The Philippine nation is a pluralistic society and culture compared to other South East Asian countries in the region. The direction the Philippines has taken since her colonial days has been toward the integration of small, more diverse tribal communities into a more developing nation with the nation’s desired goal being to bring about a cohesive society under the unifying umbrella of institutional processes.
There are many tribal languages spoken in the Philippines , especially among the Muslim minority. For example, a member of the Maranao tribe speaks Maranao, and one belonging to the Tausog tribe speaks the Tausug tribal language. The Philippine government never forced minorities to speak Tagalog, the Philippine national language. Of the 175 languages, 171 are living and only 4 are extinct, making a very diversified and rich linguistic map (Ethnologue 2007). The pluralistic nature of the Philippine society is very interesting to study in the areas of ethnic, racial, and religious relations compared to Turkey, because the Turkish nation is also a pluralistic society and culture populated by many ethnic minorities, like the Kurds, Armenians, Jews, Central Asians, and those from the Balkans; however, the direction the Turkish government has taken is not toward integration into a more diverse, tolerant society or a more educated and developing nation, but rather the direction the Turkish government has taken is to continue to deny differences, a denial based on a more racist and nationalistic approach.
Like the Turkish government, the Philippine government constitutionally remains a secular state, but unlike the Turkish government, it neither supports nor discriminates against any religious group, institution, or people according to the constitutional principles. In the Philippines , most people classify themselves along sectarian lines. However, religious fanatic groups in the Philippines are trying to divide the social structure of the nation instead of trying to unify…