Philippines' Islamic city proud to be different

By Carmel Crimmins

MARAWI CITY, Philippines (Reuters) - Father Teresito Soganub doesn't look like a Catholic priest and, from the outside, his cathedral doesn't look like a church.

In his parish, tucked away in Marawi, the only Islamic city in the Philippines, it's easier that way.

"To avoid arguments and to avoid further misunderstandings we just plant the cross deep in our hearts," said the 47-year-old priest, who doesn't wear a crucifix or a clerical collar and sports a beard out of respect for his Muslim neighbors.

The Philippines, a largely Catholic country in Southeast Asia, proudly advertises its dominant faith even in the southern region of Mindanao, where an estimated 20 percent of the population is Muslim.

But Marawi City is an exception.

This ramshackle city of wooden shacks and shabbily elegant mosques is around 385 miles south of Manila, but it's a world apart for many Filipinos.

Marawi is the spiritual centre for the Maranao, the most devout of three major Muslim groups in the Philippines.

A quick glance at the streets of Marawi make it clear that this is a city of the crescent rather than the cross. "Gift of Allah" rather than "Gift of Jesus" is the sign blazoned across the city's pedicabs, the local bank is Islamic and women are veiled.