Introduction
Violent confrontations along ethnic and religious lines have been erupting and continue to devastate lives and properties in many countries. The factors that create these conflicts like historical political marginalization, poverty and economic deprivation, and discrimination and denial of a group’s identity, often remain unaddressed, serving to strengthen the relation between ethno-religious identity and conflict.
Over the last 10 years, there has been a steady increase of social hostilities involving religion, both in terms of number of countries and percentage of people of the world population involved (Pew 2014). The vast majority of contemporary wars is (partly) related to religious, ethnic, or national identity, and only few of them begin as interstate conflicts (Appleby 2000, p. 17).In the Philippines, a protracted armed conflict has pitted the Philippine government and its Christian majority against the Muslim minority (collectively called the ‘Bangsamoro’ or ‘Moro’) who lives predominantly in Mindanao, in the Southern part of the country. The violence in the South intensified in the 1970s with the serious military challenge posed by Moro non-state armed groups to advance the cause of Muslim self-determination. In response, succeeding governments have launched military offensives to defend the state interests - to preserve peace and order and protect its territorial rights. The conflict has brought not only tremendous losses to lives and properties but also pain, fear, and deep resentment among those affected.
Contemporary Filipino youth, especially in the southern part of the country, grows up amidst this conflict. The youth are considered as a highly vocal group in the expression of dissent and violence. Their support and participation in protest and violence help inform, form, and shape public opinion and policy affecting conflict, violence, and peace issues of a nation.
Most research on Christian-Muslim relations in the Philippines has looked at the manifest dimensions of the conflict (McKenna 1998; Gomez 2000; Gutierrez 2000; Busran-Lao 2005; Schiavo-Campo and Judd 2005; Buendia 2008; Kaufman 2011).
The question of why people engage in protest and violence, in the Philippines and elsewhere, has received diverging answers (Simon et al. 1998; Klandermans et al. 2008; Van Zomeren et al. 2008). Only few studies have focused on latent dimensions of conflict in the Philippines. Latent conflicts may vary in intensity, e.g., from intergroup prejudices, avoidance of contact between ethno-religious groups, from support of discrimination to support for the instrumental use of violence against ethno-religious out-groups. Just like intergroup violence, latent dimensions of conflict are also strongly influenced by ethno-religious identification in the Philippines.This contribution looks into the positioning and experiences of Filipino children and youth in the latent dimensions of the conflict situation in the Philippines. In what follows, a brief background on Moro conflict in the Philippines will be presented in order for the reader to understand the specific positioning and experiences of children and youth (Sect. 2). We then try to explain several pathways to children and youth support of violence and participation in conflict. In so doing, we cite some theoretical approaches in social science literature that help to explain latent intergroup conflicts (Sect. 3). We then end this contribution with a short conclusion (Sect. 4).
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