Separatyzm muzułmański na Filipinach – między pacyfi cznym państwem islamskim a autonomią

Muslim separatism in the Philippines – between a Pacific Islamic state and the autonomy

The subject of this article is to present an issue of Muslim separatism in the Philippine archipelago. A uniqueness of the issue is a centuries-old tradition of Muslim political structures in the Philippines connected with ongoing Muslim people’s aspirations for emancipation. The local Muslim separatism, despite unambiguous invoking to the past, is based on dominant trends in global separatist and independence movements – starting from a resistance against aggressor (historical), through the decolonization motivated by Marxist ideology (the Moro National Liberation Front), to the Islamic fundamentalism (the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, Abu Sayyaf Group). The author discusses contemporary aspirations of Muslim separatists in the Philippines and invokes their history. He makes a fundamental division basing on Philippine Muslim separatists internal diversity. The division is grounded on the attitude of particular separatist groups to the Republic of the Philippines as a state. The author divides them into these movements which strive for autonomy in the Philippine state and these which strive for a separate state based on Islamic religion and law. In this context, the text contains presentation of separatist organizations like the Moro National Liberation Front, the Islamic Moro Liberation Front and the Abu Sayyaf Group.