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Thai Muslims Struggle For Liberation
From Islam Online, detailing the struggle to free occupied Thailand. No, really!A police officer in Pattani, and a civil guard in Narathiwat, majority Muslim areas were shot dead Saturday signaling non-stop struggle for Mujahideen fighters despite the start of Ramadan, according to news reports Sunday. Has anyone ever stopped struggling during Ramadan? In Narathiwat, a group of seven to eight gunmen fired at seven civil guards while they were having dinner at their base, killing the police officer and wounding two others. Fifteen minutes later in Pattani, two gunmen killed a policeman sitting in front of his checkpoint in Ma-Yor district. They fled on a motorcycle. Police are carrying out searches for the suspects whom locals believe are members of the obscure group that calls itself the âMujahideenâ, whose mission is to attack official targets of the Thai regime in the south. Everybody wants to be a Mujahideen. Ramadan starts Monday for Thai Muslims, most of them living in the Malay belt regions stretching over four states rich with Muslim culture. âHowever the struggle continues for an obscure group of young Thai Muslims, angered by the âcolonializationâ of the land of their ancestors by the Thais continues,â a Thai businessman on a visit to Malaysia told IOL. I see, so their muslim ancestors were peacefully living here until those war-mongering Thai Buddhistâs arrived and took their land. Since the disbanding of the Pattani United Liberation Front (PULO) and tight security in the southern provinces, Muslims in the region have attempted to revert to cooperation with the authorities in order to safeguard their culture and history. âYet some of us are not happy with the imposition of Thai culture and language and all the tight security around us, they react and they formed a group called the Mujahideen to show their anger,â said the businessman, who wanted to remain incognito.
Brutal occupation forces, keeping the muslims down, sounds familiar. âRamadan or not, they will continue the attacks until this sap the morals of the officials in the South,â said the businessman. The Mujahideen are mostly engaged in low-level violence against the government, attacking soft targets and killing police and military officers and their agents as a means of retaliation. They use automatic weapons in most cases and at times plants bomb devices at police stations or near police cars. âWe Muslims canât condemn the Mujahideen altogether. In the south, the Thais (Buddhists in general) want to gradually impose their ways of living, allowing discos and other entertainment centers to be opened near to Muslim areas,â he added. The horror, being exposed to people having fun! Any good muslim would be outraged. He also said that the Muslims want their own lifestyle and faith to be respected and warned that if the entertainment centers were not closed during Ramadan, âthere might be more serious incidents, who knows?â Oh, we know all too well. Posted by: Steve 2003-10-28 |
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