I understand that most of the articles here have rather light topics but please allow me to digress for this one because after all, this site has the word ‘Random’ in it.
I am not a Muslim, I am not an expert or a scholar either and it is true that there are many aspects in the Moro culture that, as someone born and raised in the city, I do not understand. This is why it disgusts me to see students, mostly in college, mere children, discussing with great confidence the plight of the Bangsa-Moro or the conflict in Mindanao in panel forums and collegiate debates then go back to their MAC books and ridiculously expensive coffee after.
This article does not aim to give resolution to the conflict, nor it does aim to take sides. I also would like to stress that I do not sympathize with any faction in this conflict nor do I offer a political or military solution like what those funny college kids do. What I want to impart is what I suppose why the Muslim side think this is a war worth fighting based on what little I have read about honor or this so called ‘man-pride’, its role in shaping history and, ultimately, how it affects the Moro way of thinking.
Honor has been a part of human culture ever since humans started building civilizations. When the first hierarchy of classes started, so did the concept of honor. There are two types: first there is what we call Vertical Honor. It is the type of honor where one pays tribute or respect to the person who ranks above that person’s station, such as a king to his subjects. It is the ruler-subordinate relationship type of honor.
However, what this discourse shall focus on is the second type, the Horizontal Honor. It is the type of honor where one pays respect or show integrity to the next man - your equal. It is important to do this in the ancient world because a person’s equal is someone who can be a spear-brother, hunting partner, a shipmate if not one’s confidante if he was in to politics and religion. Basically, a person’s very life may one day depend on his equals. And with that groups formed about. Factions,clans, tribes, armies, kingdoms, empires, religions came in to shape. Rules, laws, creeds, written and unwritten that a group collectively agreed to follow gradually became an intrinsic part of each member. Hence, a person, was not anymore a single individual but a part and parcel of that group. Therefore, if a person’s group was attacked from without, that person, though not directly affected by the attack, was or at least felt attacked as well and it was his duty as a member to retaliate. This was something understood and followed by all the ancient world. The greatest civilizations from the east in Persia to the furthest in the west in Ancient Greece and later Rome abide in this system. The greatest wars in history took place essentially because each belonged to somewhere.
However, something happened in tiny Greece, something that would change the course of the entire history of western civilization forever. Socrates happened. The philosopher introduced a new form of honor, one that placed not the group as the center of everything but the individual himself. This was thoroughly expressed in Crito where the incarcerated Socrates refused his friend Crito’s offer for escape, even when everything has been planned and set for him, his ship and a place where he can hide abroad. The reason for his refusal was that he was concerned of what would people might think of him if he tried to live a life constantly on the run. He figured that people, especially the ones that convicted him, would think him to be truly guilty, for he had over 80 years to live and if the laws of Greece did not suit his liking he might had well left the country, he had the liberty to do so, but he did not. He also worried that his students might think less of him also if he were to escape, a hypocrite who was not willing to die for his beliefs and teachings. From this we can clearly see that the concept of honor turn from an external to an internal form. And we should not also neglect the fact that Socrates shaped the opinions and the culture of Medieval Europe onward.
There is also another person that happened that affected the culture of the western hemisphere – Jesus Christ. Regardless of whether his claims of divinity are true or not, or even whether the man truly existed in flesh and blood, no one can ever deny his influence not just in western culture but in the entire world as well. But let us look at Jesus in terms of his influence in the western world. Jesus’ message on pacifism like loving one’s neighbor and such, had a profound effect on the minds of the Medieval Europeans, though not entirely followed, that it totally changed the European’s definition of honor. Jesus’ order of the day is not to fight back when struck and that violent behavior cannot be tolerated and that there is a special place for people who do not abide by this ‘compassionate’ way of living.
In conclusion, since the Muslim world was almost not influenced by the cultural changes that happened in Christian Europe and all of the countries it thereupon influenced, I believe I can deduce that the Muslims, especially the ones who are participating in this on-going conflict in Mindanao, are still living the Spartan version of what honor is. The piece of land that is supposed to be, on their perspective, for their group is threatened to be taken away from them. Hence, it is only right and just that they, as a group that is injured, fight to reclaim it. However, this is not to say that their culture is inferior compared to any or that theirs is an outmoded way of thinking. The point here is that the Christian and Muslim world, underwent entirely different paths with regards to the shaping of their respective interpretation of morality. Therefore, a certain culture cannot simply impose their translation of morality to the other.
This article does not aim to give resolution to the conflict, nor it does aim to take sides. I also would like to stress that I do not sympathize with any faction in this conflict nor do I offer a political or military solution like what those funny college kids do. What I want to impart is what I suppose why the Muslim side think this is a war worth fighting based on what little I have read about honor or this so called ‘man-pride’, its role in shaping history and, ultimately, how it affects the Moro way of thinking.
Honor has been a part of human culture ever since humans started building civilizations. When the first hierarchy of classes started, so did the concept of honor. There are two types: first there is what we call Vertical Honor. It is the type of honor where one pays tribute or respect to the person who ranks above that person’s station, such as a king to his subjects. It is the ruler-subordinate relationship type of honor.
However, what this discourse shall focus on is the second type, the Horizontal Honor. It is the type of honor where one pays respect or show integrity to the next man - your equal. It is important to do this in the ancient world because a person’s equal is someone who can be a spear-brother, hunting partner, a shipmate if not one’s confidante if he was in to politics and religion. Basically, a person’s very life may one day depend on his equals. And with that groups formed about. Factions,clans, tribes, armies, kingdoms, empires, religions came in to shape. Rules, laws, creeds, written and unwritten that a group collectively agreed to follow gradually became an intrinsic part of each member. Hence, a person, was not anymore a single individual but a part and parcel of that group. Therefore, if a person’s group was attacked from without, that person, though not directly affected by the attack, was or at least felt attacked as well and it was his duty as a member to retaliate. This was something understood and followed by all the ancient world. The greatest civilizations from the east in Persia to the furthest in the west in Ancient Greece and later Rome abide in this system. The greatest wars in history took place essentially because each belonged to somewhere.
However, something happened in tiny Greece, something that would change the course of the entire history of western civilization forever. Socrates happened. The philosopher introduced a new form of honor, one that placed not the group as the center of everything but the individual himself. This was thoroughly expressed in Crito where the incarcerated Socrates refused his friend Crito’s offer for escape, even when everything has been planned and set for him, his ship and a place where he can hide abroad. The reason for his refusal was that he was concerned of what would people might think of him if he tried to live a life constantly on the run. He figured that people, especially the ones that convicted him, would think him to be truly guilty, for he had over 80 years to live and if the laws of Greece did not suit his liking he might had well left the country, he had the liberty to do so, but he did not. He also worried that his students might think less of him also if he were to escape, a hypocrite who was not willing to die for his beliefs and teachings. From this we can clearly see that the concept of honor turn from an external to an internal form. And we should not also neglect the fact that Socrates shaped the opinions and the culture of Medieval Europe onward.
There is also another person that happened that affected the culture of the western hemisphere – Jesus Christ. Regardless of whether his claims of divinity are true or not, or even whether the man truly existed in flesh and blood, no one can ever deny his influence not just in western culture but in the entire world as well. But let us look at Jesus in terms of his influence in the western world. Jesus’ message on pacifism like loving one’s neighbor and such, had a profound effect on the minds of the Medieval Europeans, though not entirely followed, that it totally changed the European’s definition of honor. Jesus’ order of the day is not to fight back when struck and that violent behavior cannot be tolerated and that there is a special place for people who do not abide by this ‘compassionate’ way of living.
In conclusion, since the Muslim world was almost not influenced by the cultural changes that happened in Christian Europe and all of the countries it thereupon influenced, I believe I can deduce that the Muslims, especially the ones who are participating in this on-going conflict in Mindanao, are still living the Spartan version of what honor is. The piece of land that is supposed to be, on their perspective, for their group is threatened to be taken away from them. Hence, it is only right and just that they, as a group that is injured, fight to reclaim it. However, this is not to say that their culture is inferior compared to any or that theirs is an outmoded way of thinking. The point here is that the Christian and Muslim world, underwent entirely different paths with regards to the shaping of their respective interpretation of morality. Therefore, a certain culture cannot simply impose their translation of morality to the other.
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