Jakarta, wahidinstitute.org
Muslims in Moro, the Philippines, suffer from poverty due to economic and political marginalization.
“Muslims in Moro are second class citizens,” said Dr Amina Rasul, former minister in Fidel Ramos’ cabinet in the Philippines, who spoke in the discussion “Muslim Minorities in Secular States: The Indian and Philippine Experience”.
The discussion was held at the WAHID Institute, Thursday (14/08/08). The other keynote speaker was Dr. Asghar Ali Engineer from India.
During this discussion, held in the WAHID Institute’s auditorium, Amina described the Moro experience, as a representation of Islam in the Philippines.
This director of the Philippine Council on Islam and Democracy (PCID) emphasized that the Muslim community in the Philippines, that is the Moro community, was centered on the Island of Mindanao.
As a result of marginalization, Mindanao is one of the provinces with the lowest human resources development index of all ten Philippine provinces. This indicates that the quality of human resources in Mindanao is bad.
The Moro community is also less involved in political participation. Their view is cynical, as is apparent in their opinion of general elections. “They believe it is not an election, but a selection,” she said.
What this means is that elections are no longer a competition between parties to win votes, but a selection of officials from the party in power to certain positions.
Their position as the minority, as different from the majority, is reinforced when their democratic views differ from those of the mainstream. “For them, sovereignty is in the hands of God,” Amina explained.
If democracy is defined as majority rules, for the Moro community, democracy in the Philippines is no more than the rule of the Christian majority. “Equality in the face of the law in democracy, they believe, is not possible for minorities and the poor,” she added.
The threatened Muslim and Moro Identity – a result, amongst others, of differing perceptions from the majority – and their marginal economic position, often causes rebellion in Mindanao.
“Rebellion is also caused by the fact that they are politically weak and have low expectations of the government which is currently in power,” Amina said firmly.
Amina classifies those rebelling into two categories. “First, the liberation group. There’s MNLF (Moro National Liberation Front) and MILF (Moro Islamic Liberation Front),” she said.
The second group are terrorist groups which are most familiar with violent means. Such groups include Abu Sayyaf and RMS (Rajah Solaiman Movement).
The government has already undertaken several attempts to resolve these rebellions, from peaceful attempts to military style violence. Her institution, PCID, also tries to resolve the issue with a variety of programs.
For example, by the publication of the Moro Times as an insert in The Manila Times, the empowerment of local Moro ulama (religious scholars) to strengthen their capacity as religious leaders, and the facilitation of a series of dialogues on issues relevant to finding peace, progress and democracy for Mindanao Muslims.
“We do this because we believe that a peaceful and developing Moro can only be achieved through meaningful democratic participation,” she added.
However, currently President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo prefers to use military methods, because she is close with, and in fact depends upon, the local military for her power. And so Mindanao continues to seethe.
Thus, when asked by a participant what the largest obstacle to peace amongst these groups in the Philippines, Amina responded firmly “Arroyo”.
“Becoming a Muslim in a secular country is not something which is incompatible,” Amina answered when asked by another participant about the possibility of a Muslim majority country, such as Indonesia, becoming a secular country.
If Philippine Muslims feel isolated by Christian domination, Asghar said that this does not happen in India.
“India was once controlled by a Muslim empire for several decades,” explained this head of the Centre for Study of Society and Secularism which is centered in Mumbai. The empire he referred to was the Islamic Mongol empire.
Nevertheless, this does not mean that Indian Muslims experience a better fate. “Although Muslims represent 40 percent of the total population of India, only 3-4 percent hold positions in government,” Asghar explained.
This author of “Islam and Liberation Theology” also said that many Muslims in India are poor and illiterate.
Asghar added that the minority is protected by the Indian government, which for example guarantees freedom of religion. “In terms of the constitution, it’s there, but there are a lot of problems in putting it into practice,” he added.
Secular countries also face problems with majorities, as do non-secular countries. “It is majority realism,” he said.
This majority realism is in the form of religious majorities, party majorities, and so on, which tend to isolate minorities. “We have to oppose that,” he added.
Majority realism also causes a single identity to form in a person, for example “my one and only identity is as a Muslim” or “my one and only identity is as a member of the Congress party,” Asghar said, “Singular identity is a problem in a democratic climate”.
It can cause conflict and violence, though the spirit of democracy can only be realised through dialogue without violence.
As a supporter of secularism in Mumbai, Asghar rejects the idea of an Islamic state because its characteristics are dangerous. “In many Islamic countries those in power sideline minority Muslim groups,” he explained his opinion.
In Saudi Arabia, the majority Wahabi group sidelines other Muslim groups who do not subscribe to their view.
Asghar said that he was a Muslim because of what was in his heart, not because his country was an Islamic state. “Islam is a belief, not a political matter,” he said, closing the final discussion of the night.
