Faculty Seminar: Dr. Patricio Abinales on Finding Thermopylae in Marawi

UH CSEAS Executive Board Member and Professor of Asian Studies Patricio “Jojo” Abinales spoke on an East-West Center Virtual Public Seminar, Finding Thermopylae in Marawi: Revisiting the 2017 Siege of the Philippines’ Islamic City on July 29, 2020. The seminar was moderated by Karen Knudsen and also featured Criselda Tabes, journalist and author.

On May 23, 2017, a group of militants claiming allegiance to ISIS seized the Islamic City of Marawi in the southern island of Mindanao, Philippines. It took the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) five months to liberate the city. Criselda Yabes visited Marawi several times during and after the siege and is now finishing a book about this fateful event. This webinar included an overview of the events leading to the Marawi crisis along with insights and reflections on the war zone in Marawi City and the town of Butig, assessing the protagonists and Wahhabism’s corrosive influence on Sunni Muslim Filipinos. Featured speakers Yabes and Abinales are both from the Mindanao region.

This seminar was co-sponsored by the Center for Philippine Studies, University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa.