Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

and an undercurrent of brutality, throughout the whole nation, that took years of peace to overcome. We had fought four years; multiply that by a hundred, and where would our boasted civilization be today? At the time of the American occupation of the Philippines, Spain was fighting the Lake Lanao Moros. The Spaniards had tried to build a road through that district and the Moros were in arms against them. This road was finished by American soldiers and maintained by the very Moros who had fought Spain in defense of their religion.

At the beginning of the war with Spain the United States government was not aware of the existence of any Mohammedans in the Philippines. When this fact was discovered and communicated to our Ambassador in Turkey, Oscar S. Straus of New York, he at once saw the possibilities which lay before us of a holy war. After a careful survey of the situation, he felt the need of prompt action on his part, in behalf of the United States; consequently he sought and gained an audience with the Sultan, Abdul Hamid, and requested him, as Caliph of the Moslem religion to act in behalf of the followers of Islam in the Philippines. The Caliph was not aware of such a body of Mohammedans and immediately took steps to ascertain whether or not they visited Mecca. A telegram to Mecca elicited the fact, that they not only visited Mecca in considerable numbers but that at that very time there were Moros from Sulu in the Sacred City.

Mr. Strauss was armed with the American treaty of 1796 with Tripoli, then an independent nation, which has never been abrogated, in which George Washington and his successor, John Adams concurred. Article II, Section IX reads:

As the government of the United States is not in any sense founded on the Christian religion; as it has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion, or tranquility of Musselmen; and as said states never have entered into any war or act of hostility against any Mahometan nation, it is declared by the parties that no pretext arising from religious opinions shall ever produce an interruption of the harmony existing between the two nations.

In 1806, after the war with the Barbary States, the same statements were reiterated by Jefferson. We have various treaties with the Ottoman Empire, extending from that time to 1875, all showing our absolute lack of unfriendliness toward the Mohammedan religion.

After due consideration of these facts, the Sultan, as Caliph caused a message to be sent to the Mohammedans of the Philippine Islands forbidding them to enter into any hostilities against the Americans, inasmuch as no interference with their religion would be allowed under American rule. As the Moros have never asked more than that, it is not surprising, that they refused all overtures made, by Aguinaldo's agents, at the time of the Filipino insurrection.

President McKinley sent a personal letter of thanks to Mr. Straus for the excellent work he had done, and said, its accomplishment had saved the United States at least twenty thousand troops in the field. If the reader will pause to consider what this means in men and also the millions in money, he will appreciate this wonderful piece of diplomacy, in averting a holy war.

Aguinaldo's agents were repeatedly sent among the Moros near the coasts, yet they not only stood fast, but offered their services in aid of the United States. In our subsequent dealings with the Moros of Sulu and Mindanao, we seem to have lost sight of these facts.

Major General George W. Davis, in his report of 1902, after a careful study of the problem says:

But they are Mohammedans, and attempts at conversion to Christianity if made, would probably result, as have all other attempts to proselyte these people, viz. in a complete failure. A prominent priest of the Jesuit order, who had spent twenty years of his life in contact with the Mohammedans of Mindanao, said to the writer that no missionary had yet succeeded in making converts among adult Mohammedans, in this or any other country. If missionaries are sent among them, they are doomed to failure, and besides, any interference with their religion would be resented as an insult and resisted to the death. Our government will not, of course, molest them in the practice of their religion so long as they observe our laws. But our government should not permit others (any persons) at least at present, to attempt their conversion to Christianity.

Here is the crux of the whole matter. If the Moros' religion had been respected, all else would have been easy. The Dutch in the East Indies, with their 35,000,000 of Mohammedans, know that; England and France recognize it. To go back one step; when Aguinaldo's agents found that they could not persuade the Moros to join them and the insurrection failed, some of these men remained in the Moro country and under the guise of friendship-proceeded to poison the Moslems against the United States government. When the cedula was increased, they said, "The extra money is to be used to force you to become Christians. It is not to give you a better government." Some of the Moros believed these stories and resisted the head tax (cedula) with their lives. It was a little unfortunate, that missions, as such, were allowed in their country because it gave color to the stories told them by the Christian Filipinos, and added to, rather than aided, the labors of the government for their betterment.

It was several years before the writer, as governor, was able to gain the confidence of these strange people. One reason for this being, that his attitude was that of many other persons, viz., that they were only "savages." The awakening came, when the "Organic Law for the Moro Province," was published in their dialect and one of their most intelligent men wrote a very respectful letter to Governor Finley, in which he remarked upon the kindness of the government in taking so much trouble for the Moros and said it must be a good thing, or the Americans would not have done all this work that took time and much learning; and then he added the crowning sentence of the whole letter; "We beseech you to send it to the people who need it, for we do not." That was a bolt from a clear sky. Why were these people so sure they did not need this law, no savage ever penned such an assertion? What had they that took the place of it? were all questions that instantly presented themselves. We began an investigation to ascertain, if possible, these things and found: first of all, that they had the Koran, which was not a Bible for learned men to dispute over, but a plain book of law,

that guides every act of a Mohammedan's life, toward God, his government, his neighbor, his family and himself. After a careful study of the Koran, and an equally careful inspection of their teachers, we found that they were not being taught in accordance with the doctrines of their religion as laid down in the Koran. We thereupon embodied in our next report, a request for Mohammedan teachers of accredited learning and rank. The Sultans of Sulu and Magindanao, and many of the leading men recognized at once what such a request meant, and were overjoyed, because, as they said themselves, they recognized that their need in this direction was great and imperative, if progress was to be made. Every year we embodied the same thing in our reports and the Moro waited and prayed for the consummation of this wish of their fathers and themselves. And here is the "deadly parallel:" All these years while the caciques of the Filipinos were opposing every step of progress, and insisting upon their independence, the Moro leaders were asking that the United States government be not withdrawn from the Islands, and stating that while they wished to be true Mohammedans, they also wanted to be loyal Americans; and it was just here, that we Americans added to the intolerance with which we had treated our own Indians, the sister sin of indifference. We hesitated to aid these people in these desires, and because they objected to sending their children to schools that taught a language that forever cut them off from reading the Koran, which is in sacred Arabic, we blamed them. We failed at first to appreciate this need and did not aid them in learning this sacred language; forgetting that we roll our eyes heavenward and clasp our hands over the saintliness of the Pilgrims, who braved the dangers of an unknown sea, and endured the rigors of New England winters, in order that their children might not forget the faith of their fathers and the language learned at their mother's knee, in a foreign country. This is a most curious old world, and one of its most curious phases is our attitude toward the "other fellow," if he fails to view life from our standpoint. What is a virtue,

in a man who sees the world as we do, is a vile sin in the one who does not.

In the organic law of the Philippine Islands (Civil Government Act, approved by the Congress of the United States, July 1, 1902) we make the following solemn promise to the Moros and Filipinos. (Section 5. Guaranties

of personal rights.)

That no law shall be passed abridging the freedom of speech or of the press, or the right of the people peaceably to assemble to petition the Government for redress of grievances.

That no law shall be made respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof and that the free exercise and enjoyment of religious profession and worship, without discrimination, shall forever be allowed.

In the Treaty of Peace between the United States and Spain, signed at Paris on December 10, 1898, Article 10, provides that:

The inhabitants of the territories over which Spain relinquishes or cedes her sovereignty shall be secured in the free exercise of their religion.

Our sin against the Moro is all the more grievous because of: first, the basic principles upon which the government of the United States is founded, not to interfere with any religion; second, that we assured the Moros through the head of the Moslem religion, the Sultan of Turkey, that this was the case; third, that the Moro, himself, was anxious to become and remain a good citizen of the United States; fourth, that whenever he became convinced, that any measure for his improvement had not behind it the sinister motive of divorcing him from his religion, he readily accepted it. In the Lake Lanao country we inherited the trouble from the Spaniards. If we had waited until the Moros were fully cognizant of our intentions, not to interfere with their religion, the road could have been built without the slightest objection on their part. But they had absolutely no way of knowing that our attitude was not that of the Spaniard. They were so remote from Sulu, they had failed to receive the message of the Caliph, before the trouble began.

« AnteriorContinuar »