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South Thailand: Politics, Identity, and Culture

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 May 2013

Raymond Scupin*
Affiliation:
Lindenwood University
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Extract

There are approximately five million Muslims in Thailand (7 percent of the total population), with about 1.8 million in the southernmost provinces bordering on Malaysia. A considerable literature in history, anthropology, political science, international relations, and religious studies has been produced since January 4, 2004, when a violent Muslim insurgency dramatically erupted in the area. At that time over 100 Muslim insurgents raided an arms depot of the Fourth Army Engineers in Narathiwat Province. On January 22, in south Thailand, two Muslim young men on a motorcycle used a long knife to slit the throat of a sixty-four-year-old Buddhist monk, killing him. The monk had just returned from his early morning round of tham bun (alms-collecting extending merit to Buddhist families).

Type
Review Essays—Southeast Asia
Copyright
Copyright © The Association for Asian Studies, Inc. 2013 

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References

1 Pitsuwan, Surin, Islam and Malay Nationalism: A Study of the Malay-Muslims of Southern Thailand. Bangkok (Thai Kadai Research Institute, 1985)Google Scholar.

2 Unger, Daniel H. and Neher, Clark D. (eds.), Bureaucracy and National Security in Southeast Asia: Essays in Honor of M. Ladd Thomas (DeKalb, Ill.: Department of Political Science, Northern Illinois University, 2006)Google Scholar.

3 Keyes, Charles, “Muslim ‘Others’ in Buddhist Thailand,” Thammasat Review 13 (2008/2009): 1942Google Scholar.