Replies

"But it's not necessarily that simple. Separatism is not always terrorism. The governments of the region want to equate separatism with terrorism, but the U.S. should resist that."

Typical liberal Brookings Institute moral equivalence. How about this smartass? They murder, kidnap, blow up, torture and/ or engage in violent actions designed to scare the population for their political goals makes them terrorists. That so tough? These guys seem to do plenty of that. Plus they've got connections to Al Quada. Good enough for me. Have the Phillis wipe'em off the face of the earth.

The Filipino Moros are a particularly interesting case. They have literally been in the business of terror and piracy for centuries.

The main business of the Filipino Muslims, the foundation of their traditional economy, was slave raiding and trading. They would send out fleets annually to raid the Spanish posessions in the Philippines for loot, slaves, and captives for ransom. What agriculture they had was performed by Christian slaves. Eventually, the Spanish in the 1880's-90's succeeded in repressing this piracy, by occupying much of the Muslim strongholds. When the US took over, they had to suppress them all over again. This brought peace and order to the area, and with this the empty, fertile lands of Mindanao attracted immigrants.

During the peaceful interlude from the 1910's-1960's (WWII notwithstanding) Christian Filipino immigrants settled many traditionally Muslim areas, succeeding in agriculture where the Muslims could not. This immigration eventually caused the Muslims to revolt in the 1970's. This revolt has persisted since then.

Most of the lands claimed by the Muslim separatists now have a Christian majority.