The Middle East and the Philippines

Transnational Linkages, Labor Migration and the Remaking of Philippine Islam

Authors

  • Vivienne SM Angeles La Salle University

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1558/cis.v7i1-2.157

Keywords:

Migration, Filipino Catholics, Conversion, Philippine Islam, Balik Islam

Abstract

In this article, Angeles explains how historically Islam in the Philippines has been identified as a religion of ethnic groups that are concentrated in the southern part of the country. Yet Islam in the Philippines has now transcended ethnic boundaries with the increasing number of Filipino Catholics converting to Islam. The author describes how labor migration to the Middle East has led to changes in the composition of Muslims in the Philippines, which in turn has resulted in the growing plural nature of Philippine Islam. This change is demonstrated by the growth of the Balik Islam (converts/ “reverts” to Islam) movement in the country and the changing material culture of the religion (Islamic dress, mosque architecture). Angeles traces the historical development of Philippine labor migration to the Middle East, explores the linkage between labor migration and conversion, and then studies the composition, purposes and aims of the Balik Islam movements that are linked to labor migration. She goes on to analyze the patterns that emerge out of these movements and their implications for Philippine Islam.

Author Biography

  • Vivienne SM Angeles, La Salle University

    Vivienne SM. Angeles is associate professor of Religion teaching Islam and Comparative Religions at the Department of Religion at La Salle University in Philadelphia. Born in the Philippines, she was educated at the University of the Philippines, Kansas State University and Temple University. She has published on the subjects of Muslim movements, Muslim identity and Muslim women in the Philippines and Southeast Asia. Her research interests include identity creation through visual expressions of Islam in the Philippines and Malaysia and religion and migration. She is an affiliate of the Harvard University Pluralism Project and past president of the American Council for the Study of Islamic Societies.

References

Al-Attas, S.M.N. The Correct Date of the Trengganu Inscription. Kuala Lumpur: Muzium Negara, 1970.

Almarez, Jamal. Personal interview. 9 August 2005.

Al Mas’udi, Les Praires D’or, vol. 1. Translated by Barbier de Meynard and Pavet de Courteille. Paris: Societe Asiatique, 1962.

Banlaoi, Rommel. “Radical Muslim Terrorism in the Philippines.” In A Handbook of Terrorism and Insurgency in Southeast Asia, edited by Andrew Tian Huat Tan, 194–247. Cheltenham, United Kingdom: Edward Elger Publishing, 2007.

Caparino, Nur. Personal interview. August 9, 2005.

Choy, Catherine Ceniza. Empire of Care. Durham: Duke University Press, 2003.

Clarence-Smith, William Gervase. “Middle Eastern Entrepreneurs in Southeast Asia, c1750–1940.” http://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:O5rZu0lIIokJ:eh.net/XIIICongress/cd/papers/10Clarence-Smith301.pdf Accessed 20 January 2011.

Clarence-Smith, William. “Middle-Eastern Entrepreneurs in Southeast Asia, c. 1750-c.1940.” In Diaspora Entrepreneurial Networks, Four Centuries of History, edited by Ina Baghdiantz McCabe, Gelina Harlaftis and Ioanna Pepelasis Minoglou, 217–244. United Kingdom: Berg, 2004.

Comaroff, Jean and John. Of Revelation and Revolution: Christianity, Colonialism and Consciousness in South Africa, vol. 1. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1991.

Cruz, Gemma T. “It cuts both ways: Religion and Filipina Domestic Workers in Hongkong.”In Gender, Religion and Migration, edited by Glenda Bonifacio and Vivienne SM. Angeles, 17–36. Lanham: Lexington Books, 2010.

Danguilan, Maritess. “The New Believers.” http://www.inq7.net/nwsbrk.2002/may/27/nbk_6-1.htm. Accessed October 5, 2009.

De Jonge, Huub and Nico Kaptein, eds., Transcending Borders: Arabs, Politics, Trade and Islam in Southeast Asia. Leiden: KITLV Press, 2002.

DeParle, Jason. “A good provider is one who leaves,” New York Times, April 22, 2007. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/22/magazine/22Workers.t.html. Accessed September 10, 2009.

Ericta, Carmelita. “Profile of Filipino Overseas Workers,” Paper presented at the Statistical Center (SRTC) Annual Conference, 2003, Quezon City, Philippines in http://www.ancsdaap.org/cencon2003/Papers/Philippines/ Philippines.pdf. Accessed 28 September 2009.

Freitag, Ulrike. “Arab Merchants in Singapore: Attempt of a Collective Bibliography.” In Arabs, Politics, Trade and Islam in Southeast Asia, edited by Huub De Jong and Nico Kaptein, 109–142. Leiden: KITLV Press, 2002.

Groeneveldt, W.P. Notes on the Malay Archipelago and Malacca: Compiled from Chinese Sources. The Hague: Nijhoff, 1880.

Gungwu, Wang. “The Nanhai Trade: A Study of the Early History of Chinese Trade in the South China Sea.” Journal of the Malayan Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society 31(2/182), 1958.

Held, David and M. Kohler, eds. Re-imagining Political Community. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1998.

Ho, Eng Seng. “Empire through Diasporic Eyes: A View from the Other Boat.” Society for Comparative Study of Society and History April (2004): 210–246.

Hurgronje, Christian Snouck. Mekka. Leiden: Brill, 1970.

Kiefer, Thomas. The Tausug: Violence and Law in a Philippine Moslem Society. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1972.

International Crisis Group, “Philippine Terrorism: The Role of Militant Islamic Converts.” Asia Report 110 (December 19), 2005.

Lacar, Luis. “Balik-Islam; Christian converts to Islam in the Philippines,” Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations 12(1): 39–60.

Leman, Johan. “Religious Modulators in Pluri-Ethnic Cities: An Anthropological Analysis of the Relative Shift from Ethnic and Supra-Ethnic and Meta- Ethnic Faith Communities in Brussels. Journal of Contemporary Religion 14(2), (1999): 217–231. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13537909908580863

Lucero, Zainab P., ed. Islam. Bakit ko ito Niyakap, (Islam. Why I Embraced it). Las Pinas: Philippine Association of Muslimah, n.d.

Magadapa, Ustadz Harun. Personal Interview. January 10, 2005, Cebu City, Philippines.

Majul, Cesar A. Muslims in the Philippines. Quezon City: University of the Philip¬pines Press, 1973.

———. “The General Nature of Islamic Law and its Application in the Philippines.” Paper presented at a lecture series honoring the former Chief Justices of the Philippines, University of the Philippines Law Center, September 24, 1977.

———. The Contemporary Muslim Movement in the Philippines. Berkeley, CA: Mizan Press, 1985.

Milligan, Jeffrey Ayala. Identity, Postcoloniality and Educational Policy: Schooling and Ethno-Religious Conflict in the Philippines. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005.

Morga, Antonio de. Sucesos delas islas Filipina. Translated and edited by J. S. Cummins. Cambridge: Hakluyt Society, 1971.

National Statistics Office, 2005 Survey on Overseas Filipinos. www.census.gov.ph/data/pressrelease/2005/of04tx.html.

Othman, Muhammad Redzuan. “The Origins and Contributions of Early Arabs in Malaya.” In Southeast Asia and the Middle East: Islam, Movement and the Long Duree, edited by Eric Tagliacozzo, 83–107. Singapore: National University of Singapore, 2009.

Parrenas, Rhacel Salazar. Servants of Globalization: Women, Migration and Domestic Work. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2000.

Pires, Tome. Suma Oriental. Translated by Armando Cortesao. Nelden/Liechtenstein: Kraus Reprint, 1967.

Population Commission Fourth State of the Philippine Population Report (SPPR 4) in www.gmanews.tv/story/69896/population-and-migration. Accessed October 10, 2008.

“Ramadan inspires some Filipinos to convert” http://pinoyoverseas.net/news/middleeast/saudi-arabia/ramadan Accessed March 8, 2011.

“Record High Remittances to the Philippines lead to Increased Competition among Philippine Banks,” Asia Focus (San Francisco: Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco), January 2008. www.frbsf.org/publications/banking/asiafocus/2008 Accessed October 20, 2008.

Reid, Anthony. Southeast Asia in the Age of Commerce, vol. 2. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1993.

Remo, Michelle. “OFW remittances to PH is ‘4th largest in the world’— WB report.” http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/topstories/topstories/view/20101109-302313/OFW-remittances-to-PH-is-4th-largest-in-the-worldWB-report. Accessed 25 February 2011.

Republic of the Philippines, Ministry of Foreign Affairs. “Resolution No. 4 of the Fourth Islamic Conference of Foreign Ministers held at Benghazi, Libya on March 25–26, 1973.” The Southwestern Philippine Question. Annex III, 51–52.

Saleeby, Najeeb. Studies in Moro History, Law and Religion. Beirut: United Publish¬ers, 1973.

Songco, Margarita. “International Labor Migration and Remittances in the Philippines,”Asian Development Bank Edit 3 http://www.adb.org/doc¬uments/events/2009/poverty-social-development/WG1C-remittanc¬es-decline-phi-Songco-paper.pdf. Accessed 8 March 2011.

Tan, Samuel K. The Internationalization of the Bangsamoro Struggle. Quezon City: University of the Philippines Center for Integrative and Development Studies, 1995.

Tibbetts, G.R. “Early Muslim Traders in Southeast Asia.” Journal of the Malayan Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, Vol. 30, Part I, 1957.

“Troubled Return of the Faithful,” http://www.pcij.org/imag/SpecialReport/balik-islam2.html. Accessed 5 October 2009.

Von der Mehden, Fred. Two Worlds of Islam: Interaction between Southeast Asia and the Middle East. Gainesville: University of Florida Press, 1993.

Warren, Francis. At the Edge of Southeast Asian History. Quezon City: New Day Pub¬lishers, 1987.

Websites

http://www.ops.gov.ph/saudi2006/news5.htm. Accessed August 14, 2008.

www.manilatimes.net/national/2005/apr/23/yehey/opin/20050423opi6.html

www.migrationinformation.org/USFocus/display.cfm. Accessed October 10, 2008.

http://www.ancsdaap.org/cencon2003/Papers/Philippines/Philippines.pdf. Accessed 14 August 2008.

www.inq7.net/nwsbrk/2002/may/27/nbk_6-1.htm. Accessed 28 September 2009.

http://www.manilatimes.net/others/special/2003/nov/17/20031117spe1. html. Accessed 28 September 2009.

http://www.inq7.net/nwsbrk/2002/may/27/nbk_6-1.htm. Accessed 28 September 2009.

http://www.inq7.net/nwsbrk/2002/may/27/nbk_6-1.htm. Accessed 5 October 2009.

www.mindanews.com/index.php. Accessed 5 October 2009.

http://www.poea.gov.ph/stats/2010_Stats.pdf. Accessed October 25, 2011.

Published

2012-09-20

Issue

Section

Transnational Allegiances and Local Culture in Asia

How to Cite

Angeles, V. S. (2012). The Middle East and the Philippines: Transnational Linkages, Labor Migration and the Remaking of Philippine Islam. Comparative Islamic Studies, 7(1-2), 157-181. https://doi.org/10.1558/cis.v7i1-2.157