BAGUIO CITY, Philippines--The soldier-founder of an evangelical support foundation for Mindanao called Project Islam has said that a key to lasting peace in Mindanao would be an assurance to Muslim Filipinos that the dominant Christian population would not set out to convert them.

Col. Johnny Macanas, Philippine Military Academy camp commander, told 38 sophomore and senior university students belonging to different faiths during a talk here Sunday that distrust by Muslims of the Christian-dominated government's motives for helping them was at the core of the enmity that fueled the separatist movement.

Macanas said he formed Project Islam in 2001 after years of military assignments in Mindanao—a period during which he was a "Muslim hater.'

Project Islam, an acronym for "I Still Love All Muslims,' has built over 400 shelters in poor Muslim villages. The project helped swing rural Mindanao sentiments in favor of Christians, Macanas said.

He gave the lecture on invitation of an international youth organization called Peace Tech, which is supported by Queen Rania Al Abdullah of Jordan.

Peace Tech organized an international youth dialogue in 2006 using video conferencing to promote understanding between Muslims and non-Muslims, said Meghann Villanueva, Peace Tech program director.

Peace Tech will hold a second international video conferencing dialogue between Filipino and Indonesian youths on Aug. 29, according to Villanueva.

Macanas and Islamic scholar Bedejim Abdullah engaged the college students in frank talk about Muslim life, the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao elections and the migration of Mindanao natives to Luzon, to prepare the students for the August dialogue.

Most of their questions centered on how justice was viewed in Islam, jihad and Jesus Christ.

Abdullah said people were generally ignorant of the fact that Jesus Christ was a key figure in both religions.

He also said Moro rebels who used Islam to promote revolutionary ideologies were hurting fellow Muslims.

"When Abu Sayyaf members kidnap and kill, they also kidnap and kill Muslims. In [the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in the United States], many of those killed were Muslims although no one talks about it,' Abdullah said.

Macanas said he grew up believing Muslims were hateful because of a Catholic-dominated culture that maintained traditions like the "zarzuela,' which depicted battles between Christian and Muslims.

Muslims have also been growing up with prejudices of their own against Christians, Abdullah said.