Muslims
account for a mere 4.6% of population, yet have been spreading fear among
the indigenous Buddhists of the region, using violence and brutality. They have
resorted to the random killing of Buddhists, including school teachers and
Buddhist monks.
Muslim
separatists have increasingly and openly rallied against the central government
of Thailand, accusing it of
ethnic-religious bias, discrimination and corruption. A brutal attack on a
Buddhist temple in the town of Pattani
in 2005 is seen as an attempt by militants to deepen the religious divide
between Muslims and Buddhists in
Thailand’s deep South.
Although
separatist violence has occurred for decades in the southern region, the
campaign escalated in 2004. Over 4300 lives have been lost since the year 2004
owing to Islamic insurgency. Buddhist
monks have been beheaded, children killed and civilians attacked. More than 500 people have been killed
in 2004 in three southern Thai provinces. Massive killings occurred throughout
the mid to late 2000s and as of 2010, nearly 4,000 people had been killed due
to insurgent violence.
The death toll has increased to 2,579 by
mid-September 2007 and surpassed 3000 in March 2008. By the end of 2010,
insurgency-related violence had increased. In the first few weeks of January
in 2011 nine Buddhists have been killed
in Southern Thailand by Islamic terrorists. In a separate attack four
members of Thai armed forces have been killed. Many Buddhists have left their
traditional home in Southern Thailand in order to escape the ongoing Islamic
insurgency.
Southern
Thailand resembles modern day Afghanistan and Somalia because in both these
nations the radical Sunni Islamists show their extreme intolerance of other
faiths. In addition to Buddhists, moderate
Muslims are also being killed by radical Sunni Islamic fanatics of Southern
Thailand. The methodology of killing is intended to
spread fear to all who oppose the Islamization of Southern Thailand.
.Professor
Thitinan Pongsudhirak, a Professor of International Relations at Bangkok’s
Chulalongkorn University says “The
gruesome fashion of beheadings of Buddhists by Muslim assailants … is not
normal violence…” “it is driven by deep animosity and hatred.” Muslim
extremists believe that violence, including killing civilians, is justified as
a means to restore sharia or Islamic law and maintain Islamic cultural
identity. According to the adherents of this brand of Islamist activism,
they are engaged in a jihad or a holy struggle against Islam’s enemies,
including even fellow Muslims who have abandoned what the extremists view as
“true” Islam.
In
the last decade, there has been evidence that Islamic institutions of foreign
Muslim nations have been involved in promoting Islamic radicalization and the
doctrine of Islamic Jihad in Thailand. Thai
authorities knew for quite some time that many Muslim Thai activists had been
to overseas Islamic schools, where they came under influence of hard-line
Muslim teachers. Some were reported to have joined the jihad against the Soviet
Army in Afghanistan and returned to Thailand as extremists.
This
brand of Islamist extremism is not a new phenomenon. The basic sentiment of
today’s Muslim extremists has flourished in the Islamic world for decades. In
recent decades the newfound wealth of the
oil-rich Middle Eastern Islamic countries and massive immigration of Muslims to
the West, Islamic fundamentalism has been on the rise and the dormant spirit of
Jihadism has been rekindled once again.
Overall,
it is clear that elements within Southern Thailand desire a non-Buddhist land.
The younger generation of Muslims are
being brainwashed against Buddhists. This hatred and alienation of the younger generation began after many studied
at international universities throughout the Middle East. Funding from the Middle East is being used
to spread radical Sunni Islamic versions of Islam.
Although
the hidden war in Southern Thailand by radical Sunni Islamists is being aimed
at moderate Muslims
and Buddhists alike, the Buddhists it is feared face complete annihilation
and one day Southern
Thailand may end up like Afghanistan, Central Asia, and other areas which once
had thriving Buddhist communities.
History
reveals vividly how Muslims invaded many former Buddhist countries and
subjugated their people subjecting them
to extreme forms of violence and untold misery unless people converted to Islam. There have been problems of a varied
nature in all countries where Muslims form a minority.
Indonesia and Malaysia were Buddhist countries at a certain time in history.
With
Muslim invasions most of the Buddhists in these places were either killed or
converted to Islam. More recently in
2001, in the name of Islam, the Taliban destroyed the world renowned monumental Bamiyan Buddha statues built in the 6th
century, citing that these were ‘idols’ which are forbidden under Sharia law in Islam. These actions
show disrespect, disregard and sheer indifference towards people of other religions. Such attitudes do
not allow any community to assimilate with other
communities, especially with mainstream communities in countries where
they live as a minority.
Glimpses of Islamic Jihad in Thailand:
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