PHILIPPINES: Islamic Schools Need More Support, Scholars Say

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Marites Sison

MANILA, Aug 1 2002 (IPS) - Amin is at a crossroads. This young Muslim Filipino scholar of the prestigious Al Azhar University in Egypt says he is just waiting for the papers that will make him a legal foreign resident in Cairo, before packing

his bags.

He will then join his wife and two children, already studying in Arabic schools in the Egyptian capital. But Amin says he is leaving the Philippines with a heavy heart.

“I would like to live in a place that’s peaceful and prosperous,” he says, citing that the Philippines’ unstable peace and order situation makes him fear for his personal safety and compels him to come home no later than 7 p.m.

But in the same breath, Amin says he would not have second thoughts about coming back to the Philippines, if the government of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo makes good its promise to pour more funds into the Islamic educational system in this mainly Catholic country.

Amin reckons that it would not just be him but “about 400 other” Filipino religious scholars schooled in Al Azhar, who would come home to teach, preferably in the Muslim-dominated areas of Mindanao, in the southern Philippines.

Right now, he says, he finds it “impossible” to stay and become a teacher at a ‘madrasah’ (Islamic school) because of the low pay.

“The salaries are so ridiculous,” chimes in Ustadz Yasser Datumano during an interview in a Muslim enclave in the heart of Quiapo, downtown Manila.

Datumano says ‘madrasah’ teachers receive anywhere from 200 to 2,000 pesos (4 to 40 U.S. dollars) a month. “Many of those who teach do so because of their devotion to religion and duty. It’s a big sacrifice,” he says.

In late July, the 1,300-member Ulama League of the Philippines at their

three-day congress in Marawi City, Lanao del Sur province, urged Arroyo to create at least 2,000 more teaching positions in the southern Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao.

The league said that more theologians are needed to handle peace education subjects for Muslim pupils in the region’s public schools.

There are 1,581 madaris (plural of ‘madrasah’) in the country, 35 of them accredited by the government.

Muslims account for about 5 percent of 80 million Filipinos, some 80 percent of whom are Roman Catholic.

Arroyo promised to address the league’s concern and reiterated her goal to integrate the ‘madrasah’ into the national education system. “One of the keys to the future of Mindanao, especially among the youth, is their education,” she said.

She also announced efforts to enrich the curriculum in Islamic schools by introducing values education.

There have been mixed reactions to Arroyo’s declarations, some bordering on scepticism and others, optimism.

“What we would like to see is a genuine attempt on the part of Christians to understand the Islam religion and Muslim culture,” Domini Torrevillas-Suarez, a columnist of the English-language daily ‘Philippine Star, wrote. “We should have dialogues and symposia to breach the wide gap of misunderstanding between Christians and Muslims.”

“I think she will support it because 2004 is near,” says Omar, a businessman, alluding to the expectation that Arroyo will run for president in the 2004 elections. “This will be a popular move.”

Still, Omar says he doubts the government’s sincerity in expanding the ‘madaris’, which critics have called breeding grounds for a radical brand of Islam and which have come under scrutiny in many other countries after Sep.11.

But parents send their children to these schools not only because of religious convictions but also because of poverty. The schools not only provide free education but also housing and meals.

An executive of a ‘madrasah’ here told local publications that Saudi-born Osama bin Laden, accused by the United States of being behind the Sep. 11 attacks, had previously offered to finance local Koranic schools in the Philippines if they undertook extremist teachings.

Ali al-Raschid said that in the early 1990s, he had been approached by bin Laden’s brother-in-law, Mohammad Jamal Kalifa, with such an offer, which he refused.

A police intelligence official admitted to IPS that government agents have been monitoring ‘madaris’, since some of them have been linked to rebel groups like the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, which is seeking to have an Islamic state in the south.

Military training has been incorporated in the curriculum of some religious schools, he maintains.

But Muslim scholars like Samuel Tan say that it is poverty, as well as socio-economic and political inequalities, that give rise to radicalism. “The radical movements of political Islam have become the logical source of help and self-fulfillment to displaced Muslim youths,” he said.

Often, the feelings of isolation by Muslim Filipinos stem from their lack of access to jobs and opportunities that other Filipinos have. Many Muslim communities are also in the poorest regions of the country, which show major differences in quality of life, including literacy and education.

“To a significant extent, the MILF, MNLF (Moro National Liberation Front) and the Abu Sayyaf have derived their base support from the idealist youths and displaced elements of Muslim society who have no credentials or opportunities to be absorbed into the Christian or non-Muslim dominated employment field, especially in the agencies, institutions and businesses of government,” he pointed out.

The MNLF is another group of Muslim rebels that has signed a peace accord with the government. The Abu Sayyaf (‘Bearer of the Sword’) claims to have Islamic credentials but engages in kidnapping for ransom.

Mona Valisno, presidential assistant for education, says the government wants a unified ‘madrasah’ curriculum not just to stem high dropout rates in some Muslim communities, but to enable graduates to land jobs in the government and the private sector.

“Many graduates cannot get jobs here, because they lack training and background in math, science, technology and the English language,” says Al-Raschid. “In the ‘madaris’, students only get theological, Arabic and Islamic studies.”

Ustadz Datumano, however, says it is not just the education of Muslim students that need to be re-evaluated.

“Why not let all Filipinos study Arabic instead of Spanish?” he suggests. “Many Filipinos end up working in the Middle East anyway. At least Arabic will be useful to them, referring to the hundreds of thousands of workers in that part of the world.

In this former Spanish colony, Spanish is still being taught as a second language in some schools, colleges and universities.

Ustadz Datumano adds that learning Arabic would help demystify Islam among Filipinos.

Ustadz Datumano, Amin and Omar say that for the most part, they have not been subjected to profiling here after the Sep. 11 attacks, but they feel that Islam is not only misunderstood but even feared.

“Some think that all Muslims are Abu Sayyaf,” says Omar. Adds Ustadz Datumano, “Many Filipinos don’t understand that Islam teaches us to do good to everyone, regardless of religion.”

Al-Raschid and others also decry the bias against Muslims in textbooks used in the Philippines. “We are appalled at how Muslims are treated in the textbooks. It is still based on the Spanish impression that Muslims are clothed in warlike suits,” Al Raschid said.