Malaysia's top Islamic opposition leader has urged Muslim clerics in neighboring Thailand to talk to their king and their government to resolve a bloody separatist conflict in the southern part of the country.
| Have they considered not killing people? That'd probably go a long way toward resolving the conflict... |
Authorities in the predominantly Buddhist country should give the Muslim clergy room to help resolve the problem peacefully, Nik Abdul Aziz Nik Mat said on Sunday after celebrating the Muslim holiday of Eid-al-Fitr. Nik Aziz is the influential spiritual leader of the Pan-Malaysian Islamic party, which governs the northeastern state of Kelantan bordering southern Thailand. Bernama, the national news agency, quoted Nik Aziz as saying that the clergy should seek an audience with Thailand's revered King Bhumibol Adulyadej, if necessary, to show they aspire for peace.
| Uhuh. And where do the beheadings come in? |
Nik Aziz said Muslims in Thailand must be patient and united in facing the conflict, and that Thailand should emulate multiracial and multi-religious Malaysia in resolving problems and conflicts to ensure that its people live in peace.
| Meaning they should let their Moose limbs bully the rest of the population like they try to do in Malaysia? |
Nik Aziz, a 73-year-old cleric, has been the chief minister, or the highest elected official, of Kelantan state since 1990. He wields tremendous clout in the state, one of Malaysia's poorest and least developed after 14 years of the Islamic party's strict fundamentalist rule.
| Not that the two go together of course... Certainly not. |
His Pan-Malaysian Islamic party narrowly retained control of Kelantan in March, when Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi's secular National Front coalition won a landslide victory in elections for the federal Parliament and 11 other state assemblies. |