Readings in Philippine History - Activity 7: Social, Economic, Cultural Issues in Phil History

Name: _____________________ Date: __________________

Section:

1. What is the first thing that comes into your mind when you encounter the terms “Muslim”,
MNLF and MILF?
When I hear about Muslims, I immediately think that we are very different from their tradition because
they cannot eat pork because it says in the Holy Quran that some food is allowed, while others are
explicitly declared haram, which means forbidden. And pork is one of those forbidden foods. Processed
pork can also be found in many other foods in the form of gelatin. Also a man in Muslim can have a
multiple wives because they believe that the people will also be depleted so it needs to be multiplied
even more while in our believes is a man can only marry a one woman for the rest of their life. Muslim
have their own festival called Eid Fitr or festival of breaking fast and Eid Adha which means is feast of
the sacrifice and we Catholics believe that Jesus Christ was born on December 25 so we celebrate yearly
while a Muslim does not believe because according to them no one has witnessed that on that day Jesus
Chris was born.

2. What is their reason to take up arms against the government?

The reason why they take arms against the government because MNLF broke off peace negotiations
with the government over the majority-rule requirements of the organic act and called for a boycott of
the plebiscite. When the plebiscite was held only four of the 13 provinces and no cities voted for
inclusion in the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM). That small number was not only the
result of Christians opting out of ARMM. Basilan and Marawi City, both majority Muslim areas, voted
against inclusion in ARMM primarily as a result of MNLF opposition to the plebiscite. The new Muslim
autonomous region was established in 1990. Despite the announced goal of the new administration to
create something more substantial than the meaningless autonomy implemented by Ferdinand Marcos,
the new autonomous region looked very similar in size and structure to the former ones and still very far
away from the autonomy envisioned by the Muslim signatories to the Tripoli Agree.