Lest we forget the savagery of the Talibanis
As a non-Buddhist it is obvious to me that Buddhism has more of a claim to the title, "Religion of Peace" than Islam ever will.
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| Southeast Asia |
| The Road to Jihad? |
| 2004-05-10 |
| ...With scores of other sons, brothers and fathers likewise vowing revenge, Thailand's south, home to most of the nation's 6 million Muslim minority, is again a powder keg ready to explode. The south is the country's poorest region and was once wracked by a guerrilla insurgency agitating to set up an independent Islamic state. The militants, who often hid in neighboring Malaysia, were not widely supported, but their cause reflected the resentment and sense of marginalization that many Thai Muslims felt. The movement waned in the 1980s and '90s as the authorities in Bangkok boosted economic aid to the south, gave it some autonomy and pardoned many insurgents. And though there had been a steadily rising tide of killings and attacks on security posts in the south in recent years, most officials and analysts dismissed the unrest as sporadic and low-level, blaming bandits as much as they did separatists—until last week's bloodbath. Now the scale and ferocity of the April 28 violence is forcing Thais to confront the reality that Islamic militancy in the south has escalated into a national crisis. The morning after the killings, "Thais woke up to a new reality," editorialized Bangkok's The Nation newspaper. "What happened... may change Thailand forever." The most profound—and dangerous—fallout is the potential internationalization of what had previously been a local problem. The image of non-Muslim security personnel firing rocket-propelled grenades and M-16s as they storm the most sacred mosque in Pattani province could serve as a rousing recruitment ad for Islamic radicals worldwide to join the jihad in Thailand. "There's a real danger that militants from Malaysia, Indonesia or the Arab world will now become involved in Thailand's internal conflict," says Anusorn Limmanee, a political scientist at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok. Any involvement by outside extremists would also raise another grim specter: the possibility that the militants might turn their sights on the millions of foreigners who flock to Thailand's beach resorts, dealing a body blow to the country's chief source of foreign currency, its $7 billion-a-year tourism industry. Ominously, one Islamic separatist group that had been quiet for decades, the Pattani United Liberation Organization (P.U.L.O.), published a warning to foreign tourists on its website within 24 hours of the killings. The message, addressed to "Dear People of the World," said: "Persons who plan to visit Thailand NOW are warned not to travel to Pattani ... Pattani people are not responsible for what happens to you after this warning." The notice pointedly includes the tourist havens of Phuket and Krabi, a few hours' drive away. Already, the U.S., Britain, Australia, New Zealand and Malaysia have advised their citizens to avoid Thailand's south. |
| Posted by:tipper |
| #13 Every religion contains the fatal flaw of "God is on my side, so I can do no wrong." Not those people who follow the "Peacock King" or whatever they call him. As I understand it, they figure Satan's more active -- possibly even the victor -- so they suck up to him. |
| Posted by: Robert Crawford 2004-05-10 2:49:52 PM |
| #12 If you go back a bit, even the Buddhists were pretty bloody. A few hundred years ago, the Buddhist monks of Japan used to come down off their mountains and burn the local towns when they got irked. Kept up until Oda Nobununga or the Taiko, I forget which, burned them and their monastaries. Every religion contains the fatal flaw of "God is on my side, so I can do no wrong." |
| Posted by: Mercutio 2004-05-10 2:19:50 PM |
| #11 Pol Pot was a Communist mini-Hitler. That has nothing to do with what I have seen of the average Buddhist adherant. Another comparison being to compare Easter Orthodox Christianity and Stalin. Lutherans and Hitler. The only thing they have in common is Geography. The Cultural Revolution and Mao had nothing to do with Buddhism either. It was just a murderous Communist thug on a grand scale. All of the above were athiests, except Hitler, who followed the Norse pantheon of gods. |
| Posted by: BigEd 2004-05-10 1:10:06 PM |
| #10 Big Ed, do you consider Buddhist countries run by Communists to be athiests or Buddhists. The death counts are pretty astounding in the Cultural Revolution and Cambodia. |
| Posted by: ruprecht 2004-05-10 12:53:58 PM |
| #9 Lest we forget the savagery of the Talibanis As a non-Buddhist it is obvious to me that Buddhism has more of a claim to the title, "Religion of Peace" than Islam ever will. |
| Posted by: BigEd 2004-05-10 11:47:17 AM |
| #8 Remember the Buddhist monument razed in Afghanistan by one-eyed Jack Omar? It's payback time in Bangkok! |
| Posted by: BigEd 2004-05-10 11:43:08 AM |
| #7 Do the Thais need anything else? |
| Posted by: Mr. Davis 2004-05-10 10:50:04 AM |
| #6 Putting my chips on the Thais.... |
| Posted by: Frank G 2004-05-10 10:43:51 AM |
| #5 Thais are very nationalistic and loathe muslims. |
| Posted by: Phil B 2004-05-10 10:41:03 AM |
| #4 I've long held the feeling that Thais are exceptionally dangerous as a people. Unlike most in Southern Asia, the Thais have that "undefeated" quality, that makes for a really bad choice in an enemy. Psychologically, the best example of this is both their attraction to their peculiar brand of methamphetamine, and the way in which they deal with both its users and abusers. Ultraviolence is predicted. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2004-05-10 10:35:05 AM |
| #3 Under universal Sharia, Muslims would thrive. No, under sharia, no one would thrive, but non-Muslims would be in worse condition than Muslims. |
| Posted by: Robert Crawford 2004-05-10 10:18:43 AM |
| #2 "The south is the country's poorest region and was once wracked by a guerrilla insurgency agitating to set up an independent Islamic state. The militants, who often hid in neighboring Malaysia, were not widely supported, but their cause reflected the resentment and sense of marginalization that many Thai Muslims felt." Do you see a pattern? Why is it that the Muslim areas are always the poorest, wherever? Of course, it is not because there is any relationship between the tenents of the Muslim religion and lack of economic success or inability to compete. The answer lies in Sharia - if everyone was under Sharia, then all would be under equal footing - except the infidels, of course. Under universal Sharia, Muslims would thrive. Is it that simple? |
| Posted by: Sam 2004-05-10 9:58:19 AM |
| #1 Sounds like the Muzzys are headed for the receiving end of a butt-kicking there as well. Is there anyplace where Muslims DO get along with their neighbors? |
| Posted by: mac 2004-05-10 8:19:49 AM |