Thailand rebels recruiting from Islamic schools

[Mid]

Thailand rebels recruiting from Islamic schools


A Thai soldier stands guard as local residents visit a mosque in Thailand's restive southern Pattani …
AFP/File –

BANGKOK (AFP) – Insurgents in Thailand's south are recruiting and radicalising young Muslim men from Islamic schools, but their struggle is independent of global jihadi movements, a think-tank has said.

Separatist militants are inviting devout, hard-working Muslims mainly from private schools to join indoctrination programmes -- sometimes disguised as football training, an International Crisis Group (ICG) report said.

More than 3,700 people have died in the troubled provinces of Narathiwat, Pattani, Yala and some parts of Songkhla in a five-year insurgency against the rule of the central government.

Recruiters appeal to a sense of Malay nationalism in the mainly Muslim region, which was a Malay sultanate until it was annexed by Thailand in 1902, said ICG's Thailand analyst, Run-grawee Chalermsripinyorat.

"They tell students in these schools that it is the duty of every Muslim to take back their land from the Buddhist infidels," he said.

Islamic schools are the "breeding grounds" of the insurgency, according to the report, where teachers covertly recruit from the thousands of religious young males -- the "natural foot soldiers" of the movement.

The group said the movement was ideologically dissimilar from Islamist groups such as Al-Qaeda, although it may use similar words to mobilise support.

"The recruits are driven not by global jihad but by a desire to defend their ethnic and religious identity from what they perceive as oppression by the Thai Buddhist state," the report said.

Insurgents are drawing in students "moved by the history of oppression, mistreatment and the idea of armed jihad", who go on to take an oath of allegiance followed by physical and military training, the report said.

The students are then assigned to different roles in village-level operations. Those rejected for frontline service can take on secondary roles, for example in psychological warfare.

Recruiters also draw on local culture -- even though it angers some religious purists -- using ancient charms and spells to protect fighters from harm, at the same time as disseminating propaganda videos on YouTube and VCDs.

ICG said the recruits were fuelled by the Thai military's human rights abuses in the south, and that a regional political solution was undermined by policies concentrating power in Bangkok.

"Changing these polices and practices is essential as the government tries to respond to the insurgents' grievances in order to bring long-lasting peace to the region," ICG said.

Thailand's government is struggling to curb a recent surge in violence in the south, which included a bloody attack on a mosque this month in which gunmen shot dead 11 people during evening prayers.

Insurgents target civilians of all religions and more Muslims have been slain in the conflict than Buddhists -- many of them marked as "traitors" to Islam, the report said.

Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva has raised the possibility of making the south a special administrative zone as a political solution to the unrest but he has ruled out granting any form of autonomy.

The ICG report, based on extensive interviews with religious teachers, students involved in underground activities and security officials, warned against "quick fixes" for the complex conflict.

It said Thailand also needed to address the disregard for Malay ethnic identity and language and the under-representation of Malay Muslims in local political and government structures to prevent an "enduring struggle".

news.yahoo.com

[panama hat]

It said Thailand also needed to address the disregard for Malay ethnic identity and language and the under-representation of Malay Muslims in local political and government structures to prevent an "enduring struggle".

Wow, it took them how many decades t figure that one out? Let's see . . . a majority population is under-represented in their own constituencies. Makes typical Thai sense . . . no, the elections were fair, you no understan Thailan way

[shaggersback]

[quote=panama hat;1090665 Wow, it took them how many decades t figure that one out? Let's see . . . a majority population is under-represented in their own constituencies. Makes typical Thai sense . . . no, the elections were fair, you no understan Thailan way[/quote]

Thats how those muzzies operate PH.
Give em an inch and you have 25 mm of islamic state.
I hope the Buddist Thais arent so stupid.