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ZAMBOANGA CITY (Zamboanga Journal / 11 Jul) Filipino Muslims is the largest non-Christian group in the country. It comprise about 5% of the Philippine population and most live in Mindanao and the Sulu Archipelago in the southern region and also in Palawan island. Muslims also live in major cities like Cebu, Manila and as far as Baguio in the north.

There are at least ten cultural Muslim groups based on the language they use; those who live in Maguindanao and Sultan Kudarat, the Maranaos of Lanao, Tausugs of Jolo island, the Samals and Bajaus or Badjao, from the Sulu Archipelago, the Yakans of Basilan and Zamboanga del Sur, the Ilanon or Iranun and Sangirs or Sangil of southern Mindanao, Melabugnan or Molbog of southern Palawan, the Jama Mapuns of the Cagayan de Tawi-Tawi island in far south. There are also the smaller Kaagan in Davao provinces and Kolibugan in Zamboanga Peninsula.

Collectively, they are also called Moros. The word Moro in English means "moor". Hence, it has been used by other ethnic groups as a pejorative term. However, some Muslims have used the word moro and have taken pride in it, that they have applied the term Bangsamoro, meaning "Moro nation", to their homeland.

But Filipino Muslims are not a closely knit group and lack solidarity. Each group is fiercely proud of their separate identities and culture, Muslim orthodoxy, and language, among other things. Endemic conflict, clan war and family feud persisted for centuries.

In the traditional structure of Muslim societies, the sultans were the highest authority followed by the datus and their rule was sanctioned by the Qur'an. Datus were measured by the number of followers. In return for tribute and labor, the datu provided aid in emergencies and advocacy in disputes with other communities.

A Datu is basic to the smooth function of the Filipino Muslim society. He was a powerful authority figure who may have as many as four wives but in modern times usually has only one. In the old days, they led raids on other villages. They may demand revenge for the death of a follower or upon injury to his honor. Datus continued to act as the community leaders in Muslim societies in Mindanao and administered the Sharia (Muslim law).

The support of the datu was essential for government programs in Muslim communities. Polygamy under Islam was permitted but rarely practised. Muslim communities tend to be hierarchical in rural areas.

Historians said Makhdum Karin, an Arab missionary, brought Islam to the Philippines in 1380. And that subsequent visits of Muslim Malay missionaries helped strengthen Islamic faith in the southern Philippines. The Sultanate of Sulu, the largest Muslim Kingdom of South East Asia and the Malay Archipelago, encompassed parts of Malaysia and the Philippines. The royal house of the Sultanate claim descent from the prophet Mohammed.

Hannbal Bara, of the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCC), said the Philippine Muslims was once a dominant group in the country. They have 500 years political history, so far the longest political experience compared to other groups in the whole country. Their culture is a blend of Islam and adat.

Adat is the sum of both pre-Islamic culture and the philosophical interpretation of the Muslims on the teachings of Islam. It is itself the lasting contribution of the Philippine Muslims to the country's national body politic.

Bara said Muslims in the south are also culturally linked to Muslim countries in Southeast Asia such as Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei and the Patani of southern Thailand. They are composed of eleven ethnic groups. Each group has its own language but only a few controls a political unit like a province or municipalities.

Some groups speak one language with three variations like the Maranao, Iranun and Maguindanaon. The Sama people have one language with many variation such as the dialect of the Jama Mapun, and the Bangingi.

According to the NCCC, the Maranao means people of the lake. Their homeland is called Lanao which means lake. Their oldest settlement started around there, and up to this day, highly populated communities still dot the lake. Their language is similar to Maguindanaon and Iranun. One shall be confused as to which of them owns the mother tongue since the Maranao and Iranun can understand 60% of the Maguindanaon language. At any rate, these groups live in proximity.  

The Maranao are concentrated in Lanao area. They occupy the most strategic place in Mindanao owing to their access to Iligan bay in the north and Illana bay in the south. Lanao is a land rich in literature. Darangan is an example of this. The existence of darangan attests to the level of civilization that the Maranao have achieved at one point.

Maranao society is a closed society. The entire municipalities of Lanao Del Sur, particularly at the vicinity of the lake are off limits to outsiders. The lifestyle of the people are in their traditional attire, the malong and the abaya. This is the only place in the Philippines whose lifestyle is not affected with the western trend.

While Maguindanaon is the name of the family or dynasty which came to rule almost the whole island of Mindanao, particularly the former Cotabato. It later refers to the Muslim people who live in the Pulangi valley which sprawls the Southwestern part of Mindanao. It is for this reason, the Maguindanaon are called people of the plain.

They accepted Islam at the last quarter of 15 th century. Total Islamization of the whole Pulangi area succeeded only with the arrival of Sharif Kabungsuan a prince from Johore who came to Mindanao after the fall of Malacca and nearby areas to Dutch colonialists in 1511.

The greatest contribution of the Maguindanao to civilization in Southeast Asia were the sultanates of Maguindanao and Buayan. These sultanates rose almost simultaneously after the arrival of Sharif kabungsuan who founded the first sultanate in Mindanao. During its heyday, the sultanate of Maguindanao did bring the whole mainland of Mindanao under its control. It became the instrument of the Muslims in Mindanao in thwarting the western colonialism.

Cotabato had been the seat of the Maguindanao sultanate. This is the ancestral land of the Maguindanao including the hill tribes such as the Tiruray, Tasaday and Subanun.  

The Ilanon or Iranun, on the other hand, are called on people who inhabit the area bordering between Lanao del Sur and Maguindanao province. They claimed to be the origin of these two ethnic groups. The language of the Maranao and Maguindanao is strongly rooted in the Iranun tongue.

The Iranun may perhaps be the mother language and the rest are just a mere dialects. For several centuries, the Iranun formed part of the Maguindanao sultanate. Their culture received much influence from the Maguindanao rather than the Maranao. There was a case in the past the seat of the Maguindanao sultanate was situated at Lamitan and Malabang that were the strongholds of the Iranun society.  

The Iranun have also attained a degree of social organization comparable to the Maguindanao or the Tausug. This is evidenced by the datu system of leadership where a single leadership is recognized. An Iranun datu, like a sultan, wielded central power over his people.

On account of their small population, the Iranuns have been overpowered by their neighbor and prevented them from having their own sultanate. Yet ethnic consciousness has been strong as the Iranun continued to preserve their own ways of life and even to chart their own political destiny.

The Tausug, perhaps, is the most bravest of all Muslim group, they. The term Tausug is a slang word and originated from two words: tau which means people and ma-isug, meaning brave. Therefore, Tausug means brave people.

Before the coming of Islam, the Tausug had already established a central government. When Islam came, Tausug leaders accepted Islam. They did not resist. As soon as they became Muslims they made themselves models by infusing Islamic values and politics to the government. The result was the spread of justice in the land. Seeing the beauty of Muslim leadership, the entire natives finally accepted Islam.

The peaceful triumph of Islam in Sulu in the middle of the 13th century led to the Islamization of local politics. This was the process that brought about the establishment of the Sulu sultanate in 1450. Many Tausug leaders were sent outside Sulu to further strengthen the Sulu sultanate influence.

This was the origin of the growth of Tausug communities in Tawi-Tawi, Palawan, Basilan, Zamboanga, and Sabah. Up to this period, these places are still the favorite destination of Tausug migrants who have been displaced by the wars and conflicts between the Muslims and the Philippine government.

Another group is the Yakan, those who live in Basilan island. Yakan is a mispronunciation of the word "yakal" by the Spaniards. While the term Basilan has originated from two words basi (iron) and balani (magnate). In the ancient time, Basilan was thickly covered by the yakal trees. Foreign people often mistook the name of the yakal trees as the native identity. During colonial period the Spaniards branded the inhabitants of Basilan as Yakan, and became carried up to the present.

The culture of the Yakans is similar to the Tausugs. Its inner foundation lies on the spirit of martabat. For the outer side, religious institution like masjid and madrasa, artifacts and the vast number of Yakan professionals, ulema, politicians and fighters reinforced further the strength of the Yakan culture.

These two foundations are firmly planted in the heart of the Yakans. This is their real strength. The challenge of the Yakans today is to steer their young generation to assert their rights and develop confidence in their both material and non-material culture.

The ethnic Muslim group Sama, from the term "sama-sama" which means togetherness or collective effort, is made up of people who are highly dispersed and scattered in the Sulu Archipelago. They are geographically diversified owing to their exposure to maritime activities and fishing.

There are five sub-clusters that make up the Sama people. Helping each other is recognized as norm of the Sama people.  Included in the Sama group are the Badjao known as the sea-gypsies of Sulu Archipelago and Celebes sea. The Badjao people call themselves Sama Laut. In Malaysia, they are called Orang Laut. All these descriptions point to them as being boat people.

They always move from one island to another, living in their small boat for weeks or even months without mooring or coming to town to buy their needs. The Badjao do not establish a permanent community like the Arab and the Cossacks in central Asia.

They have not able to develop a political institution that can advance their collective interest of their society. Their social organization do not approach even the level of a clan, in a sense, because they have no recognized community leader. Their social structure is leveled. Rich people or elitism is completely absent in Badjao society. All of them belong to the poor strata.

Family structure is the only factor that makes the Badjao society possible. Roles and duties are allocated to every member from the parents down to their children, from the adult to the young ones. The father acts as leader; the mother is responsible for cooking; children collect fire woods in the coastal areas, and helps gather sea food and fetch water.  As observed, the whole Badjao family constitutes also the economic unit, which means, all of them have to work together (sama-sama) for their survival.

Poverty and backwardness are the two basic factors that keeps every Badjao family from sending their children to school. Children are needed at home or must accompany their parents in search of their daily sustenance. This is the reason the Badjao society suffers a high illiteracy rate. Less than one percent can read the Qur'an or Roman alphabet. Their present condition has deteriorated.

They are highly exposed to the oppression of Tausug warlords. They are often exploited in some economic activities. Minimal reward or compensation are given for their labor, and low price for their commodities, like lobsters and fish.

The Sama people who inhabited Tawi-Tawi are called by their place of residence. Thus, there is the Sama Balimbing, Sama Simunul or Sama Sibutu.  The Sama Bangingi are also considered major group within the Sama tribe. Their dialect is just a variation of the Sama language. Geographical distance being separated from other Sama groups by seas has caused the variation of their dialect from their mother tongue. But, generally all Sama people understand each other.

The Bangingi have a well-developed social organization comparable to the Tausugs. Back to the sultanate period each Bangingi community had its own panglima and maharajah as the highest and influential people in their society. The tip of Zamboanga peninsula, Pilas and Tongkil island were once dominated and ruled by the Bangingi leaders.

Jama Mapun are another Sama sub-group. They call their dialect as pullun mapun which is part of the Sama language. The term mapun stands for west. They call themselves as Jama Mapun because they are situated at the distant west of Sulu. They are concentrated largely at the Turtle island, Cagayan de Tawi-Tawi an island municipality located at the border adjacent to Sabah. They are also found in southern Palawan.

Like the Bangingi, the Jama Mapun adopted permanent settlement, hence they have a clear-cut social organization where the panglima is recognized as top community leader. During the Sulu sultanate period, Jama Mapun used to be of a military strategic importance to the sultanate. It used to be the sultanate's launching base to secure the unquestioning loyalty of the panglima of Sabah and Palawan.

The Sangil tribe came from Sangihe, an archipelago sprawling the Celebes sea just south of the Mindanao sea. Their migration to Sarangani province and to the coastal areas of Davao del Sur and South Cotabato was ahead of the coming of Islam to Southeast Asia.

They embraced Islam later as a result of their continuous contact with their motherland, which became Islamized, as well as with the emerging Muslim communities in Maguindanao and Sulu in the 14 th century.

The Sangil speak a language similar to Bahasa, and in the Philippines, to Tausug. They also evolved their own social organization associated with central leadership. There were many instances the Sangil allied themselves to the Maguindanao sultanate.

The Kaagan inhabited mostly Davao areas. They became Muslims as a result of contact with the Maguindanao sultanate, and later strengthened with the arrival of some Tausug groups who helped to organize the Kaagan society. No wonder  the Kaagan language has many bahasa sug root words. With the departure of the Tausug and Maguindanao influences at the height of the Filipinization process. Most of them have been marginalized and were helpless to improve their society because their social organization did not improve as those in Lanao and Sulu.

Another group, the Kolibugan -- the term is a Sama word which means "half-breed" -- is originally part of the Subanun tribe, an indigenous people inhabiting the interior of the Zamboanga peninsula. Their neighbors, particularly the Sama Bangingi and the Tausugs called these Islamized Subanun as Kolibugan because their culture has been altered by their Muslim neighbors and for years there has been  intermarriage with other groups that produced new generations, hence they are called Kolibugan.

These people still speak the Subanun language and retain the Subanun type of social organization, which is limited to clan orientation with less political inclination. Today, the term Kolibugan is applied to all Subanun who moved to coastal areas and intermarried with the Muslims, and finally embraced Islam.

Early Muslim inhabitants in mainland Palawan were the Panimusan. These people became Muslims as a result of close contact with the Sulu Sultanate. Many Tausug during the sultanate period came to Palawan in order to introduce Islam to the local people.  

The Muslim concentration is mostly in the southern part of Palawan such as Batarasa, Rizal, Quezon, Brooke's Point and Espanola. In these municipalities the Muslims are likely dominant and hold political power. Isolated Muslim communities are also found in Narra, Roxas, Taytay and Aborlan.

Since the collapse of the Sulu sultanate, contact between the Palawani and the Tausugs was almost lost. They have been isolated to each other as there is no direct trade or cultural link between the two people.

And the Molbog are mainly confined in the Balabac islands located at the southern tip of Palawan. They received Islamic influence and later embraced Islam from Brunei Muslim missionaries. The propagation of Islam was active during the 15 th century when Muslim principalities rose from the eastern side of the Malay peninsula and Borneo.

At this period, the Brunei sultanate was expanding its influence to the Philippines and Palawan is not far from Brunei. The Sulu sultanate also helped to strengthen Islam among the Molbog.

Sulu was the first Muslim community in the south to establish a centralized government, the Sultanate of Sulu in 1450. The introduction of this sultanate implies that the indigenous institution became Islamized. This sultanate was a superstructure imposed without destroying the old foundation.

It was one of the reasons that made the Sulu Sultanate strong. Hashim Abubakar was the founder and the first sultan of the Sulu sultanate. His father was an Arab from Hadramaut; his mother was a princess from Johore. According to the Tausug salsila, Abubakar belongs to a sharif lineage, which is one of the descendants of Nabi Muhammad (S,.A.W.).

The term sharif is a title of nobility. When Abubakar rose to power, he assumed five titles affixed to his name, thus his official name runs as follows: paduka, mawlana, mahasiri, sharif sultan Hashim Abubakar.

The Sulu sultanate is multi-ethnic. At the height of its power in the early part of the 18 th century, its territory encompassed the whole Zamboanga peninsula, Basilan, Sulu, Tawi-Tawi, Palawan and Sabah. On the same period, the sultanate began to intensify its foreign relations with neighboring Muslim principalities in Brunei, Makassar, Manila, Cebu (before Spanish era), Maguindanao, Buayan and Batavia including China.

This foreign relations of the Sulu sultanate involved trade, mutual friendship and military alliance. The sultanate had in fact dispatched ambassadors to different places and also received ambassadors from other countries.    

But at present, there are more than a dozen who are claiming to be the real sultan. They have their own so-called Cabinet and sets of ministers and followers. And among the most popular is  Sharif Ibrahim Ajibul Mohammad Pulalun because of his numerous humanitarian undertakings in the south.

Pulalun, a descendant of Sultan Mohammad Pulalun.

The Sultanate of Sulu obtained Sabah from the Sultanate of Brunei as a gift for helping defeat a rebellion on Borneo Island. It stretched from a part of the island of Mindanao in the east, to North Borneo, now known as Sabah, in the west and south, and to Palawan, in the north.

The sultanate was founded in the 1457 and is believed to exist with sovereignty for at least 442 years. Mindanao, Palawan, and the islands of the Sulu Sea were colonized by Spain, which ruled the country.

The British leased Sabah and transferred control over the territory to Malaysia after the end of Second World War.

Even after Borneo became part of Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur still pays an annual rent of 5,000 ringgit to the heirs of the Sultan of Sulu.

The dispute over Borneo is among long-standing irritants in ties between the Philippines and Malaysia, but because of diplomatic relations, the issue was temporarily shelved, as the two neighboring counties strengthened trades and investments since the 1990s.