Thai Rebels Recruiting in (Islamic) Schools, Study Says

New York Times ^ | June 21, 2009 | Thomas Fuller

[reaganaut1]

BANGKOK — Insurgents in southern Thailand are using a network of Islamic schools to recruit fighters, but their movement does not appear to be linked to Al Qaeda or other foreign Islamist groups, according to a study due to be released Monday.

Since an increase in violence five years ago, analysts have sought to pinpoint the primary motivations of an insurgency that has left more than 3,400 people dead in towns and villages only several hours away from Thailand’s most popular beach resorts.

The 20-page study, by the International Crisis Group, describes a homegrown movement of Malay Muslim fighters seeking independence from Thailand and built around longstanding resentment toward the Thai Buddhist majority. Thai officials have in the past attributed the violence to the drug trade and other criminal activities.

A group known as the National Revolutionary Front-Coordinate was the main force in recruiting an estimated 1,800 to 3,000 fighters drawn from more than 100,000 students in southern Thailand’s Islamic school system, the report says.

“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 programs in mosques or disguised as football training.”

The Crisis Group said the report was based on 16 months of interviews with religious teachers and students — all of whom are unnamed — involved in underground activities.

Violence in southern Thailand has been overshadowed by the political crisis in the country, but the southern insurgency remains one of the region’s most deadly and intractable ethnic conflicts.

[reaganaut1]

The Religion of Peace strikes again.

[heiss]

Sometimes the terrorists get lucky and their recruit end up in White House..

[JimSEA]

devout Muslims of good character who are moved by a history of oppression, mistreatment and the idea of armed jihad to join extracurricular indoctrination programs in mosques

This is the NYT. The "oppression and mistreatment" is, by in large, not living under Sharia.

[Gay State Conservative]

Is it my imagination or is it true that *wherever* in the entire *world* you find moslems you find violence? Somebody help me out here!!

[killjoy]

This is the NYT. The "oppression and mistreatment" is, by in large, not living under Sharia.

There are a lot of lies spread to build dissent in the south. For example, they are taught that muslim slaves were used to dig the canals in Bangkok. Of course it is ridiculous to you and I but to them, it is believed as truth.