“The words are not good for the secret meaning, everything always becomes a bit different, as soon as it is put into words, gets distorted a bit, a bit silly—yes, and this is also very good, and I like it a lot, I also very much agree with this, that this what is one man’s treasure and wisdom always sounds like foolishness to another person.” ― Hermann Hesse, Siddhartha
The day before yesterday, I saw in my FB Newsfeed that Atty, Zainudin S. Malang, the human rights lawyer, has passed away. It is so disheartening to lose an intelligent and freedom-loving Moro, esp. during this time when there seems to be very few left. In 2010, I got a long-distance call from Cotabato. It… Continue reading Moro Human Rights Defender Gone Too Soon
The so-called Moro Conflict in the Philippines, which arguably does not end with the creation of the Bangsa Moro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM), can be traced back to the United States of America. The various Moro Sultanates did not have a shared history with the conquered peoples of Luzon and Visayas. The Moro… Continue reading America and the Bangsa Moro through the years
On February 12, 2000, my article on harems and polygamy in Islam was published at The Philippine Post. I wrote it for the Valentine season. The year after, I was informed that two of my articles Of Sheikhs and Harems: Polygamy in Islam and Once Upon A Time: Sarangany Island were two of the 7… Continue reading Of Sheikhs and Harems: Polygamy in Islam
I made a new website to showcase my upcoming book, Blogging the Bangsa Moro. The site includes links to a number of my blogposts as well as to my eldest brother's last essay published at the Ateneo Law Journal, which I also blogged. But I don't want to post the website itself because I haven't… Continue reading Bangsa Moro Files
Sitti Rahma, my mother My mother was born in Malita, Davao del Sur in 1918 to Sheikh Ismail Yahya, a Mranao Arab and Bai Rosa, a Buayanen/Maguindanaon princess and coconut plantation heiress. As my mother used to say, she was “born with a silver spoon in her mouth.” By the age of 12, my mother… Continue reading Hadja Sitti Rahma Yahya Abbas
Here is a newspaper article I wrote on the Torogan, the Mranao royal house. I had posted this before in my websites and in my blogs. I stopped maintaining my websites while some of my blogs just vanished for whatever reasons. This is a snapshot of my lost blog with its Torogan post: Now, it's… Continue reading Torogan, the Mranao royal house
