Bangsamoro (World of Sultans)

The Kingdom of Mindanao and Sulu Abode of Peace (Malay: Kota Mindanao dan Sulu Darussalam) (Jawi:  كوتا ميندانااو دان سولو دارالسلام) (Cebuano: Gingharian sa Mindanao ug Sulu Puloy-anan sa Peace) (Chavacano: Reino de Mindanao y Sulu Morada de la Paz) (Arabic: المملكة مينداناو وسولو دار السلام) is a country located in Southeast Asia. Bangsamoro is located in the southern and western Philippine Archipelago, comprising of the islands of Mindanao and the Sulu Archipelago.

It is also known as the Bangsamoro Kingdom (Malay: Kota Bangsamoro) (Jawi: كوتا بڠسا مورو) (Arabic: المملكةبانجسامورو) in many Moro documents.

Etymology and History
When Spain invaded the Philippines, the natives of southern Mindanao showed fierce resistance to Spanish rule. The natives contained steel blades which allowed them to defeat the Spanish forces, eventually making the Spanish give up and stop attempting to convert western Mindanao's natives. Bangsamoro literally means "Bangsa" which is Malay for "country/state" and "Moro" which is Spanish for "Moors", the Muslim empire that had once ruled Spain. Throughout much of history, the Moros have showed resistance to outside influence and have conducted a series of armed conflicts with Philippine police, soldiers and innocent civilians.

Misuari's War
Nur Misuari united the Moro groups in Mindanao under one banner, known as "The United Moro Army", that consisted of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters, Moro National Liberation Front, Abu-Sayyaf and the acclaimed Royal Sulu Army. Following the incursion of Filipino soldiers in Mindanao.

The Abu-Sayyaf displeased Misuari due to their terrorist attacks on innocent citizens, and expelled them from the UMA.

The Moros captured the Zamboanga Peninsula from Filipino soldiers. The Moros also took Basilan, and conquered Isabela City. The Christians of Mindanao were forced to flee back to the Philippines, as raids and the taking of hostages became rampant. As much as 9% of Mindanao's Cebuano Christians fled to Manila. Rodrigo Duterte, the mayor of Davao City supported the idea of a Bangsamoro Republik, sending a letter to Nur Misuari stating that he supported the cause. Members of the Royal Sulu Army escorted Duterte to Zamboanga City, where he and Misuari discussed their plans - Duterte disagreed with the idea of naming it a Bangsamoro Republik, but rather an independant nation known as "Mindanao and Sulu".

Duterte provided aid to the Moro armies, calling his army "Christian helpers" or "Sahabahs". Nur Misuari said that the rebels would have to give up their claim on the Malaysian island of Sabah temporarily and focus on achieving independance in Mindanao.

He said, "Look, we Moros have been going everywhere and attacking here and there with no real solid goal. Well my goal is free Mindanao from the slave rule of the Philippines, we have Christian helpers too - we cannot focus on Sabah right now. I must stress, for now, Mindanao and the Sulu Archipelago are our main focus and we must solifidify this goal."

Nur Misuari hired Indonesian militants to Mindanao, to help them speak Malay and Arabic and teach most Mindanao natives to speak it. By the end of the month, about 60% of Mindanao was speaking Malay. Because of Duterte's help, Misuari told the militants not to harm Christians and in fact, teach Christian preachers how to speak Malay. Most of the people of Mindanao were then beginning to adopt pre-Hispanic titles and have them recognized.

The Moros continued, and defeated Filipino forces in the cities of Cagayan de Oro, Davao City and General Santos City. Duterte was mistaken by Moro armies under the leadership of Asamin Hussin, to be a member of the Philippine Armed Forces. Misuari ordered Hussin not to harm Duterte, and let him remain in power as Davao City's datu.

U.N. Recognition of Mindanao and Sulu
The United Nations notified the Philippine Republic that it had recognized Mindanao and Sulu's independance and Mindanao and Sulu became an independant monarchy from the Philippines. Most of the prominent Moro politicans became part of the new ruling nobility in Mindanao where Nur Misuari was crowned Sultan.

As for the Cebuano Christian armies that helped him, Nur Misuari sent a letter to the Moro governers in Cayagan de Oro, General Santos City and Davao City to let the Christians enjoy the political powers, property and priveliges they had prior to Mindanao's independance - mirroring what the Spanish king did the native chiefs of Luzon that converted to Catholicism that formed the Principalia.

The letter read, "It is not right that the Christian Visayan helpers be detained or be treated worse after helping us Muslims, for it is something they owe us from the colonial era, I will not hold that against them. Those Christians who were against us have already willingly left. Rather, the Christians who helped us should be treated in a way that will keep them loyal and affectionate with their Muslim brothers, in a harmony between the new Muslim nobility and the Christian nobility. So I instruct the new Moro rulers and provincial governers of Mindanao to treat these Christian helpers and their leaders comfortably, contentedly and with their respective autonomy - they they are to remain in the same power, enjoy the same privileges, wealth and perks they that they had prior to our independance from the Philippines and that those Christian rulers who lost their seats of power in the war be restored to their thrones."

So while provinces of Mindanao and the Sulu Archipelago were governed by Moros and Muslims, the Christians were allowed to retain their functions as the governers of cities, municipalities and barangays.

Duterte remained Davao City's mayor or "cabeza" and Oscar Moreno remained Cagayan de Oro's mayor. Ronnel Rivera could not be found, some Moro chiefs claim that he fled to the Philippines, it is unknown of what happened to him. Nur Misuari tried to lead a search for Ronnel Rivera, and sent a letter to Benigno Aquino III in Manila stating that Rivera be returned to Mindanao so he can retain his governing power in General Santos City. Aquino said that Rivera was nowhere to be found in the Philippines. Therefor Misuari placed the Kiram family to govern General Santos City.

Politics
Mindanao and Sulu's political system runs on a semi-theocratic monarchy, the sultan is the current supreme source of political power. Islam is the state religion of the Mindanao and Sulu, and the Qu'ran, the Islamic holy text is part of Mindanao and Sulu's legislature, although not the sole document and a seperate constitution does exist to accomadate the non-Muslims.

The indigenous term datu or dato is used almost by all royals of Mindanao and Sulu, regardless of their religion of ethnic group. It has become a symbolic term for Mindanao and Sulu.

Islamic Nobility
Since Islam is the state religion, most of Mindanao and Sulu's highest and most prestigious ranks require one to be a Muslim.

According to the Constitution of Mindanao and Sulu, one must be a Muslim to become the king or sultan of Mindanao and Sulu.

Mindanao and Sulu are divided into regional rajahnates, carved out of the original regions and borders set by the Philippine government in Mindanao and Sulu. Each region is ruled by a powerful Muslim prince known as a rajah, where the term has been revived. These rajahs are to oversee the functions of each region, and hold the second greatest power in Mindanao and Sulu.

Each province in Mindanao and Sulu is ruled by a lower-ranking Muslim prince or maharaja a tradition adopted from the Sulu Sultanate, used for provincial princes. Misuari liked the idea of using the title maharajah for a provincial title, although it originated from an Indian term meaning "high king" - in contrary to its use.

Marawi City is the religious capital of Mindanao and Sulu.

Christian Nobility

The Christian nobility of Mindanao and Sulu use the Spanish/Chavacano titles don and doña, those who govern the municipalities are known as barangay chiefs are known as cabezas. Because of the Cebuano aid towards Misuari for creating Mindanao and Sulu as an independant state, Nur Misuari granted the Roman Catholics and Christians of Mindanao the right to retain their political power and wealth that they enjoyed prior to Mindanao and Sulu's creation as a state - and they enjoyed equal rights as the Muslim nobility. However, many of the provincial governers lost their positions unless they converted to Islam, Musuari gave them other political positions.

However, the Christian nobility of Mindanao did have its limitations, they could not govern entire provinces and had to convert to Islam to do so since the constitution of Mindanao and Sulu states that each prince of a province must be a Muslim. They also were not allowed to exert their influence (namely religious) on the Moro nobility of the Bumiputra.

Administrative Regions
Zamboanga City is the adiminstrative capital of Mindanao and Sulu, and Marawi City is the Shariah Courts operate. Cities are known as "kotas" in Mindanao and Sulu. The provinces of Maguindanao, Lanao del Sur, Basilan and Tawi-Tawi form the Bumiputra Moro ("Moro World" in Malay), which was carved out of what was once the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao or the ARMM when Mindanao and Sulu were part of the Philippines. The Bumiputra Moro was extended to include Lanao del Norte, Cotabato and Zamboanga del Sur when the Christian population of Lanao del Norte and the Zamboanga Peninsula decreased significantly due to the mass exodus of Ilocanos and Cebuanos in Lanao del Sur, once-more making the area predominantly Muslim. Although Zamboanga Sibugay and Zamboanga del Norte are not located in the Moro Bumiputra, they are administered from Marawi City and under the jurisdiction of the Moro Bumiputra. The Zamboanga Region also was dissoluted, and was split up among different regions.

Religion
Despite the dominance of Islam in Mindanao and Sulu's politics, Christianity accounts for about 54% of Mindanao and Sulu's actual population, and 43% are Muslims, 3% belong to Animist and indigenous traditional religion. When Mindanao and Sulu received independance from the Republic of the Philippines, its Christian population, which had been at 65% dropped to 54% following the mass emigration of Cebuanos and Ilocanos back to the Philippines who feared religious persecution - making many areas, once-more predominantly Muslim such as Lanao del Norte, Cotabato Province and many areas of the Zamboanga Peninsula.

The Muslim population of Mindanao and Sulu is growing rapidly. Most are either followers of traditional Sunni Islam or Folk Islam. The Indonesians who helped spread Malay language chose to stay in Mindanao and become its citizens, as well as the high birth rate of Muslims contribute to this by much. An Oxford University research actually shows that 50% of Mindanao and Sulu's people were Muslims, 48% were Christian and 2% followed other religions. Lanao del Norte and the Davao region are home to many of these Indonesian and Malay migrants. The Shariah Court has some influence on the politics, sales of pork and alcohol are not permitted in predominantly-Muslim territory, however they are allowed in those that predominantly Christian, even if they be ruled by a Muslim nobility.

The constitution of Mindanao and Sulu does offer religious freedom, but Islam is the state religion and non-Muslims are to pay the ''jizyah. ''Every province is also required to have an Islamic center, complemented by a madrasah.

Misuari currently allows churches to operate in Mindanao, however the constitution also says that prolysterizing with Muslims is illegal, Muslims may only convert out of Islam if one chooses to but that ex-Muslim may not preach any outside religion to his Muslim counterparts.

Misuari still lets Christian churches operate in Zamboanga City, such as the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Zamboanga - however they are only allowed to preach to Christians, and non-Christians that are not Muslims.

Language
Mindanao and Sulu contain a melting pot of languages, it has official national languages. Bahasa Melayu (Malay) is the national language of the country, about 80% of Mindanaoans speak Malay as a second, third or even a fourth language and Misuari is focuse on having the entire population be fluent in Malay. Arabic, one of the country's official three languages is spoken by about 20% of Mindanao and Sulu's population mostly the Muslim nobility who often write letters to each other in Arabic. It is the language of the religious education among the madrasahs (Islamic schools) that operate and an official language of the Moro Bumiputra.

The Cebuano language contains the largest amounts of native speakers, there it is one of the three official languages. Cebuanos and Ilocanos still make large populations in Mindanao and Sulu, these are those who chose to help Misuari's independance movement and pay jizyah taxes rather than to be expelled back to the Philippines.

Chavacano is a Philippine Spanish Creole from the Zamboanga Peninsula, it has gained much popularity in Mindanao and Sulu, it is also an official language in Mindanao and Sulu and is also used by many of the royalty, whether it be Christian or Muslim (especially in the Zamboanga Peninsula). It is also an official language. In fact, many of Zamboanga's madrasahs also use Chavacano alongside Arabic.

Most of the languages are written in the Latin script. However, Jawi is used in the Moro Bumiputra regions, especially with Marawi City where along with Arabic, Jawi is the alphabet used for most public signs and used to print the Malay and the Maranaoan language. Members of the Muslim nobility along with Arabic, use the Jawi script to send each other letters.

A dispute had gone on, whether to designate Maranaoan, Maguindanaoan and Tausug as the three official languages with Malay as an official rather than Cebuano, Chavacano and Arabic. But Misuari dismissed the idea becaused he focused on actual speaker count.

Economics
Mindanao and Sulu's economics are based the exports of durian, gold and coconuts. Durian, coconuts and mangos are cash crops of Mindanao and Sulu, oftenly exported to Malaysia, Brunei, Indonesia and Misuari does plan to open trade relations with the Philippines once things are cleared up.

The Davao region is known for its durian. Misuari says he definately plans to export durian to the Philippines, when Mindanao and Sulu gained independance, the durian industry in the Philippines froze, forcing the Philippines to import durian from Thailand and Malaysia.

Mining and archealogical projects in Surigao region has led to the discovery of gold - both in its raw form and artifacts of gold belts used by the datu classes of pre-Hispanic Philippines, and another abundance of what Misuari claims to be a remnant or even a part of Yamashita's lost treasure. The Philippine government has laid claim to Surigao, saying that it was unfair to find that treasure at an inoppurtune time. The gold was evenly distributed among the Muslim royal families who had faced centuries of poverty. Mindanao and Sulu currently exports gold which contributes to its emerging economic boom, attracting many migrants from Indonesia and India.