Favorable Islam
Favorable Islam
Updated 11:12pm (Mla time) Nov 14, 2004
Inquirer News Service
Editor's Note: Published on page A14 of the November 15, 2004 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer.
THE MUSLIM community celebrated the end of the holy month of Ramadan on Saturday; today's official holiday is an opportunity for the rest of the nation to mark Eid'l Fitr, as the concluding feast is known.
It was only under the Arroyo administration that Muslim feasts came to be included in the list of official holidays. In the same way that the term of President Diosdado Macapagal is remembered for moving Independence Day from July 4 to June 12, the presidency of his daughter may well be remembered for giving Ramadan the same importance, the same official sanction, as the Christmas season.
We welcomed the long-overdue inclusion as a political gesture two years ago; but as the latest Social Weather Stations survey has reminded us, even symbols have practical consequences.
The survey, conducted last August, found that a statistical majority of Filipinos, at 52 percent, still hold a favorable view ("mabuti ang pagtingin") toward Islam. We say "still," because the last time the question was asked, in the May-June 2003 survey, an undeniable majority of 58 percent said they viewed Islam favorably.
Should the drop from 58 to 52 percent (a majority that is within the survey's margin of error of plus or minus 3 points) ring alarm bells? We think not, or at least not yet. Firstly, because the number of those who said they viewed Islam unfavorably this year is exactly the same as the number in 2003: 41 percent. In other words, the drop in favorables did not immediately translate into an increase in unfavorables. Secondly, and more important, the numbers in the survey conducted two years ago, in November-December 2002, were much more negative. In the 2002 survey, the proportions were reversed, with only 43 percent of Filipinos nationwide viewing Islam favorably, versus 54 percent who viewed it unfavorably.
We think it is likely that part of the reason for the change in attitude since then was the national celebration of Muslim feast days. In a word, inclusion promoted inclusiveness.
Celebrating the Muslim feast days has provided mass media with many opportunities to describe Islamic traditions or rites (witness the news pages or the newscasts last Saturday). It has helped raise the profile of ordinary Muslims, blurring their image as strange or different, as the embodiment of "the Other." And it may have helped lead to a new tolerance on the part of the Christian majority.
This is not to say that the path to complete integration of our Muslim minority is now obstacle-free. The great majority of Christian Filipinos, about four in every five, still believe that Islam is "very different" ("may malaking pagkakaiba") from Christianity. Only 14 percent believe that Islam and Christianity, which both trace their roots to Abraham, "have a lot in common" ("maraming pagkakapareho," in the language of the survey).
The President's own bailiwick, the Visayas, remains vexed by the Islamic religion. In the three surveys, a solid majority of Visayas residents consistently viewed it unfavorably: 65 percent in 2002, 58 percent in 2003, and an even higher 69 percent in 2004. In contrast, the change in attitude among Metro Manila residents was nothing short of dramatic: from 51 percent unfavorable in 2002 down to 27 percent unfavorable this year.
These statistics, plus anecdote after anecdote of ethnic or religious discrimination, prove that favorable is not the same as favored. Consider just one instance: the vilification campaign against Muslim traders in Greenhills, San Juan. A leading journalist once committed an unpardonable journalistic sin when he repeatedly referred to the Muslim prayer area in Greenhills as a "base" for possibly illegal operations, and then slyly "remembering" that al-Qaeda, the extremist terror network, was in fact Arabic for "The Base." Opinion masquerading as fact is objectionable; but opinion wrapped in fiction disguised as fact is simply reprehensible.
There is thus a long way to go before the country's Muslim minority enjoys the same equal treatment that the Christian majority takes for granted. But this much is clear: including Muslim feast days in the list of official holidays was a step in the right direction.
Updated 11:12pm (Mla time) Nov 14, 2004
Inquirer News Service
Editor's Note: Published on page A14 of the November 15, 2004 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer.
THE MUSLIM community celebrated the end of the holy month of Ramadan on Saturday; today's official holiday is an opportunity for the rest of the nation to mark Eid'l Fitr, as the concluding feast is known.
It was only under the Arroyo administration that Muslim feasts came to be included in the list of official holidays. In the same way that the term of President Diosdado Macapagal is remembered for moving Independence Day from July 4 to June 12, the presidency of his daughter may well be remembered for giving Ramadan the same importance, the same official sanction, as the Christmas season.
We welcomed the long-overdue inclusion as a political gesture two years ago; but as the latest Social Weather Stations survey has reminded us, even symbols have practical consequences.
The survey, conducted last August, found that a statistical majority of Filipinos, at 52 percent, still hold a favorable view ("mabuti ang pagtingin") toward Islam. We say "still," because the last time the question was asked, in the May-June 2003 survey, an undeniable majority of 58 percent said they viewed Islam favorably.
Should the drop from 58 to 52 percent (a majority that is within the survey's margin of error of plus or minus 3 points) ring alarm bells? We think not, or at least not yet. Firstly, because the number of those who said they viewed Islam unfavorably this year is exactly the same as the number in 2003: 41 percent. In other words, the drop in favorables did not immediately translate into an increase in unfavorables. Secondly, and more important, the numbers in the survey conducted two years ago, in November-December 2002, were much more negative. In the 2002 survey, the proportions were reversed, with only 43 percent of Filipinos nationwide viewing Islam favorably, versus 54 percent who viewed it unfavorably.
We think it is likely that part of the reason for the change in attitude since then was the national celebration of Muslim feast days. In a word, inclusion promoted inclusiveness.
Celebrating the Muslim feast days has provided mass media with many opportunities to describe Islamic traditions or rites (witness the news pages or the newscasts last Saturday). It has helped raise the profile of ordinary Muslims, blurring their image as strange or different, as the embodiment of "the Other." And it may have helped lead to a new tolerance on the part of the Christian majority.
This is not to say that the path to complete integration of our Muslim minority is now obstacle-free. The great majority of Christian Filipinos, about four in every five, still believe that Islam is "very different" ("may malaking pagkakaiba") from Christianity. Only 14 percent believe that Islam and Christianity, which both trace their roots to Abraham, "have a lot in common" ("maraming pagkakapareho," in the language of the survey).
The President's own bailiwick, the Visayas, remains vexed by the Islamic religion. In the three surveys, a solid majority of Visayas residents consistently viewed it unfavorably: 65 percent in 2002, 58 percent in 2003, and an even higher 69 percent in 2004. In contrast, the change in attitude among Metro Manila residents was nothing short of dramatic: from 51 percent unfavorable in 2002 down to 27 percent unfavorable this year.
These statistics, plus anecdote after anecdote of ethnic or religious discrimination, prove that favorable is not the same as favored. Consider just one instance: the vilification campaign against Muslim traders in Greenhills, San Juan. A leading journalist once committed an unpardonable journalistic sin when he repeatedly referred to the Muslim prayer area in Greenhills as a "base" for possibly illegal operations, and then slyly "remembering" that al-Qaeda, the extremist terror network, was in fact Arabic for "The Base." Opinion masquerading as fact is objectionable; but opinion wrapped in fiction disguised as fact is simply reprehensible.
There is thus a long way to go before the country's Muslim minority enjoys the same equal treatment that the Christian majority takes for granted. But this much is clear: including Muslim feast days in the list of official holidays was a step in the right direction.
posted by Dante at 12:00 AM
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