From Four Nodes of History: The Human Rights Challenge in the Philippine Security Sector
T
he Moro legacy encompasses the period of struggle against Spanish and American colonialism. It is
a period of time when the Philippine military also
acquired a Moro tradition, aside from the Spanish, revolutionary (i.e., Philippine Revolution of 1896, and the
Philippine-American War) and the American military traditions.
1.
How did Islam reach the Philippine
Islands?
Islamic penetration into Maritime Southeast Asia emerged
during Islam’s Golden Age (750 CE - c. 1257 CE). During this
period, Muslims of different nationalities united and took
over many lands controlled by the Roman and Persian empires and placed them under the control of Muslim caliphates (ie., Umayyad and Ottoman empires). They were able
to take control of the international ports that Indian merchants had relied upon for centuries for dominance. Arab
traders were able to take control of the strategic Indian
port of Malabar in the Southwestern Coast of India. From
Malabar, Muslim traders and missionaries fanned out to
Maritime Southeast Asia that included the islands of what
is now the Philippines. They used the same trading routes
Indian traders used from Malabar.
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Islam was able to take root in Malaysia and Indonesia during
the 12th century when the King of Kedah renounced his Hindu
religion and converted to Islam. Other Muslim conversions
followed, starting with the royal families in Malacca in 1267,
and Sumatra in 1267.
From here, Islam spread to Brunei and Sulu and mainland
Mindanao, converting the Indianized population to Islam. At
about 1500, when Brunei took over the Islamic leadership in
Maritime Southeast Asia, Muslim influence and conversions
had reached coastal areas in Luzon. Conversion to Islam was
peaceful and brought inhabitants prosperity, for at this point,
world trade using the “Silk Road” was controlled by Arab
Muslims.
2.
What exactly are Moros?
The term Moros, from the word Moors, was coined by the
people of the Iberian Peninsula to describe the Muslims who
conquered and subjugated them for over 700 years during
the ascendancy of the Umayyad Caliphate. (Moors were also
called “Saracens” by the papacies who were leading the holy
crusades.) The term Moors has no ethnological value1 because the Muslim armies that took and subjugated the Spaniards came from the Berber people of North Africa, Black Afri-