The Unifying and Divisive Effects of Social Identities: Religious and Ethnopolitical Identities Among Mindanao Muslims in the Philippines

Ma Elizabeth J Macapagal,Jose Jowel P Canuday,Cristina J Montiel

doi:10.1017/prp.2018.16

Ma Elizabeth J Macapagal, Jose Jowel P Canuday + Show 1 more

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https://doi.org/10.1017/prp.2018.16

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Abstract

The present study looks into the unifying and divisive effects of ethnopolitical and religious social identities, and an emerging superordinate Bangsamoro identity of Muslims in the southern region of the Philippines. We surveyed 394 Muslims with a mean age of 32.6 and standard deviation of 13.3 from the Tausug, Maranao, and Maguindanaoan ethnopolitical affiliations using various measures of social identities. Findings showed that the Muslims in our sample identify themselves more strongly with their religious identity over their ethnopolitical affiliations. Religious identity may thus be a unifying element in the conflict-ridden context of Mindanao, as a significant correlation was also found between their Muslim identity and attitudes toward the superordinate Bangsamoro identity. Qualitative data on the meaning of Bangsamoro were also analysed and revealed that Bangsamoro means a fusion of Mindanao, Islam, and peace/unity. However, data also reveal the divisive effects of ethnic identity. A moderately high overlap was found between their own ethnic identity and the Bangsamoro identity. The Tausugs, the low-power group in the peace talks, showed lesser overlap compared to Maguinanaons, suggesting that ethnopolitical, or what observers of Mindanao conflict have referred to as ‘tribal’ relations, implicates the respondent's perception of a superordinate Bangsamoro identity.

Highlights

Within the year of the election of President Rodrigo Duterte in May 2016, the competing Bangsamoro armed formations of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) separately but simultaneously engaged the government in a new round of peace processes
We believe that understanding the nature of peace and conflicts in Mindanao entails looking beyond the conventional clash-of-religions narrative. Behind this socalled religious divide is an ethnopolitical1 discourse that surfaced in the course of impassioned debates on the outcomes of the peace negotiations and the Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL) debates that underpin detailed territorial dominion over land ceded by the dominant Christian state (Montiel, de Guzman, & Macapagal, 2012)
Critical areas of Tausug-predominated Sulu served as the citadel of an MNLF faction while strategic parts of Maguindanoandominated Maguindanao province have been reported as an MILF stronghold (Kreuzer, 2005)

Summary

Introduction

Within the year of the election of President Rodrigo Duterte in May 2016, the competing Bangsamoro armed formations of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) separately but simultaneously engaged the government in a new round of peace processes Both formations are moving closer to finalise a comprehensive peace agreement for a territorial autonomy with the Philippine government and to end nearly half a century of violent secessionist warfare that in turn repeatedly displaced millions of people in the Muslim enclaves of the southern island of Mindanao in the Philippines (Ahmad, 2000; Oquist, 2002). Behind this socalled religious divide is an ethnopolitical discourse that surfaced in the course of impassioned debates on the outcomes of the peace negotiations and the BBL debates that underpin detailed territorial dominion over land ceded by the dominant Christian state (Montiel, de Guzman, & Macapagal, 2012)

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