Attitude toward Muslims
in the Philippines
Philippines (A study of the country and its
people through the eyes of a non-Filipino)
Americans tend to stereotype Muslims because we are not familiar with them. So
I was pleased at a recent book-club meeting when a white Midwestern woman asked
me this question: “What is the attitude in the Philippines toward Muslims?”
I answered the question by first covering some of the main facts: 5 million
Muslims in a country of 90 million (80 percent Roman Catholic), mostly in the
Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), and with an increasing number in
Manila in the Quiapo area.
Then I addressed the question of attitude. If I were to grade my answer I
would give myself a B, with the comment: “give more concrete examples.” After
the meeting, however, I went back to a column I wrote for this paper in October
of 2008. I was both surprised and pleased to find the examples I needed and
that they are still timely. I have been back to the Philippines twice since I
wrote the article; it captures attitude through still-current examples. Here
are the examples I wrote back then.
“I have been impressed over the years by the examples of cooperation between
Christian and Muslim in the Philippines. . . . I encountered the first good
example in 1998. That year was very dry. In fact the rains had not started in
earnest even in July and August. Much of the rice crop in the southern part of
the country, in Mindanao, had failed. The newspapers contained articles about
the potential for near famine, which would affect the large number of farmers
there. Many of these people depended from year to year on rice both for income
and for food.”
“I began to wonder what would happen. That was when I discovered how
effectively the Philippine people take care of each other. I began to see signs
asking for contributions to buy rice to feed the people in Mindanao. Where I
banked, on Katipunan Avenue, I discovered a small cardboard box sitting
prominently on the counter next to the teller’s window. It was for
contributions to buy rice for Mindanao. . . . There, in the overwhelmingly
Christian Manila . . . was this box, for contributions for Mindanao where 12 to
14% of the population is Muslim. No one asked if anyone named Hussein would get
the aid; such an absurd question would never have occurred.”
“I am certainly not suggesting that the Philippines does not have reason to
worry about pockets of Muslim terrorists, particularly in Mindanao. . . . In
the last three or four years, however, their activities have been curtailed in
large measure by the Philippine military assisted by U.S. special forces.”
“This joint endeavor [example two] has succeeded because it has combined
military with humanitarian aid, including repairing roads to facilitate getting
crops to market. When I was in Manila in 2004, I was delighted to read the
following statement by a Muslim Mayor of a Muslim town in Mindanao: ‘The
heavens have opened up and Allah has sent the Americans.’” Today I would add,
“and Philippine Marines.”
My third example is from my book, Sundays in Manila. “In February of 2004,
I had spent a wonderful couple of hours conversing with Tessie, the curator of
the house of Gregoria de Jesus (whose first husband was Bonifacio, hero of the
revolution against Spain). Quiapo is the spiritual heart of Manila and, in many
ways, of the country.”
Tessie “is the living history person, not only of Gregoria de Jesus and her
house, but of this section of Quiapo. . . . She conducts tours of five
churches, a synagogue, and a mosque, all of which are within walking distance of
the house on Bautista.”
“Her mention of the mosque conjured up an image in my mind of a small Muslim
congregation meeting in a house or store. A few days later, however, I was
surprised to come upon a picture in The Philippine Inquirer showing the dome of
“the Golden Mosque in Quiapo.” A large crescent moon of Islam rose high above
the dome.”
“Thank you for the good example, Filipinos, of not labeling but rather of
informed discernment and of tolerance.”
Bob Boyer welcomes your comments at robert.boyer@snc.edu.
