need to take all perspectives of the involved groups into account
when examining conflicts.
1. Historical assignment:
Students are asked to represent the development of Islam in the southern Philippines by means of a
time chart. The teacher should draw a horizontal line on the blackboard, and then ask the students
to indicate where to place the six points in time. Each "point in time" represents the six significant
eras/milestones students have encountered during the project.
For each period, students should be asked to determine one keyword(s) as an answer to each of the
following questions:
- Where in time is the period or the event to be situated?
- Which religions were at stake at that moment in time?
- Which person or group had the political authority at that moment?
- What was the economic situation like?
- How was social life organized?
As the answers at times could be ambiguous, the students are encouraged to discuss the various
shades and gradations of how best to explain these issues.
In a second stage, the assignment could be made more complex. For each era/event, students could
try to capture the religious, economic and politic situation from the point of view both of Muslims
and Christians.
2. Writing assignment:
A young teacher in the Muslim school in Campo Muslim (Sulu province) writes a letter to the
Philippine President. He is not a radical Muslim and he disapproves of the violent actions of the
rebels and the separatist movements. He writes to President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo to explain
the miserable living conditions in Campo Muslim, and to ask her to consider the plight of Muslim
Filipinos. He is asking to improve the learning and living conditions of the children that are living
in Campo Muslim. He also could refer to historical events, and to the political and economic inequality between the Christian and Muslim populations of the Philippines. The students are
asked to write this letter, and they are encouraged to use additional information from the internet,
library, etc. to give examples or content to their arguments.
3. Assessment of contemporary politics assignment:
Students are asked to compare the reports on the actual situation in the southern Philippines (for
example, the presence of the U.S. Army, bomb blasts by the rebel movements, peace negotiations)
in various newspapers online, Philippine as well as American editions. Suggestions for newspapers
and websites that can be used and represent a fairly wide range of perspectives are:
- Mindanao Times: www.mindanaotimes.com.ph/news/
- Manila Bulletin: www.mb.com.ph/
- Philippines Post: www.philippinespost.com
VI. Bibliography
Jocano, Landa F. (Ed.) Filipino Muslims: Their Social Institutions and Cultural Achievements.
Asian Center – University of the Philippines: Diliman, Quezon City, 1983.
McKenna, Thomas M. Muslim Rulers and Rebels: Everyday Politics and Armed Separatism in
the Southern Philippines. University of California Press: Berkeley, 1998.
McKenna, Thomas M. Islam, Elite Competition and Ethnic Mobilization: Forms of Domination
and Dissent in Cotabato, Southern Philippines. Ann Arbor: Michigan, 1990 (Dissertation at
University of California, Davis).
Mercado, Eliseo R. Southern Philippines Question – The Challenge of Peace and Development.
Notre Dame Press: Cotabato City, 1999 (Center for Policy Advocacy and Strategic Studies at the
Notre Dame University, Occasional Paper Series, 1).
Tan, Samuel K. Decolonization and Filipino Muslim Identity. Journals and Publications
Division – University of the Philippines: Diliman, Quezon City 1985 (PCSS Policy Monograph
Series, 5).
Tolibas-Nuñez, Rosalita Roots of Conflict. Muslims, Christians and the Mindanao Struggle.
Asian Institute of Management Washington SyCip Policy Forum: Washington, 1997 (Politics
and Governance Series).
Many of the writing systems of Southeast Asia descended from ancient scripts used in India over 2000 years ago. Although the baybayin shares some important features with these scripts, such as all the consonants being pronounced with the vowel a and the use of special marks to change this sound, there is no evidence that it is so old. 
. The pronunciation of this letter depended on its location within a word. The grammatical rule has survived in modern Filipino that when a d is between two vowels, it becomes an r as in the words dangál (honour) and marangál (honourable), or dunong (knowledge) and marunong (knowledgeable). 
