Igor Sitnikov: Muslim Filipinos’ Image Transformations: From Moro Pirates’ to ‘Abu Sayyaf Terrorists’

Thursday, November 29, 2012

Muslim Filipinos’ Image Transformations: From Moro Pirates’ to ‘Abu Sayyaf Terrorists’

Abstract

After September 11, 2001, Islam and terrorism issues became the subjects of the main importance in arena of international affairs. Moreover, these two issues are usually combined in mass media, constructing extremely negative image of Muslims, as actual and potential terrorists. In this context the case of the Muslim Filipinos’ image transformations in USA mass media seems to be very interesting, because the Muslim Filipinos were the first Muslims with whom Americans get into close interactions and who starting from the Spanish-American War of 1898 became Americans’ significant others. In the contemporary independent Philippines Moro nationalism and Muslim terrorism became one of the most important issues. This paper argues that the phenomena of Moro nationalism and Muslim terrorism in the contemporary Philippines are products of the long process of social reality construction with different stages of its development involved several various actors: pre-Hispanic Islamized Filipino datus, Spanish colonialism, American control, the independent Philippines state, Ferdinand Marcos with his martial law, and Muslim Filipinos’ ideologists.

The research question discussing in the paper is whether Moro nationalism and Muslim terrorism in the contemporary Philippines are products of social construction of subjective reality? The social construction of reality is defined as the dialectical process, which includes interactions among individuals, society, and culture. The purpose of this study is to analyze the process of Muslim Filipinos’ social image transformations during the long period of history from pre-Hispanic times to the present, when a row of stereotypical labels were used to portray them: “pagans,” “non-Christian tribe,” “Moros,” “cultural community,” “Muslim minority,” “Muslim Filipinos,” “Filipino Muslims,” and “Moro nationalists”. This paper argues that the long process of social reality construction, which in different stages of its development involved several various actors, resulted in the phenomena of Moro nationalism and Muslim terrorism in the contemporary Philippines.

Current paper is a textual analysis (both quantitative and qualitative) of news coverage of the Muslim Filipinos’ images in the New York Times (the NYT). The reason to choose the NYT as a main source for the study is the newspaper on-line archive availability and high time limitation, which is a main obstacle to address other sources of information. The analysis shows that publications devoted to the Muslim Filipinos in the NYT increased in the periods, when the Muslim Filipinos were for the USA the significant others: in the bloody period of ‘Moro Rebellion’ (1903-1913); during the time of American colonial rule in the Philippines (1913-1941); and during two years before and a year after the declaration of the War on Terrorism (from September 11, 2001 to the present). This paper argues that, the American ethnicizing, the early independent Philippines program of national integration and Marcos’ martial law hostility resulted in the phenomena of Muslim Filipinos subjective self identity and separatism movements of the next stage of their social image construction.

Igor Sitnikov

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Igor Sitnikov and Miklukho-Maklai

I was born in Ryazan city (Russia, 3 hours from Moscow) in 1961. 30 years I lived in the Soviet Union on the bank of Oka-river, which is a border between a huge forest and a wide steppe. Then 12 years I spend in the Russia on the same bank, under the same sky. I like Oka, and the steppe with multitude of small slow rivers, and the forest, that carries the name of vanished people “Meshchera”. When I was a schoolboy I had read a book about the famous Russian anthropologist Miklukho-Maklai, who studied peoples of Papua New Guinea. His life was amazing for my childish imagination. I dreamed about long voyages in vast waters of the Pacific Ocean. I was envious of Tur Heyerdal, who could travel along the Pacific islands and to Charles Gogin, who could draw beautiful Tahiti women.If I could imagine that I will become an artist and will live in Pacific?

Saisiyat (賽夏)

The Saisiyat believe that a long time ago, a tribe of three-foot tall, dark-skinned dwarfs once taught them to farm, sing, and dance, but also harassed and threatened the women.
Long ago, a tribe of dark-skinned pygmies arrived in the area inhabited by the Saisiyat. They were skilled in the arts of magic. The Taai (known as the Short People) gave the Saisiyat seeds and taught them the knowledge of agriculture, how to hold ceremonies and offer sacrifices to gods or ancestors.
Therefore the Saisiyat regarded the Taai as their benefactors. Whenever rituals and ceremonies were held, the Saisiyat always invited the Taai to be their guests, and they enjoyed drinking and having fun together.
The Taai, however, gradually began to encroach upon the Saisiyat women. To avoid disrupting harmonious relations between the tribes, those women who were violated remained silent. The Saisiyat tribal elders urged patience for the good of the whole tribe. The Taai, however, stepped up their encroachments on the Saisiyat. When the Saisiyat had had enough, they swore to avenge the insult on the Taai.
The Saisiyat knew that the Taai were particularly fond of climbing on a loquat tree that overhung a precipice. Two Saisiyat youths thereupon took it upon themselves to saw the tree halfway through. That evening, the Taai, not suspecting a thing, climbed one-by-one up into the tree. As more and more Taai scaled the tree, it could no longer take the weight and the trunk snapped. All of the Taai who had been sitting in the tree went over the edge. Those that weren't killed in the initial fall were drowned.
However two Taais, who had escaped the ambush, placed a curse on the Saisiyat tribe, leading to a succession of disasters and poor harvests. In an effort to lift the curse, the Saisiyat sang Taai songs and performed Taai dances to plead for forgiveness while also appealing for fair weather and a bountiful harvest. That is the origin of the Saisiyat tribe's pygmy spirit ritual.

The pygmy spirit ritual gives raise a hypothesis by a Japanese archeologist, Kano Tadao, that the prehistoric peoples living in Taiwan included Negritoes.