The purpose of this monograph is to demonstrate the conflict between the Moro Islamic Liberation Front and the Government of the Philippines is territorial and not religious in nature. To understand this conflict the past four-hundred years from the spread of Islam through the Sulu Islands and Mindanao, Spanish occupation, American occupation, and the Government of the Philippines rule from 1946 must be understood to put this complex adaptive problem in context. Extending the autonomous region in Muslim Mindanao serves a catalyst for peace in the region. The Memorandum of Agreement for Ancestral Domain (MOA-AD) deals with territorial rights. The MILF wants the territory their ancestors used to own before being pushed out by Christian migration to the island of Mindanao. An extension of the ARMM would give more land, governance, socio-economic development, and peace to the Muslims and Christians of the Southern Philippines. MILF and the GRP are interdependent. The MILF needs to break linkages to terrorism, make amends with the MNLF, and come to peace with the GRP. The GRP is dependent upon the MILF for any possibility of peace in the region.

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