Islam in the Philippines

Islam is the oldest recorded monotheistic religion in the Philippines. Islam reached the Philippines in the 14th century with the arrival of Muslim traders from the Persian Gulf, Southern India, and their followers from several sultanate governments in the Malay Archipelago. The Muslim population of the Philippines has been reported as about 5% of the total population as of a census in 2000. According to a 2015 report of Philippine Statistics Authority, 5.6% of Filipinos are Muslims. While the majority of the population are Roman Catholic, some ethnic groups are Protestant, Hindu, Buddhist, Animist, Sikh, or non-religious.

Islam was first brought over by Arab traders in the late 13th and early 14th centuries, at least 200 years before the Spanish invasion. These Muslim merchants originally came from present-day Malaysia and Indonesia to the southernmost points in the Philippines, namely the Sulu islands and Mindanao. At the time, the inhabitants there were Hindus and Buddhist and Animists (As by the influence of Sri Vijaya) who lived in Different Barangays. The Arab newcomers preached Islam to the indigenous population and build the first mosque in the Philippines at town of Simunul in the mid-14th century.

The Muslim conquest reached as far as the Kingdom of Tondo which was supplanted by Brunei's vassal-state the Kingdom of Maynila.

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