Persecution of Muslims
The Philippines is predominantly a Christian society with a complicated history of relations between Islam and Christianity. Despite historic evidence of Islamization spreading throughout the islands in the 13th–16th centuries, the archipelago came under Spanish rule in the 16th century. The Spanish proselytized many natives, and labelled those who remained Muslims as "Moro", a derogatory term recalling the Moors, an Islamic people of North Africa who occupied parts of Spain for several centuries. Today, this term "Moro" is used to refer to the indigenous Muslim tribes and ethnic groups of the country. When the Spanish came to the Philippine islands, most of the natives in Luzon and Visayas were pagans with Muslim minorities, and while Spanish proselytized many natives, many Muslims in Luzon and Visayas were not exempted by the Spaniards from the Spanish Inquisition, wherein Muslims to become Catholics or die for their faith. Those who remained Muslims are only the natives of Mindanao and Sulu which the Spaniards did not invade or had control of only briefly and partially.
History of the Philippines (900–1521)
Prior to Spanish occupation, the islands were composed of different kingdoms, rajahnates and sultanates. Some are even part of a larger Empire outside of the modern day map of what is now the Philippines, for example; Manila was once part of the Bruneian Empire. Another example is many parts of the modern day Mindanao is theorized to be part of the Majapahit empire with its capital being located in East Java in the modern day Indonesia. It was the Spaniards that named the collection of Southeast Asian islands they conquered as Las Islas Filipinas, the geographical locations of which the modern day country of the Philippines based its territories today.