ISLAM RETURNEES, though, are nothing new in this predominantly Roman Catholic country. Even during the Spanish period, some Christians embraced Islam for reasons that ranged from the very personal to the practical.

	Circa 1997, Muslim women training to become MILF reserve fighters near Camp Abubakar. [PCIJ]

One of the more prominent converts was a Christian fugitive from Cavite named Pedro Cuevas. In 1842, Cuevas escaped to the island of Basilan in Mindanao where he fought and killed a Muslim chieftain named Datu Kalun. For him to be recognized leader of the mostly Muslim Yakan natives, Cuevas had to convert to Islam. He adopted the name Datu Kalun, married a Yakan woman, and instituted sociopolitical changes in the island. Datu Kalun consolidated the natives, led battles against invaders from Jolo and rid Basilan of pirates and marauders. He died in Basilan on July 16, 1904.

Islam is said to have begun taking root in the Philippines in 1380, although some scholars believe that it spread in some areas of the archipelago during the early 1200s. The inhabitants of Sulu have been described as among the earliest converts to Islam in the country. Historians, however, say the converts retained much of their pre-Islamic beliefs because the conversions were mostly done not by full-time religious teachers but by Arab Muslim traders.

By the early 1700s, the Sultan of Sulu defeated the Sultan of Maguindanao, signaling the rise of the Sulu sultanate in Mindanao and the spread of Islam. The Spaniards made several attempts to control Jolo, the capital of Sulu, but failed.

Conversion to Islam peaked in the 1970s during the height of the Moro uprising against the government. Fearing for their lives, many Christian settlers in Mindanao converted to Islam. “It was this strong feeling of insecurity that made them decide to convert,” says Dr. Luis Lacar in his unpublished study “Balik-Islam: Christian Converts to Islam in the Philippines.” He also says that the converts, finding security in their newfound religion, became zealous defenders of Islam.

Lacar, who teaches at the Mindanao State University-Iligan Institute of Technology, adds that the Balik-Islam “tend to identify more with their newfound faith” that born Muslims even think “the converts are overdoing it.”

He says the most significant factor in bringing about such zeal among the converts is the “dawah (propagation of Islam) especially by the Tabligh.” A missionary movement, the Tabligh became strong in the Philippines during the 1980s when foreign preachers, especially from Pakistan, Libya and Egypt arrived in Mindanao. “It is inevitable,” writes Lacar, “that some of the missionaries teach radical Islam.”

The number of Filipino workers who went to the Middle East in the 1980s boosted the ranks of the Balik-Islam. Amores says, “There are Filipinos who became Muslims for practical reasons while working in the Middle East as laborers.” Having the same faith as their employers was apparently regarded as a plus and enabled them to enjoy benefits denied other workers such as being able to stay on and look for other jobs once their contracts had ended. But indications are many of the converts took their new faith to heart.

In the 1990s, groups propagating the Islamic faith multiplied, some of them composed mostly of converts. Among the more prominent organizations are the Fi Sabilillah Dawah and Media Foundation, the Islamic Studies for Call and Guidance (ISCAG), the Islamic Information Center (IIC), and the Islamic Wisdom Worldwide (IWW).

Former overseas Filipino workers from Saudi Arabia who became Balik-Islam established the Fi Sabilillah in 1998. The organization produced a weekly television show on SBN21, “Discover Islam,” and a radio program on DWBL.

The IWW has similar activities with Fi Sabilillah, although most IWW members are born Muslims, not converts.

The IIC is a library and resource center, which gets “financial and moral support” from “generous brothers.” The center declares “to uphold the banner of Islam and to propagate its religious beliefs to the unbelievers” by “propagating the religion of Allah, follow-up of new Muslims, media programs, and distribution of literatures and other dawah materials.”

In 2000 alone, IIC “sent follow-up letters to 4,000 new Muslims, conducted prison visitations, visited 325 brothers, printed 90,000 books and pamphlets, and distributed 4,570 pieces of Islamic literature, 307 copies of Koran in English, and thousands of cassette tapes in lecture form.” Its resource center gets thousands of visitors each year.