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| Southeast Asia |
| Arab Education of Thai Muslims Under Fire |
| 2004-04-14 |
| Waedueramae Mamingchi was educated for eight years in Saudi Arabia, studying Arabic and the precepts of Islam before returning to his home in southern Thailand. The Saudi stint greatly enhanced his standing among his community. But in the fear-filled post-9/11 world, Muslim leaders like Waedueramae say schooling and spiritual guidance in the Middle East has made them suspect in the eyes of the Thai government as it battles an Islamic separatist insurgency in the south. "When we go to learn abroad, they say we went to learn to be terrorists," said Abdulraman Abdulsamad, another respected Muslim leader. "They accuse us of going to train to be terrorists." Prejudices, say local Muslims, were in evidence in early February when army rangers raided the grounds of an Islamic school owned and run by Waedueramae after a soldier was shot to death about 800 yards away. "The soldiers continued to search, and this is why we got upset. Villagers came and watched this," Waedueramae, who lives on the premises, said. Heavy-handed government attempts against escalating violence have sharpened tensions between Muslims — a majority of the population in Thailand's southernmost provinces of Narathiwat, Pattani and Yala — and officials, recruited mainly from Thailand's Buddhist majority. The government denies it is targeting Arab-educated Muslims. "That is not true," government spokesman Jakrapob Penkair said. "If that were the thought of the government, all students who go abroad to further their education would be barred." |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #3 I wonder how long it is going to take the outside world to realize what sort of overall role Saudi Arabia has played in promoting world terrorism. The House of Saud has clung to its tenuous wealth and power by allowing Wahhabist fundamentalists to run riot in their country. Every year, jetliners bought and fueled by the immense oil wealth of Ibn Saud are donated and used to ferry poor Muslim pilgrims from around the world to Mecca for the Haj. Once they arrive, these malleable minds are delivered up to the tender mercies of those rabid Wahhabist clerics that dominate Saudi faith. If anyone ever wonders how it is that Wahhabism has managed to infect so much of global Islam, look no farther than the House of Saud. In order to have their race horses, peregrine falcons, harems and air conditioned palaces, they have willingly bred up a large part of international terrorism. Their incredible wealth will probably prevent them from ever having to answer properly for this crime against humanity. |
| Posted by: Zenster 2004-04-14 2:26:35 PM |
| #2 arabia not leave any child behind. |
| Posted by: muck4doo 2004-04-14 1:39:19 PM |
| #1 "after a soldier was shot to death about 800 yards away" I thought the Thais could understand cause=> effect. The inability to understand seems to be cultural, exceptionally in particular to Islamists |
| Posted by: Frank G 2004-04-14 12:54:57 PM |