The soft launching of the Moro reader is timely. Amidst the political problems taking place in Mindanao over the issue of Bangsamoro Juridical Entity-Ancestral Domain, it is best to reflect on the historical background and look dispassionately, and hopefully academically on the problem. Oftentimes, the issues are clouded with hatred and stereotype impressions that have marked the relationship between the Christian and Muslim Filipinos.

It is a fact of history that the Filipino Muslims established the first high level of civilization in what was to become the Philippines, when the rest of the country was still on the barangay level. Filipino historians have made the introduction of Islam in the Muslim south and its peaceful spread, as a landmark in Philippine History.

Yet, the coming of the Spaniards began to breed the animosity between the Filipino Christians and Muslims, the dominant Christian Filipinos forgetting that we were one people before Spain arrived in the Philippines.

It is a fact that the Muslim Filipinos are proud of their struggles against Spanish and American imperialism, and it is only recently that these struggles have become part of Philippine History and Philippine nationalism, thanks to Historians Samuel Tan and my other former colleagues in the UP Department of History.

The noted Islamic scholar Dr. Cesar Adib Majul has interpreted these Muslim struggles as a parallel movement alongside the struggles of the Christian Filipinos in weaving the story of Philippine nationalism, thereby giving participation to the Filipino Muslims in that story.

Yet, the Christian majority looks at these struggles in a mired way, giving more importance to huramentados, bandits and rebels.

It is a fact that history records the displacement of Muslims in their lands through bureaucratic rules first placed by the American Colonial Government, and later, the Philippine Government. There are legitimate grievances that have not been given attention.

Yet, not too many Christian settlers are aware of these rulings, and are not sympathetic to the cries for justice among the Muslims. What they see are lazy Muslims who sell their share of the land, again showing a strong bias among the Christians.

Over and above the din of warfare, threats and counter threats, the e-book being launched this afternoon should be an opportunity to clear the air with academic papers written by noted scholars and writers who have been serious watchers of developments involving the Muslim Filipinos and the Muslim south. Let History be one of the sources in peacefully resolving the Bangsamoro question.