Ethnic Differences, Islamic Consciousness, and Muslim Social Integration in the Philippines

Abstract

This study of the close to 100,000 Muslims of diverse geographical and ethnolinguistic origins inhabiting Palawan Island in the southwest Philippines reveals the locally variable and historically contingent nature of the integration of Muslims with non-Muslims and their interaction with the Philippine state and helps explain why the Islamic resurgence of the 1970s and 1980s took hold in some parts of that nation but not in other parts. Ethnicity and ethnic differences between Muslims figure importantly but are only part of the story. Ethnic divisions play out on a broader social field marked by other forms of differences that can pull in opposing directions. It is in the totality of the similarities, differences, and identities that implicate Muslims and non-Muslims alike, that an explanation for the differential appeal of political Islam and the development of Islamic consciousness in the Philippines must be sought. As a greater variety of viewpoints within Islam reaches Palawan Island, they bring new choices for belief and behavior that add points to the grid of identities, upon which Muslims in Palawan position themselves. But whether the choices they make work for or against religious tolerance, social integration and political stability depends upon the varying local histories and social positioning of Muslims as well as non-Muslims in the Philippines.