Thailand’s Islamic terrorists using Islamic schools to recruit fighters

Thai insurgents recruit from Islamic schools-report

Jun 22, 2009

BANGKOK, June 22 (Reuters) – Militants in Thailand’s deep south are using Islamic schools to recruit fighters for an armed ethno-nationalist struggle against the Thai state, according to a report released on Monday.

In a 20-page study, the International Crisis Group (ICG) said the near-daily attacks in Narathiwat, Yala and Pattani provinces were part of a separatist struggle that had no links to radical Islamist groups or a global jihadi movement.

Nearly 3,500 people have been killed since 2004 in the region bordering Malaysia, which was an independent Malay Muslim sultanate until annexed by Buddhist Thailand a century ago. [ID:nBKK426738] [ID:nBKK190770]

“The classroom is the point of first contact,” the report said.

“Recruiters invite those who seem promising devout Muslims of good character who are moved by a history of oppression, mistreatment and the idea of armed jihad to join extracurricular indoctrination programmes in mosques or disguised as football training.”

The ICG study was compiled over 16 months and its release comes after an escalation of violence that has seen 38 people killed and more than 60 wounded in the past two weeks, among them soldiers, police, Buddhist monks and praying Muslims.

The report said the rebel movement was a fight to protect the identity of the region’s ethnic Malay Muslims, and human rights abuses by security forces had “fuelled secessionist fervour”.

“(Islamic schools) are central to the maintenance of Malay Muslim identity and many students are receptive to the call to take up arms against the state,” ICG said.

“This is not a struggle in solidarity with global jihad, rather an ethno-nationalist insurgency … aimed at reclaiming what was once the independent sultanate of Patani.”

The report said rebel movements relied heavily on teachers to recruit young fighters, who would swear an oath of commitment and secrecy before joining a clandestine, multi-cell network whose leadership has never been revealed.

It said the central government’s reluctance to work towards a solution at the local level was exacerbating the problem and it should avoid “quick fixes to what is a highly complex conflict”.

“Changing these policies is essential as the government tries to respond to the insurgents’ grievances in order to bring long-lasting peace to the region,” ICG said. (Reporting by Martin Petty; Editing by Alan Raybould and Dean Yates)

Thai Muslim insurgents shoot, burn, hammer nails through hands and behead 55 year old Buddhist

Another great example of the peace religion called Islam at work.

” Human Rights Watch spoke out Tuesday over the targeting of civilians and brutal killings in Thailand’s south, warning that beheadings, live burnings and torture were becoming common.”

US says Thai insurgency ‘very worrisome’
Jul 9, 2008

WASHINGTON (AFP) — The United States said Tuesday that a Muslim insurgency in southern Thailand was “very worrisome” but did not anticipate any role in helping to resolve the turmoil.

More than 3,300 people have been killed since separatist unrest broke out in January 2004, and militants’ tactics have turned increasingly gruesome, with a US rights group reporting that beheadings, live burnings and torture have become a common feature.

“The insurgency in southern Thailand is very worrisome, I know it is very worrisome to the Thai authorities,” Scot Marciel, the US envoy to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), told a forum of the Washington-based Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.

He said the new government of Thai Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej was formulating a strategy to contain the insurgency.

“It’s gotten better but it hasn’t got dramatically better. So it remains, I think, a very serious problem — one I know the Thai government takes very seriously,” Marciel said.

The southern border states formed an autonomous Malay Muslim sultanate until predominantly Buddhist Thailand annexed it in 1902, provoking decades of tension.

Authorities have made little progress in identifying the militants, who rarely claim responsibility for their attacks.

Marciel said the problem could not be resolved purely by military means, noting that the previous government used security and law enforcement to contain the crisis combined with efforts to win the “hearts and minds” of the people.

But the United States was not likely to get involved.

“We do not anticipate a US role. I don’t think that would be productive, I don’t think the Thais think it would be productive,” he said.

“If there is something useful we could do and are asked, we would certainly consider. At this point, we are just watching it.”

Human Rights Watch spoke out Tuesday over the targeting of civilians and brutal killings in Thailand’s south, warning that beheadings, live burnings and torture were becoming common.

“Insurgent groups continue to unleash brutality on civilians to demonstrate their power and weaken the credibility of Thai authorities,” Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch, said in a statement.

On July 4, insurgents beheaded Khan Sangthong, a 55-year-old Buddhist, in nearby Yala province. He was shot, burned and had nails hammered through his hands before being decapitated.

His severed head was placed on a bridge yards from his body.

Human Rights Watch said more than 20 Buddhist Thais have been beheaded by insurgents across the southern border provinces in the last four years. — End

Also read: Thailand: Beheadings, Burnings in Renewed Terror Campaign