SUMMARY

Muslims in the Philippines are a minority, accounting, as of 1990, for little over 5% of the total population of the country, and mainly living in the Mindanao Islands. Within the Philippines, the term Moro is frequently used to describe Muslim communities, the terms Moro and Muslim being, for the most part, interchangeable. Muslims in the Philippines account for a majority in five districts of Mindanao: Maguindanao, Lanao del Sur, Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi. Further, in other areas of the Mindanao area, they are a sizable minority.

Islam has a lengthy history in the Philippines, the religion being brought to the islands as early as the late 10th century, as part of the Arab trade routes. Much of the remaining Islamic population lives in areas that were not colonized by the Spanish Empire between the 16th and the 19th centuries.

Muslim communities in the Philippines have been subjected to various forms of marginalization, both political and economic during both the U.S. colonial period (1902-1946) as well as in the years immediately following the independence of the country. Such measures of marginalization included a discriminatory system of land titles, lack of recognition for Moro traditional leadership structures as well as difficulties in attaining government jobs at both local and central levels. Land policies, while favouring a few Moro elites, also brought substantial (mainly Christian) migrants from other parts of the Philippines, altering the demographic balance on Mindanao from one of Muslim majority at the turn of the 20th century to one of Christian majority in the 1960s.

Further, Muslim areas in the Philippines remained the poorest and least developed areas of the country. This fact was compounded by the existence of an armed conflict waged over the autonomy or independence of the Mindanao area waged between various Moro groups and the Government of Philippines since the early 1970s (for details on this see the Philippines (Mindanao) entry in the state-based section of the database).

While sectarian violence does not characterize most Muslim communities in the Philippines, there were some significant incidents, primarily concentrated in various areas of Mindanao.

Muslims in the Philippines have been involved in the non-state category of UCDP organised violence.