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I left Manila with the same great admiration for the grassroots religious and spiritual organizers and leaders who are similarly working for peace amidst a painful and difficult - often dangerous - conflict. The current situation is characterized by ignorance, fear, misunderstanding, hatred, violence, and discrimination. Far from a luxury to be conducted in remote academic or civic locales, these courageous leaders are leading a vital movement for inter- religious dialogue, understanding, harmony and cooperation.

Meeting with the Directors of the Moro Human Rights Center

At my first meeting, I met with Sophia Dimalog and Erwin and Cris Gaerlan, interreligious activists and staff from the Moro Human Rights Center.

Through this and subsequent meetings, I learned about the local Muslim community, its history, its current crisis, and its hopes for building peace with its mostly Christian and indigenous neighbors.

In terms of the history of Islam in the Philippines, it dates back to the arrival of Muslim traders and scholars in the 12th century. The Mindanao region is where Islam first came in South East Asia, and enjoyed a peaceful existence in the Philippines until the arrival of the Spanish in 1561 as part of the "Reconquista" campaign. It wasn't until the mid-1800's that the Catholic reconquistadors really encountered the Muslim kingdoms to the South. A fierce battle ensued, with Christian converts -- inflamed by the Crusade mentality, anti-Muslim and religious propaganda -- pushing the Muslims into smaller and smaller regions of the Southern Philippines.

Meeting with IMAN, the Inter-Moro Action Network, a network of 14 national Muslim youth groups who participate in interreligious dialogues. The one in the black shirt, Alan (who like many others changed his name to avoid anti-Muslim discrimination).

Things didn't fare much better for the Muslim community after the Spanish sold the Philippines to the US for $20 million in the early 1900's. This "sale" of the Philippines included the sale of Mindanao, even though that region was not under the control of the Spanish, but instead had its own, albeit beleaguered, Muslim state structure.

Although the US didn't attempt to militarily conquer the Moro (ethnic Mindanao Muslim) areas, it did use the legal system to push the inhabitants of the area off their land. Using the spurious "land-titling" laws, the government claimed ownership of all the land, and the new owners (Christians) simply applied for special permits to own the land - a right denied to the Moros. The programs for assimilation and institutionalized marginalization were scarcely better for the Moro community than the military offenses of the Reconquistas.

Meeting with Professor Wadi, Director of the Institute for Islamic Studies at the University of the Philippines, who came to Chicago with Sophia.

It is interesting to note that the Spanish era brought Catholicism to the region, and the US era introduced a wide variety of Protestant communities. Sadly, in both cases, the logic and fervor of the crusades fueled the discrimination against the Muslim communities.

Since the independence of the Philippines in 1946, the situation has continued to be difficult for the Muslim communities, and has arguably gotten worse. In the sixties and seventies, over 200,000 Moros were killed and countless more evicted from their lands.

In the eighties, the Churches (mostly led by Franciscan leaders) did try to intervene in the situation by removing the religious overtones of the struggle. Unfortunately, the government of the Philippines did not follow suit.

A dense cloud of discrimination continues to this day:

• Dismal poverty with 60 to 70 percent unemployment in the Moro areas (I visited a local leader in the Muslim area at her house, which was a single 8 feet by 10 concrete room, had one burner on a crate for a stove, no running water or indoor bathroom, and was used by the twelve members of her family who slept in shifts);
• egregious stereotypes about the Moro community (in popular expression, Moro Moro means fake or untrue, and even the peace activist group I met with is on the governments "terrorist" list );
• ignorance and mistrust is rampant (it took four taxis to get to the Muslim area of Manila because none of the drivers would enter a Muslim area, and the one that did take us quite seriously asked "is the American a hostage?"); and,
• many Muslims resort to changing their names to Christian sounding names to avoid discrimination in housing and employment (even our main contact changed her name to Sophia, and will not tell her neighbors she is Muslim out of fear of being evicted).

This is unfortunately not an exhaustive list. The Muslim community also holds many stereotypes and biases, and a small segment of the population has begun to incite and perpetrate acts of violence and terror.

Thankfully, this movement is disavowed by every Muslim I met, and seems to be broadly condemned by the Moro community as wrong and un- Islamic. However, the mistrust does run deep within the Moro community, and while discrediting the terror group, one teacher asked me if I knew about the fact that no Jews were in the World Trade Center on September 11th. A few insinuated that while they did not support violence, other communities (Christians, Hindus and Jews) did.

In fact, in with Steven Ruken, a political analyst for the US Embassy in the Philippines, I heard more about the gruesome terrorist activities in the Muslim areas that include kidnappings, bombings and other acts of terror in Mindanao. He told me that my meeting in Cotabato City was canceled because they couldn't arrange the security for the meeting. Later than night, I learned that the cancellation was a fortunate one, as there was a bombing near the building where I was to be at a meeting that day. Incidentally, Steven is a native of Rogers Park, and will be an important ally in our Partner Cities relationship with Manila.

Meeting with Bae Norhaina Lucman, Director of the Muslim Women's Organization, her husband, and Sophia (organizer of the Bangsa Bai.

After the meetings with many Muslim and Christian peace groups, I went to the Muslim community in Manila to visit the community itself, meet with the director of Bangsa Bai (The Muslim Women's Organization), attend Juma Prayers, and to meet with the Imams of the Grand Mosque and the Golden Mosque.

I am pleased to report that the Bangsa Bai organization is interested in partnering with the Council on many levels. In particular, they were told that being part of an intercity partnership through the Council would help improve their chances for funding. It was interesting to note that at the meeting the husband did almost all of the talking.

A typical apartment building.

After this meeting, we went to the home of one of the participants of the Bangsa Bai women's network (remember the 8 by 10 home for 12 I described earlier), to hear about the particular strife of women in the broader society, a situation they also face within the Muslim community. She told me that she wants to move back home in Mindanao, but her family's land was confiscated by the "Land-Titling Laws".

I then went across the street to the Grand Mosque to meet with Alim Abdulmajid Goling, the headmaster of the Madrassah and the Imam of the Mosque. We talked about the need to create opportunities for Muslims and Christians to meet and encounter one another. They were excited by the idea, and told me that building trust and understanding was an essential step if the communities were ever going to see themselves as partners in building a better community.

Meeting with the Madrassah headmaster.

During our meeting, about a half hour before Friday prayers, a swat team of 10 Philippine police officers raided the building, and a commander with a megaphone told everyone inside to come out immediately. In the confusion, the group led me outside to the streets filled with people looking around anxiously. The officers looked us over, but left without describing to us their purpose for the raid. I found out later that people heard they were called in because they thought I was taken hostage. People were already worried that I was a CIA operative, so it really didn't help! It was, unfortunately, another example of the discrimination and mistrust against the Muslim community.

Imam and members of the community after the "hostage crisis".

Against this backdrop, many courageous leaders from the Christian and Muslim communities are beginning to lead movements for peace. My last meeting was with the Christian supporters of the new Movement for Muslim-Christian Solidarity, a newly formed effort being jointly initiated by the Muslim and Christian communities.

This new effort is important, as all of the Muslim communities I met with say that the Christians initiate nearly all of the dialogue sessions, and while appreciated they understand that they too must find a way to initiate dialogues towards peace if the movement is ever to spread to the broader public. Also, these dialogue sessions to date have been sporadic, not sustained, and deal only with religious leaders and personalities.

The Christian and Muslim communities are looking to the Council for assistance in their efforts towards peace and understanding, and see the Institute we are hosting this fall as an opportunity to learn from us and other partner cities about methodologies and to gain new networks. They also understand how important it is that we and other cities be able to learn from them and their situation as well.

They are particularly interested in an approach that takes religious identity seriously (one that allows them to describe their faith, how it calls them to be in the world, and doesn't ask them to give up their identity) and that can help them build relationships of understanding and trust. The Imam told me that their first challenge is to educate Muslims to be better Muslims if the goal of understanding the Christians is ever to be attained.

Without this kind of intrareligious dialogue and education, they fear that violent terror groups will breed in the atmosphere of discrimination and mistrust, and that their vision of a "community in common" with the Christians, indigenous peoples (who endure a similar plight), and others will remain elusive.

Reflecting on the experience of the fire the morning I left, I have great appreciation that these grassroots leaders are willing to fight through the choking smoke resulting from the smoldering history of mistrust and discrimination. I am amazed at their courageousness and vision. It is not easy or popular here to mobilize towards a vision of a community that respects all the religions and ethnicities. Given their history, it is a miracle that they can still see diversity not as a problem to be solved, but as a resource.

I am proud that the Parliament, through the Institute and the Partner Cities program, will be there as a resource in their quest for peace.

For more information about Barcelona 2004 Parliament visit cpwr.org

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