Pinoy Kasi
Muslims around us
By Michael Tan
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 04:35:00 02/03/2010
Last November, a referendum in Switzerland resulted in a ban on the building of Muslim minarets, the iconic towers on top of mosques with a crescent and star to symbolize Islam.
The ban was criticized as a violation of the freedom of religion, but the Swiss justice minister insisted it was not “anti-Islam” but “against certain fundamentalist developments.”
One could ask, of course, how a ban on minarets would stop Islamist fundamentalism. It reminded me of an incident some time back in Greenhills, when “concerned citizens” tried to ban the construction of a prayer hall for Muslim traders in the shopping center. Their reason? The prayer hall would attract “terrorists.” Fortunately, reason prevailed and the construction pushed through.
These bans work on stereotypes, and in the cases of the Swiss minarets and Greenhills prayer room, it is the perception that all (or most) Muslims are potential terrorists. These fears are fueled by perceptions that the number of Muslims is rapidly growing. Muslims, Muslims not just around, but surrounding, us.
If someone did a survey to find out what Filipinos know of Islam and Muslims, I am certain we will find low levels of knowledge, accompanied by many negative perceptions. There would be irony in our ignorance, because in a sense, we are indeed surrounded by Muslims. Within the Philippines, Muslims remain a small minority but they (mainly Maranao traders) are now found in urban areas throughout the country. Moreover, we share borders to the south with the largest Muslim country in the world, Indonesia. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, large numbers of Filipinos live and work in Muslim countries.
We, and that would include Muslims themselves, need to discover the Muslim world in all its diversity. Last October, the Pew Research Center in the United States, which does extensive research on religions, released an important study entitled “Mapping the Global Muslim Population.” It is the largest study of its kind, drawing from extensive resources.
The study estimates the total number of Muslims to be about 1.57 billion, or about 23 percent of the world’s population. This Pew report does not talk about the number of Christians in the world, but one of their earlier reports, “Christianity in Global Context,” estimates more than two billion Christians.
Sunni, Shia, and more
Like Christians, Muslims everywhere share many common beliefs, but are also marked by great differences, often verging on the antagonistic. Given that there is no central authority like the Catholic pope, Islam has been free to develop in many directions.
Shortly after the death of the prophet Mohammed, his followers had a split over leadership, resulting in two main divisions. The majority of Muslims, about 90 percent and including Muslims in the Philippines, are Sunni. The rest are Shia (or Shiites), found mostly in Iran, Pakistan, India and Iraq.
Among the Sunni and Shiites, there are further divisions into different sects. Besides these Sunni and Shiite divisions, there are groups that are difficult to classify. For example, the Druze of Lebanon are supposed to be Muslims but believe in reincarnation. Sufism, referring to mystical Islamic practice, is found among both the Sunni and the Shia.
We tend to think of the Middle East as the bastion of Islam. Yet, the largest numbers of Muslims, totaling 972 million, are to be found in Asia. Here are the four largest Muslim countries, all in Asia, together with the Muslim population and their percentage of the total population: Indonesia (203 million, 88 percent), Pakistan (174 million, 96 percent), India (161 million, 13 percent) and Bangladesh (145 million, 90 percent). China has 20 million Muslims, more than Malaysia’s 16 million. The Philippines has 4.6 million (about 5 percent). (I am sure this number will be disputed by some Filipino Muslims, who say that the national censuses tend to under-count them.)
Let me insert some more information on Muslims in the Philippines. There are actually several Muslim ethnicities in the Philippines, each with their own language: Maguindanao, Maranao, Tausug, Samal, Banguingui, Sangil, Bajau, Illanun, Yakan, Kalagan. As with their Christian counterparts, Muslims in the Philippines incorporate many elements of folk religions with elements of animism (beliefs in many supernatural spirits) and magic (for example the use of amulets and talismans).
When the Spaniards arrived, what is Manila today was already largely Muslim. In many of my earlier columns, I talked about how the entry of Islam impacted on Philippine culture, including Arabic words in our languages.
Let’s get back to the worldwide distribution of Muslims. After Asia, the largest numbers of Muslims are to be found in the Middle East/North Africa, in countries where they form majorities. Again contrary to stereotypes, the largest Muslim populations are actually in north Africa, rather than the Middle East: Egypt with 78 million, Algeria with 34 million and Morocco with 31 million. Saudi Arabia only has 24 million.
Sub-Saharan Africa accounts for 240 million Muslims, the largest concentration being in Nigeria with 78 million. Note though that the Muslims tend to be concentrated in the north, and account for only half of the total Nigerian population.
Borders and barriers
Then we get to Europe, where there is so much Islamophobia. Europe has 38 million Muslims, 16 million in Russia alone. Several Eastern European countries—Albania, Kosovo, Bosnia-Herzego and Bulgaria—have had Muslim populations for several centuries, but we see how age-old biases can erupt into murderous rampages in the name of “ethnic cleansing” as it did in Bosnia.
The Swiss ban on the minarets mirror the tensions in Western Europe, which has attracted Muslim migrants in more recent times. Most of them seek better economic opportunities but others are political refugees. Their numbers reach the millions, but they remain a small minority, ranging from less than one percent of the total population in Italy and Spain (an irony considering that Spain was once under the Moors) to 6 percent in France.
Because Muslims tend to be more visible, especially in the practice of their faith, they become easy targets of discrimination. Being Chinese-Filipino, I can empathize. The Chinese in the Philippines constitute less than 2 percent of the population but tend to attract attention, and resentment, because of their visibility in businesses. In the 1950s, Manila Mayor Arsenio Lacson banned Chinese-language signs, which appeared mainly in Chinatown’s business establishment. Out of sight, out of mind.
People tend to fear what’s different, and unknown. But societies everywhere are becoming more and more multicultural and trying to close borders, or setting up walls and ghettos, means we are all the poorer in our humanity, and even our nationhood. Our understanding of the Filipino will never be complete without understanding our linkages to the Islamic world and to Muslims.
http://opinion.inquirer.net/inquireropinion/columns/view/20100203-251019/Muslims-around-us
