Asian Transformations in Action - Api-fellowships.org

88 INTERMINGLING OF CONTINUITY AND DISCONTINUITYgovernment employees, factory workers, politicians,professionals, traders, and representatives of nongovernmentorganizations (NGOs). Two sets of keyinformants were interviewed for the study: twenty keyinformants from Marawi City to provide informationon migration and on fundamentalist ideas being carriedby movements or translated into everyday life, andeighty key informants living in Muslim communitieswithin the Quiapo area. Contextual information wasalso drawn from Christians based on their position andknowledge of issues concerning Muslims in Quiapo.Secondary data included materials from various officesin the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao(ARMM), the Office of Muslim Affairs (OMA), andseveral libraries in Mindanao and Metro Manila.Exploring the plight and worldview of Muslim urbanitescould help enhance the capability of the government,Filipino Christians and those of other faiths to deal withMuslim minorities in Metro Manila and in Mindanaoin the spirit of greater pluralism.Quiapo’s Muslim communities: A demographicsketchOf the four Muslim settlements in Metro Manila (i.e.,Quiapo, Taguig, Tandang Sora, and Baclaran), Quiapois by far the largest, most centrally located and mostcommercial. In particular, the study was confined totwo barangays (villages) namely, Barangay 383 andBarangay 384, which surround the Golden Mosqueand the Islamic Center, because they reflect the stronginfluence of both the mosque and the market onthe community. Technically, the Islamic Center orBarangay 648 is not in Quiapo but in San Miguel. Itis, however, adjacent geographically to Quiapo, andmany Muslims from the Islamic Center conduct theirbusinesses in Quiapo, spending long hours there andintermingling with residents. Thus, for purposes of thisresearch, the Quiapo area encompasses San Miguel. Theintermingling of a vibrant market or secular life with anequally powerful religious life around a major mosquemade the Quiapo situation a good site for research.Barangays 383 and 384, which host Muslimcommunities, are also the site of the “Barter Trade” area,a trading center for pirated VCDs and DVDs. Knownas the “Rajah Sulaiman Market” before the 1980s, theBarter Trade area is located in the busy Quinta publicmarket under the Quezon Bridge. Barangay 384 withits Golden Mosque has a female barangay captain. Ithas a total population of 15,000 with 3,000 households(NSO 1990) although the barangay captain claimsthere is a much larger population than that shown inthe census figures. The majority of the Muslims, whomake up a third of the population of this barangay,engage in business activities ranging from running halalfood restaurants to selling pearls, jewelry, carpets, andpirated VCDs and DVDs. The jama’ah (congregation)of the Golden Mosque is mainly from this barangay. Incontrast, Barangay 383, with a smaller population of5,000 people and 2,000 households, is only ten percentMuslim, partly explaining why the barangay captain isa non-Muslim. Despite their small number, however,Muslims from this barangay as well as from Barangay384 dominate the trade in VCDs and DVDs in the“Barter Trade.” The daughter of the Barter Trade’smanager claimed that about 110 of the 115 VCD/DVD stalls were owned by Muslims.In the Islamic Center, which is located in Barangay648, San Miguel, the total population is 32,000 with3,000 households in 1990. According to the barangaycaptain, Muslims constitute a majority here withonly two percent of the population Christian. Eightypercent of the population is Maranaos and 18 percent isTausug, Maguindanao, and Yakan. The majority of thepopulation is working in the trading sector. The Islamiccharacter in this Muslim community is more apparentthan elsewhere in Metro Manila.In general, there are two clusters of Muslim groupsamong the key informants: one formed around theaspirations and struggles of political movements andanother around emerging schools of thought. The firstcluster consists of groups influenced by or formerlyassociated with either the MNLF or the MILF. 2 Thesecond cluster consists of adherents to Shiah, Tabligh,Syabab, Wahabism, and Balik Islam (Christianconverts), and ordinary Moros. The differences amongthese clusters can be understood in the context of threetypes of Filipino Muslim struggle: armed struggle,collaboration with the Philippine government, andapolitical movements. The first and second types areoperating politically while the third type is primarily astruggle in the cultural realm on an individual level. Thegradual development of these three types of movementsseems to suggest that the greater concern is how toimprove the material lives of Muslims rather than thetheological mission of establishing an Islamic state.Forms of Islamic fundamentalism among urbanMuslims in QuiapoInterviews and informal group discussions reveal acommon aspiration: that Islam and the state should befused and Shariah 3 be implemented to ensure a moreprosperous Muslim society in the Philippines. All keyAsian Transformations in ActionThe Work of the 2006/2007 API Fellows