The Traditional Madaris as “Incubators of Violent Extremism”:

Contesting the Politics of Labeling and Identity Subjugation Among

Madrasah Constituents in Palimbang, Sultan Kudarat

A Thesis Presented to the Faculty of the Social Science Cluster

School of Arts and Sciences, Ateneo de Davao University

In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree

Bachelor of Arts Major in Political Science

Rosellie Madayag
Rohanie Mangudadatu
Shevy Sarigumba

October 2018
 ABSTRACT

The traditional Madrasah is an institution that is neither integrated nor

financially supported by the Government. The growing number of studies with

regards traditional Madrasah came mostly after the September 11 attack in the

United States. However, these articles portrayed traditional Madrasah as a

ground for propagators of violent extremism. Because of this, numerous

accounts against the backdrop of the issue has affected the constituents of

traditional Madrasah as the issue on the radicalization of Muslims is prevalent in

the Philippines. Thus, this study aims to document the narratives of the

constituents of traditional Madrasah in Palimbang, Sultan Kudarat in order to

understand their lived experiences and how they navigated through the labels

with regards violent extremism.

The narratives collected through in-depth interview from seventeen

respondents are analyzed using Michel Foucault’s Analytics of Power as the

theoretical lens and the hermeneutic phenomenology tradition of Heiddeger as

the methodological approach of the study, specifically Diekelmann, Allen, and

Tanner’s procedure for hermeneutic data analysis. The findings of the study

revolved around the lived experiences of the constituents of Traditional

Madrasah and how it has affected their lives. In particular, the constituents

Madrasah made use of the effects of the labels to contest the consequences

given to them as well as their means of resisting through the labels.

The implications of the study show the necessity that there is a need to

delve deeper into the lived experiences of the constituents of traditional

Madrasah, especially on the part of being labeled differently.