Excerpts from an upcoming IAG special report; sound bites from the national forum on the Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL) organized by IAG with UNICEF

The Bangsamoro must learn from the historical experiences of Muslim countries and examine their mistakes so as not to repeat them in the new political entity. Many experts believe one of these mistakes is constantly mixing religion and politics, which impacts negatively on social development. They suggest that those countries with the least influence of religion over politics were able to engage more in social development than otherwise.

The separation of state and church or religion is not an experience of Muslim countries except Turkey, which is reverting again to the Islamic model – a step back, basically. There is no single version of Shari’ah; hence its legislation under the Bangsamoro will prove to be a challenge. Experiences in other countries, Pakistan for instance, show how the safeguarding part of the constitution has been consistently violated in favor of the more extreme laws passed by the parliament.

The Bangsamoro should consider these experiences all together and guard against elements that might want to take over legislation, establish a political voice, and use this to stray the moderate majority towards more extreme views.

To prevent groups to resort to radicalism, it is important to have moderate systems that work. The reason why radicals flourish in some countries is because of the failure of the moderate groups to dominate not only in the discourse but in the application of laws and policies on the ground.

The best guarantee is to support moderate groups and a moderate approaches like the BBL. The BBL will not establish a religious government. It does not refer to Islam – except for the provision of the justice system tempered by the observance of international laws and the constitutional prohibition against cruel and harsh punishment. The Muslims in Mindanao have different views but the two main liberation fronts have been basically very moderate. Support for BBL will encourage moderate groups to champion a moderate Bangsamoro system.  

Intro thumbnail cartoon by Olle Johansson