People throughout Mindanao repeatedly insisted that the conflict in Mindanao was not a religiously based conflict, rather one over resources. As Father Bert in Pikit stated “ it is not a religious war but it has a religious color”.
Father Bert in Barangay Nalapan
I noticed some norms that were presented throughout our meetings around Mindanao. Nearly every meeting began with a prayer. In the cases where Muslims, Christians, and Indigenous People (IP’s) were all present, each group said a prayer according to their own faith.
Some unifying activities that the three groups participated in were celebrating holidays and Eids together. We heard stories of Muslims celebrating Christmas with Christians, and Christians celebrating Kanduli and Ramadan with Muslims. We also heard about how inter-religious marriage was used to resolve conflicts in rural areas.
A Christian Bible, an IP altar, and the Qu’ran
Despite these examples of shared norms and unifying activities we noticed throughout our fieldwork that people were still categorized or separated by their religion. The barangays (villages) were separated, typically with the IP’s furthest removed, then the Muslims, with the Christians in the forefront. When people are segregated like they appear to be in Mindanao in many cases, how does this contribute to perceptions and biases about the “other” group.
This brings me to the question that many of us are still considering; If the conflict in Mindanao is resource based, then why are all of the peace processes, active or proposed, based on religion?