n to form. These groups have been the key players in this conflict, and they can be boiled down to three organizations that are all aiming for one thing: an autonomous Muslim state in the Philippines.
             The first group to organize opposition to the Christian government was the Moro National Liberation Front in 1969, which started without a specific declared goal. However, it quickly became clear that they were pushing for a separate autonomous state, and they demanded in 1973 that "the government army be withdrawn from the south all lands taken from the Moro be returned, that the laws of Islam and the adat (religious cultural practices) be enacted in Muslim territory, and that the Muslim regions of Mindanao, Sulu, and Palawan be granted autonomy" (Yegar 277). As we have seen in a number of Islamic movements across the middle-east, he MNLF was comprised mainly of college students at first, as Moshe Yegar writes: "The young people who founded the MNLF were drawn mostly from the University of Manila, and their Muslim consciousness was stronger than their ethnic commitment" (268). The MNLF did not resent specifically Christianity, but did declare the Christian-run Filipino government to be its enemy, calling them "oppressive" and "inconsiderate of the needs of a Muslim state" (Bauzon 84). Despite this, the MNLF is seen as much more willing to work with the government than the other two insurgent groups in the area, and they have made occasional agreements and treaties with the establishment.
             The passivity within the MNLF and perceived unwillingness to take greater measures to gain Muslim autono
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