Posted on 06/08/2004 4:30:45 PM PDT by DeaconBenjamin
Literature found on dead insurgent calls for holy war to liberate Pattani
BANGKOK - The government is taking seriously a 32-page booklet recovered in April from the body of one of the 108 insurgents killed by security forces in Pattani, which urges Muslims to take up armed struggle and liberate the southern region.
Thailand's main Islamic body will host a debate tomorrow, with Deputy Prime Minister Chavalit Yongchaiyudh saying it will be used to counter 'wrong interpretations' of the Quran in the booklet.
Some of Thailand's most prominent Muslim figures including the rector of Yala Islamic College, Mr Ismail Lutfi Japakiya, and the director of Prince of Songkhla University's College of Islamic Studies, Mr Ismail Ali, will participate.
Reports have stated that several booklets were recovered, but Senator Imron Maluleem told The Straits Times only one had been found and he had not seen it yet.
'I wasn't surprised to hear of the booklet,' he said.
'This is done by people who do not mean well, and generally speaking they will only quote selectively from the Quran. They will choose a topic and invent additional details.
'Personally, I know there's a group of people who want an independent Pattani, it's an old story. But I don't know who they are and how strong they are.'
The booklet, whose author remains anonymous, is written in the local Yawi language and reportedly makes several references to the Quran to justify the 'liberation' of Pattani through a holy war.
A translated copy reportedly alarmed Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra enough for the government to urge a discussion over its contents.
According to reports, the book said Muslims had a moral obligation to defend their communities' property and named 'occupiers' of that property 'enemies of God'.
It criticised local Muslims for not taking action against the occupiers.
It also called on Muslim women to support their husbands and sons in the struggle to liberate the region and to view their deaths as martyrdom in a fight for justice.
It compared the struggle of ethnic Malay Muslims in southern Thailand to that of Muslims around the world who were being ruled 'unjustly' by non-Muslims.
Mr Niran Pantharakit, director of the Sheikhul Islam Office which is hosting the discussion, was quoted in The Nation newspaper as saying that Islam had in it the concept of holy war but it was imperative that one understood it in its historical and local context.
'There must be certain conditions that justify such action. But this is not the case here in southern Thailand,' Mr Niran reportedly said.
Meanwhile, Mr Thaksin moved to allay concerns the government wanted to tamper with Quranic verses, saying: 'There is nothing wrong with the Quran, the problem is it has been misinterpreted.'
Mr Niran said the Sheikhul Islam Office, with the support of the government, planned to organise an international symposium on the issue and invite well-known Islamic scholars from foreign countries to attend.
The Thai government is anxious to head off an imminent rift between the majority Muslim and minority Buddhist communities in the southernmost provinces.
Community relations have historically been peaceful. However, recent events have threatened to erode this basic harmony.
A proposed 39 million baht (S$1.66 million) project announced last week seeks to provide each sub-district in the three southernmost provinces with 200,000 baht for local residents to come up with community-based activities to strengthen ties between Muslims and Buddhists.
Locals have pointed out that these programmes miss the point because the problem is between the ethnic Malay Muslim majority and the central government, which has lacked sensitivity in handling issues in the south.
WHAT IT'S ABOUT
The title reads: The Fight For The Liberation of Pattani
It urges Muslims to defend their property and calls occupiers of that property 'enemies of God'
It calls on Muslim women to support their husbands and sons to liberate the region
But terrorism is all Americas fault. (sarcasm)
The Bangkok Post article I read on this stated that the "translation" urged children to kill their parents if they resisted the "true Islam". I guess this is also "open to debate and interpretation".
AKA The old one's caution.... ..."we must be more patient brothers"..."the time is not yet ripe" .....The young turks burn with blood lust..."If we wait for your timing Allah will cast us all into hell without our raisens"... "We must be agressive, strong and courageous...supporting our brothers in all the nations" "The old urge caution because they have grown fat and wak with the western luxuries houses cars and women and have not the taste of Jihad for Allah"..."they have grow to be like crying women and are no longer warriors"... blah blah blah....like bad dialogue from a "B" cowboys and indians movie...
What? Somebody's finally challenging the Koran?
Folks forget that Thailand is the ONLY East Asian nation to never be conquered by outsiders. They didn't get that way by nice!
So, on a different topic, what do you hear on the Postal Reform Bill?
Of note, the great game in all this is the sowing of instability around the Strait of Malacca. Outsiders (e.g. Pakistan, the PRC, Myanmar, Saudi Arabia and even others such as Russia) relish the idea of this. Therefore, it would not be unthinkable that outside instigators may be involved. The use of "cut outs" in order to do the actual deed of instigation is a well known tactic mastered by hostile intelligence and special operations organizations. Yossef Bodansky brilliantly described the Great Game in ASEAN in his excellent treatise "Beijing's Surge for the Strait of Malacca." The Thais must be mindful of not only the confusion sown in the South, but also, of larger undertakings to the North. There may be much more to this than meets the eye.
Malaysia has tilted and gone to the dark side.
This is a replay of the crossborder infiltrations perfected by the Pakistanis against India.
The same MO is taking shape.
ANother bloody border, courtesy of the Saudi Islamist INternationale.
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