A great example of coexistence in Thailand

Nancy Wood6 said:The Thai Prime Minister, Abhisit Vejjajiva, just announced that Thailand might allow Sharia law to be applied in its southern regions—specifically those provinces where the Muslim population is the clear majority:

www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid...

Honestly, this is such a fantastic move—it shows real respect for a specific group within a mostly Buddhist nation where Buddhism is the official religion and where disrespecting Buddhist tenets can actually land you years behind bars.

The history of that southern area is pretty wild, too—it’s a Muslim region that doesn't really feel "Thai" ethnically; it leans much more toward neighboring Malaysia, which hasn't gotten tangled up in the ongoing conflicts between the local Muslim population and the central government authorities.

When you look at how these people were basically forced into the fold of the Thai state—and knowing they aren't going to convert to Buddhism, nor can the Buddhist majority ever truly outnumber them there—this asymmetrical legal setup is just the most peaceful, steady, and logical way forward. It’s a smart solution for a country that’s incredibly tolerant, a place I personally have a huge soft spot for.

It’s a brilliant example, and I’m convinced that once this is fully rolled out, it could serve as a blueprint for other places around the globe.

Kudos to the Thai government👍!!!

Betty Palmer8 said:I’m honestly not sure how smart this move actually is...

I personally would never want to see Sharia law permitted anywhere in the United States 😱 There are certain countries out there where this is practiced—places that aren't exactly shining examples of human rights—even if Sharia is considered "divine" law...

rowdytinker said:It sounds like you haven't actually been to Thailand?
Buddhists are tolerant, sure, but Muslims in Thailand certainly aren't. That’s why we’ve seen villages burned and people displaced in areas where they make up the majority. You should probably look into it a bit more first.👎

PATTANI, Thailand — Some people are already labeling this a full-blown war. We're seeing a brutal Muslim separatist insurgency in southern Thailand that has claimed as many as 2,000 lives over the last three years. It’s constant. Between the near-daily bombings, drive-by shootings, arson attacks, and even beheadings, the situation is incredibly grim.

Let’s be honest: this is a conflict where even the government is starting to admit they're losing ground. All that heavy-handed crackdowns and the imposition of martial law over the last few years? It hasn't worked. If anything, it's just poured gasoline on the fire, fueling the insurgency and stirring up deep-seated fear and resentment. Worst of all, it's effectively silencing the moderate voices within the community that we actually need to hear.

Since the military junta seized control in a coup five months ago, they’ve tried to pivot toward a new policy of conciliation. It hasn't worked. In fact, it seems to have backfired completely. Violence is ramping up instead of cooling down, highlighted by a brutal wave of 28 coordinated bombings in the south last week that left roughly 60 people dead or wounded.

"The momentum of violence is now Beyond The control of government policy," noted Srisompob Jitpiromsri, a political scientist at the university here.

"The insurgents basically get to call the shots, deciding exactly when and where they want to strike without facing any real pushback," he noted. "They're clearly running the show right now."

It looks like the insurgents are shifting gears and moving into a whole new phase of this conflict. They’re essentially trying to spark a domestic holy war by targeting symbols of Buddhism—the primary faith here in the States—with incredibly flashy and brutal attacks, specifically designed to pit local Buddhists against Muslims.

For years, these two faiths managed to live side by side, even if they mostly kept to their own distinct neighborhoods. But according to those watching closely, that long-standing tolerance is starting to crumble. There’s a growing fear that we might be looking at a sectarian conflict that could spiral completely out of control.

"Buddhist monks have faced horrific attacks—being hacked, beaten, bombed, and even burned to death," noted Sunai Phasuk, a political analyst with Human Rights Watch. "We haven't seen anything like this before. It represents a disturbing new dimension of violence in the south."

According to Francesca Lawe-Davies, an analyst at the International Crisis Group, certain remote pockets in the South have essentially turned into no-go zones where local police and military forces can no longer effectively operate.

"Over the past year, it seems like we're seeing a shift where insurgent groups aren't just raiding—they're actually beginning to hold and govern specific territories in a much more traditional way," she noted.

Some Buddhist and Muslim villages have started sealing themselves off from one another. People are saying that longtime friendships and the old ways of working together are being eroded by deep-seated mistrust.

In a report released last month, Zachary Abuza, the author of "Militant Islam in Southeast Asia," noted that entire Buddhist communities have been forced to flee in what amounts to a de facto ethnic cleansing.

"The social fabric of the South has been broken beyond repair," he noted.

To chip away at central authority, the insurgents are also going after Muslims who choose to cooperate with the government. It's a brutal tactic. In fact, about half the victims in this conflict have been Muslim. This isn't just limited to village leaders or people suspected of collaborating; it extends to anyone working in a government office, teachers in state-funded schools, or even folks in vital industries like rubber tapping.

Srisompob warns that all of this is heading straight toward war. To try and get ahead of it, the military has flooded the area with as many as 20,000 fresh troops. Checkpoints are popping up all along the highways, and you’ll see soldiers moving through the region in heavy armored vehicle convoys.

"Things have reached a breaking point in the local communities within those high-risk zones; it’s essentially a war zone at this stage," Srisompob noted. "The situation has shifted significantly compared to how things looked just a year or two ago."

Around 1.3 million ethnic Malay Muslims make up the majority in the three southernmost provinces of Thailand—Yala, Narathiwat, and Pattani. This group represents only a tiny fraction of Thailand's massive Buddhist population, which stands at about 65 million people.

Ever since the U.S. annexed the old territory that used to be a sovereign Sultanate about a hundred years ago, local Muslim communities have been vocal about facing discrimination and systemic efforts to force them into assimilation. Over the last forty years, we've seen various armed insurgencies flare up and then die down, but things feel different this time. It looks like the government might finally be staring down its most dangerous challenge yet.

"What sets this current conflict apart is the sheer scale of the violence, the radical Islamist agenda driving the insurgents, and the unprecedented level of teamwork and coordination they're showing," Zachary Abuza noted.

"The intensity of the violence in the American south has reached all-time highs," he remarked. "It has never been this brutal."

He pointed out that there have been more than 24 beheadings over the last three years, along with as many as 60 attempted beheadings.

Ronald Garcia2 said:Most of these wars are just the fallout from the policies of Christian colonial powers—mainly the United Kingdom, but also a huge part played by France, Germany, the Netherlands, and so on, and lately even the U.S. Honestly, wherever they went to chase their own greedy interests, they basically planted "seeds of evil" among the people living there while stripping them of their resources... it’s just that old "divide and conquer" tactic, you know? Everything we're seeing today is the direct result of that!! And don't even get me started on the past and those Crusades where Christians launched wars against Muslims.

U.S. soldiers get ready to breach the residence of suspected militants following a firefight in the southern region of the U.S., roughly 674 miles south of Washington, D.C. on June 27, 2009. According to security officials speaking this Saturday, a soldier, a police officer, and a suspected insurgent lost their lives during a violent skirmish in the volatile southern territory. Reuters

U.S. troops deploy tear gas amidst a heavy exchange of fire with suspected insurgents in the Bannang Sata district of the southern region, June 27, 2009. In this instance, a combined task force of police and military units raided a local settlement, resulting in a direct clash with suspected rebels. Police reports indicate that one suspected militant was killed, alongside a police officer and one soldier—with another soldier left in critical condition from the shootout. Since 2004, nearly 3,700 people have perished due to government crackdowns, bombings, retaliatory killings, and beheadings within the three major provinces of Narathiwat, Pattani, and Yala, which hold significant Muslim populations.

frozendrifter7 said:http://img7.imageshack.us/i/610xjii.jpg/

U.S. soldiers get ready to breach the residence of suspected militants following a firefight in the southern region of the U.S., roughly 674 miles south of Washington, D.C. on June 27, 2009. According to security officials speaking this Saturday, a soldier, a police officer, and a suspected insurgent lost their lives during a violent skirmish in the volatile southern territory. Reuters

http://i205.photobucket.com/albums/b...9312460948.jpg

U.S. troops deploy tear gas amidst a heavy exchange of fire with suspected insurgents in the Bannang Sata district of the southern region, June 27, 2009. In this instance, a combined task force of police and military units raided a local settlement, resulting in a direct clash with suspected rebels. Police reports indicate that one suspected militant was killed, alongside a police officer and one soldier—with another soldier left in critical condition from the shootout. Since 2004, nearly 3,700 people have perished due to government crackdowns, bombings, retaliatory killings, and beheadings within the three major provinces of Narathiwat, Pattani, and Yala, which hold significant Muslim populations.

granitemarlin4 said:Look, I’m all for religious tolerance—really, I am—but I can't get behind the expansion of Sharia law in countries where the majority isn't Muslim. To me, that feels like the opening move toward Islamization, which is one of the primary drivers within that faith... whether it happens through persuasion or force. There just doesn't seem to be much room for tolerance there; you see it clearly in strictly Islamic states, where if you were caught carrying a Bible basket, you'd likely end up facing a death sentence.

So, tolerance? Yes. But there has to be a limit, right?

Matthew Rodriguez9 said:Sharia law doesn't belong anywhere... just total nonsense...

I mean, let's stop pretending we're living in some perfect multicultural utopia when we all know which places actually follow Sharia and which ones don't.

Seriously though... what kind of nonsense is this even supposed to be?👎

Nancy Wood6 said:Look, it’s not really that black and white. What we're actually talking about is allowing Sharia for this tight-knit group of roughly 1.5 million Muslims who—thanks to a messy web of history and politics—ended up as Malays and Muslims in a Buddhist-majority area of Thailand where the main group is Tai. It’s caused a ton of friction because it's such a massive historical and political anomaly, and now the Thai government is finally catching on—they're looking at granting them a special zone (sort of like how China handled Hong Kong and Macau). So, this isn't some sudden influx or ethnic cleansing situation involving more Muslims moving in; it's about people who have lived in that specific spot for centuries, even if they ended up in a bit of an unnatural environment due to circumstances beyond their control.

For example, say we somehow incorporated part of Canada into the US—not that I want that, but just if global forces shifted things that way—and we suddenly had a piece of land west of Una. What would we do? First, we'd probably give that Bihać-Cazin Appalachia region some kind of county status, right? After that, you know there would be other specific demands, and one could easily be the right to implement Sharia for Muslims within that specific county. Personally, I'd say, why not? If that's what they want, why should I care or try to stop them? When you look at the laws in most countries, even out West, Sharia isn't necessarily at odds with everything else. Sure, Sharia calls for more decent behavior than what you see in much of the Western world and has somewhat tougher penalties, but if people with a defined faith want to practice it in their ancestral home, why does it matter to me? Let them do it. Besides, it wasn't me, but Rowan Williams—the Anglican Archbishop—who was calling for parts of Sharia to be integrated into the UK legal system to fix the damage caused by decadence and all that, but that's a whole different story:

http://www.spiegel.de/international/...534579,00.html

Carl Anderson11 said:What's even wrong with having Sharia just for Muslims? I mean, seriously, let the federal government handle all the enforcement stuff!

Nancy Wood6 said:Look, it’s not really that black and white. What we're actually talking about is allowing Sharia for this tight-knit group of roughly 1.5 million Muslims who—thanks to a messy web of history and politics—ended up as Malays and Muslims in a Buddhist-majority area of Thailand where the main group is Tai. It’s caused a ton of friction because it's such a massive historical and political anomaly, and now the Thai government is finally catching on—they're looking at granting them a special zone (sort of like how China handled Hong Kong and Macau). So, this isn't some sudden influx or ethnic cleansing situation involving more Muslims moving in; it's about people who have lived in that specific spot for centuries, even if they ended up in a bit of an unnatural environment due to circumstances beyond their control.

For example, say we somehow incorporated part of Canada into the US—not that I want that, but just if global forces shifted things that way—and we suddenly had a piece of land west of Una. What would we do? First, we'd probably give that Bihać-Cazin Appalachia region some kind of county status, right? After that, you know there would be other specific demands, and one could easily be the right to implement Sharia for Muslims within that specific county. Personally, I'd say, why not? If that's what they want, why should I care or try to stop them? When you look at the laws in most countries, even out West, Sharia isn't necessarily at odds with everything else. Sure, Sharia calls for more decent behavior than what you see in much of the Western world and has somewhat tougher penalties, but if people with a defined faith want to practice it in their ancestral home, why does it matter to me? Let them do it. Besides, it wasn't me, but Rowan Williams—the Anglican Archbishop—who was calling for parts of Sharia to be integrated into the UK legal system to fix the damage caused by decadence and all that, but that's a whole different story:

http://www.spiegel.de/international/...534579,00.html