Although the Christian-majority Philippines has endured bouts of insurrection by Muslim groups for centuries, the two communities mostly live together peacefully. Now, many Muslims say, the vicious urban battle with government forces for control of Marawi may intensify the divide.

Civilians who have fled the fighting say the militants spread rumors on social media and by word of mouth that Christian soldiers were committing excesses against the largely Muslim population, and urged locals to take up arms.

"They are using the discrimination, neglect and social injustices against us, the minority, to sow hate and anger," said Musa Diamla, a member of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, a rebel group that has signed a ceasefire with the government.

Nearly 400 people have been killed in the month-long battle in Marawi, which is on the Philippines' southernmost island, Mindanao, which is roughly the size of South Korea and where more than 20 percent of the population are Muslims.

Islam has even older roots in the Philippines than Christianity. When Spanish colonialists landed in the country in the mid-16th century and pushed Muslims to the south, they called them Moros, from the Spanish word for Moors.

For hundreds of years, the Moro people resisted Manila's rule and the term 'Bangsamoro' - meaning 'nation of Moros' - was coined in the second half of the 20th century as many sought and fought for independence or at least autonomy.

Multiple peace pacts with Moro groups have since collapsed or run into delays, consigning Mindanao to economic neglect and poverty, and fuelling a culture of insurgency and banditry.

"Reforms have not taken root in the south due to conflict driven by the Moro struggle for self-determination," said Julkipli Wadi, former dean of the Institute of Islamic Studies at Manila's University of the Philippines.

"As the peace process dragged on indefinitely, this created frustration for the Moro youth and this is the reason they are prone to embrace radical ideology," he said.

HARMONY, BUT DISCRIMINATION

The Philippines' constitution provides for the free exercise of religious profession and worship, and the country does not rank among those most often criticized by Western governments and rights groups for violations of religious freedom.

In Quiapo, a teeming and rundown district of the capital, Manila, Christians and Muslims live peacefully alongside each other, worshipping at an ancient church and an imposing mosque that are just a few blocks apart.

"We live in harmony," said Rohaina Babar, a 40-year-old Muslim woman who sells clothes from one of Quiapo's many street stalls that offer everything from headscarves to pirated DVDs.

Based on 2010 census data, 94 percent of the Philippines' Muslim population of over 5 million live on Mindanao, but more than 100,000 are in Manila, many of them Moros who left the south to escape poverty and violence.

Some Muslims in Quiapo worry that the bonhomie of different faiths could be at risk as the death toll among troops fighting in Marawi, now at 70, climbs.

Anxious to nip religious tensions in the bud, the military appealed to the public this month not to share video images of the militants destroying religious statues and pulling down a cross inside a church.

Babar said that comments she reads on social media and in the news were becoming increasingly anti-Muslim.

"It's like they equate Muslims with terrorists," she said.

REUTERS