Common Filipino Mistakes: Religion VS Ethnicity

I was sitting attentively in my Political Science class in the summer of 2007 as my classmates were giving a short introduction about who they were.
And the MOST memorable introduction for me came from this petite girl who was seated at back of the room...

She said, "I am Half-Christian... Half-Muslim."

I froze in my seat for like 2 seconds and thought:
"Seriously? Never thought that's even possible...
Makes me wonder if there are Half-Christian-Half-Atheists out there too. LOL."

Living in a place with diverse cultures and where there is this ALMOST silent discrimination between Christians and Muslims, people tend to confuse religion with ethnicity.

I shall demonstrate that with the following formula which is embedded in the minds of the local people:

Muslims = Maranao People
Maranao People = Muslims
Not Maranao People = Christians

However, those formula found above happen to be erroneous because...

1. NOT ALL Muslims are Maranaos. In general, Tausugs, Maguindanaos, Samals and Yakans are other ethnic groups that submit to the religion of Islam.

2. NOT ALL Maranaos are Muslims. Some have converted to Christianity or to some other religion.

3. NOT everybody who does not follow the religion of Islam are Christians. Do not forget there are agnostics, atheists, animists, Buddhists, pagans and so on.

So, if you are still one of the many who failed to notice this simple error, I hope that this has given you a little light.