PATTANI,
November 19 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – Independence has
never been raised or planned in the predominantly-Muslim provinces in
southern Thailand, as local inhabitants are mainly concerned over
injustices by police and army, a Muslim scholar in the troubled region
has said.
Recent
incidents in the region did not result from demands for independence
but were provoked by discontent over the injustice caused by the army
and police, Tengku Yusuf Abdul Kadir, imam of the main mosque in the
capital Pattani, told the Malaysia’s news agency Bernama Thursday,
November 18.
He
further said that the army and police needed to shed their prejudices
of Muslims and be fair when dealing with the community.
Amnesty
International has urged the Thai government to impartially investigate
the deaths. But the official reaction was unnerving to Muslims, who
make up 18 per cent of the country’s overall population.
Law-abiding
Yusuf
said the Thai government should not accuse the community in the
southern region of colluding with “terrorists”.
“These
statements hurt Muslims, as they hate violence and are law-abiding
people.
“All
this while, when any negative incident happens, Muslims are blamed and
even small matters that can be easily solved get blown up by certain
people.”
Yusuf,
80, added Muslims were often faulted for many matters without being
given the opportunity to be heard.
He
hoped the Thai media would be more balanced in their reporting and
would accept Thai Muslims as citizens and not view them as enemies.
Yusuf
added Muslims in the south supported the appeal by King Bhumibol
Adulyadej to the army and police to cease violence and to cooperate
with the Muslim community to safeguard peace and stability of the
nation.
‘Authoritarian
Politics’
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File photo of a mosque in Thailand
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The
relation between Muslims and Buddhists in southern Thailand was like
one family and they lived together as neighbors, the Muslim leader
said.
The
Muslim community did not object to the appointments of non-Muslims to
head district offices or the army and police in the southern region as
long as they are born and grown in the region so that they could
understand the community much better, he added.
In
the October demonstration, the crowd had gathered in support of some
local Muslim leaders who had been arrested on the grounds that they
may have some links with the mysterious militants operating in the
region.
In
the chaos that followed, hundreds were detained, much to the anger of
many Muslim local inhabitants already complaining about
discrimination.
“Thailand's
slide into inter-religious conflict seems to be part and parcel of the
country's slide towards a more authoritarian form of politics,”
Farish A Noor, a Malaysian political scientist and human rights
activist, told the BBC News Online Thursday.
Both
Southern Thailand and Northern Malaysia were once part of a
Malay-Muslim kingdom that was split apart, thanks to the Anglo-Siamese
Treaty of 1909.
Pattani,
Yala and Narathiwat are the only Muslim majority provinces in the
majority-Buddhist kingdom.
Thai
Muslim complaints of discrimination in jobs and education, along with
the economic neglect of the south, have provided fodder for separatist
movements in the provinces once part of the Muslim kingdom of Pattani.
