Causes of Conflict
between Christians and Muslims in the Philippines
by Mr. Victor
Part 1, 2005_07_04
live in a pluralistic world. We also live in a conflict-torn world. Sad to say
that some of these conflicts have been abetted if not aggravated by religions,
flaring up in open armed conflicts and bloody repression as in Indonesia
between Muslims and Christians; the bloody civil
war between the Sinhalese Buddhist majority and the Tamil Hindu minority since
1983 in Sri Lanka; the communal violence between Hindus and Muslims in India;
and, recently in Southern Thailand between its military and Muslim militants.
In my own Philippine context we too have our share of open armed conflicts and
bloody repression. The conflicts in Mindanao have been portrayed
as Christian-Muslim conflicts.
The challenge now is how to build a
sense of community that goes beyond the traditional boundaries of clan, tribe,
status, class, region and religion. A community with which each member and
group can identify themselves, in which different groups feel responsible for
resolving disputes and solving problems through joint action and dialogue and
whose destiny, therefore, each can regard as its own.
of the steps to overcome the deadly and violent inter-religious conflicts is to
know the root causes of these conflicts. In the Philippine context only three root
causes of conflicts between Christians and Muslims will be
mentioned namely: Colonization, Marginalization of the Minority and Violent
History of Colonization
Christian Filipinos and Muslim Moros
in the Philippines are one people. The cultural and
economic, differences that have created so much enmity and misunderstanding as
to cause Christians and Muslims to regard themselves as separate peoples have
their roots in our colonial history
Christian-Muslim conflicts in the Philippines could be traced in
the history of colonization which begun in the 16th century when
Spanish colonizers arrived in 1521. At the time of, Spanish conquest, the
Muslims of Mindanao and Sulu had already attained a higher level of social
organization than the small, scattered communities of Visayas and Luzon. For this reason, it
was relatively easy for the Spaniards to subdue and Christianize ‘the inhabitants
of Luzon and Visayas. The
defeated of Rajah Solayman by Spanish conquistadors sent by Legaspi in the
Battle of Bangkusay (Tondo) on June 3, 1571 marked the end of the
Islamic influence in Luzon and the Visayas. Whereas the
Moros if Mindanao continued to defy
the Spanish Conquistadores.
the four (4) centuries that followed, the Spanish colonizers successfully
stopped the influence of Islam in the Northern and Central parts of the
archipelago. Culturally, pacification was abetted by the Christianization of
the islands to oppose to the continued influence of Islam. The Spanish
colonizers molded the minds and hearts of the natives or indios into their own
image as part of their pacification campaign. Thus a good native or indio is a good Hispanized Catholic.
Ideologically the natives began to internalize the biases of the Spanish
colonizers against the Muslims such as that Moros are traitors, dirty, enemies
of the Church, etc.
addition the Spaniards conscripted Christianized indios
as auxiliary troops to help in the pacification campaign. Thousands of Christian indios were brought
into the battles. The Moros, on the other hand, raided Spanish held territories
especially the coastal resettlements populated by Christianized native. The war
and raids planted the seed of animosity and distrust. The conflict brought by
the Spanish colonizers led Muslims Moros and Christian Filipinos to see each
other as enemy.
the Spaniards were never completely successful in dislodging Islamic influence.
In the southern region of the archipelago, the island of Mindanao which was most
protected by its proximity to the source of the older influence -- the culture
of Islam -- the efforts were futile.
History books tell us that it was only after 300 years in the 1800’s that
the Spanish were able to harbor enough strength in Mindanao to set up military
garrisons in the Sulu areas, but they continued to struggle in establishing
political hegemony over the Island.
the Muslims were able to maintain their independence, centuries of fighting off
Spanish military expeditions were a drain on their society’s material and human
resources. Moreover, the Spaniards succeeded in isolating them and preventing
them from engaging in trade ‘with neighboring ‘countries which had ‘been the
foundation of their prosperity in the past. The Muslim communities stagnated
and even regressed.”
1898 the Christianized indios calling themselves Filipinos launched a
revolution against the Spaniards under the leadership of Andres Bonifacio of the
Katipunan. It was long and bloody struggles which culminated in the declaration
of independence from Spain by Pres. Emilio Aguinaldo on June 12.
The Moros of Mindanao took the opportunity to reassert their authority over the
region vacated by the Spaniards. But the representatives of the Philippine
revolutionary government had difficulty in asserting their authority in Mindanao. Conflicts between the Moros and the
Filipinos began to emerge in some areas in Mindanao.
Spaniards were losing the war against the Filipinos. But a new foreign power
entered the scene: the United States. The Americans came because they were
at war with Spain. They did not come to assist the
Filipinos in their struggles for independence. They came to wage war against
the Spanish forces in the Philippines. When they enlisted the support of the
Filipino forces in the war against the Spaniards in the Philippines it was for a tactical reason.
after Spanish War, the United States decided to assume control of the Philippines archipelago which led to the
Philippine declaration of war against the Americans in 1898. The United States realized it faced fierce resistance
from the Filipinos of Luzon and Visayas. However the Americans learned that the
Moros in Mindanao were distrustful of the Filipino Christians. The Americans decided to exploit
this to prevent the Moros from joining forces with the Philippine Revolutionary
Government. Thus, on August 20, 1899, US General John C. Bates and the
Sultan of Sulu, Jamalul Kiram II signed the Kiram-Bates Treaty. The United States promised to respect and guarantee the
integrity of the Moro states if the Moros would remain neutral. But the
Americans never meant to keep their part of the agreement. As soon as Filipino
resistance was losing against the Americans, the United States unilaterally abrogated the treaty with
the Moros and proceeded with the conquest of Mindanao. The Moros fought valiantly until 1913
when they succumbed “to the superior military force of the Americans”. Besides,
the Americans were also able to secure the collaboration of the Moro
aristocracy. The United States gave privileges and “gifts” to the
Sultanate in exchange for the access and exploitation of their lands and resources
the years that followed, the United States successfully transformed Mindanao and integrated it with the other
conquered Philippine territories. The Americans introduced new laws on land
Public Act 718, issued on April 4, 1903, voided all property and acreage
of Mindanao sultans unless these
pieces of property had been recognized as the sultanates by the colonial
Public Act 926, issued on October 7, 1903, declared all unregistered land
tracts as public domain and open for homestead.
Public Land Act of 1919,
appropriated a maximum of 10 hectares in homestead lots to Muslim Filipinos,
and 24 hectares lots to non-Muslim Filipinos.
These laws have deprived many
Muslims of their ancestral rights to the land because they followed only
customary law and did not obtain titles to their lands mainly out of ignorance
or because of a residual sense of resistance.
was aggravated when the Americans inaugurated a policy of encouraging the
migration to Mindanao of landless families from Luzon and Visayas. Christian homesteaders arrived with an official
title deed to parcels of land. Conflict erupted almost immediately between
settlers who claimed their new legal rights and Muslims who were just as sure
of their ownership by virtue of long occupation. However, some of the Datus and
other Moro elite obtained titles to their own lands and to those of their
clansmen, thus laying the legal groundwork for Muslim landlordism.
colonial policies from the Spaniards to the Americans have dispossessed Muslims
and other indigenous peoples of over 80 percent of Mindanao’s open land. Thus colonial policy has
sown the seed of legal and social injustice. These led to bloody and deadly conflicts over
agricultural land between Muslims and Christians in Mindanao, obscuring the historical truth that
colonialism was one of the root causes of these conflicts.