The Igorot Who Became Muslim
بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ The following is the conversion story of our brother, Jude Malecdan. He is from the Philippines and recently converted when he wrote this. “My name is Jude Malecdan, from the Philippines. I come from a Catholic family, from the Igorot tribe from Cordillera in the Luzon highlands. Aside from being Catholics, our tribe also follow pagan rituals which are part of our culture. These rituals are inherited from previous generations. For example, after a church wedding, we perform ritual slaughter of pigs or cows to be given as offering to our anito , our tribal spirits. We call this halad . I was never actually baptised. But I had been searching for a religion that I could have faith in. I was looking for something to believe in. Anito is a collective name for the pre-Hispanic belief system in the Philippines. It is also used to refer to spirits, including the household ...