The Rajah Solaiman Movement (RSM) is a terrorist organization dedicated to creating an Islamic state in the Philippines. The group represents a radical and militarized fringe of the greater "Balik Islam" (return to Islam) movement, which is made up of people who grew up as Roman Catholics that have since converted to Islam. RSM's founder and first leader, Ahmed Santos (aka Hilarion del Rosario), converted to Islam in 1993 and married into the top ranks of the leadership of the Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG). Partially as a move designed to dilute and limit the increasing effectiveness and scope of joint Filipino-American counterterrorism efforts, RSM was founded in January 2002. The group is named after Rajah Solaiman, a Muslim, who was the last indigenous King of Manila before Spanish rule began in the 1500s.<br /><p><br />RSM maintains close relationships with other terrorist groups including the ASG, Jemaah Islamiya (JI), and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF). RSM is known to share members, training facilities, and funds with these terrorist organizations. One Filipino Army official speculated that generally, ASG plans operations, JI supplies funding, MILF provides safe houses for operatives, and RSM executes operations. Using illegitimate Filipino Islamic charities and its relationships with other prominent regional terrorist groups, RSM is able to fund its activities. Increasingly, it receives funding from sources in Saudi Arabia and other countries in the Middle East.<br /><p><br /><br />RSM is relatively small in size, and most of its members converted to Islam through marriage or by virtue of their work environment as overseas contract laborers in the Middle East. Some members already have well-established reputations as Roman Catholics, and some do not take Muslim names as is customary for other converts. The membership is mostly made up of locals from the main Filipino island of Luzon, which gives RSM the advantage of local knowledge. This also adds geographic diversity to the jihadist movement in the Philippines, which previously only had strongholds in the southern portion of the country, especially in Mindanao. Since its membership is exclusively made up of "Balik Islam" converts, it is easier for RSM operatives to blend into mainstream Roman Catholic Filipino society. Due to these factors, RSM members are well-suited to be terrorist operatives<br /><p><br /><br />In contrast to its relatively small size, RSM's operations are large in scale. For instance, acting in concert with the ASG, RSM was involved in the Valentine's Day ferry bombing that killed over 100 people in 2004.<br />