April 29, 2005: In the south, eight teachers in Islamic schools were arrested and accused of planning and directing terrorist attacks. The Islamic teachers had been known for encouraging their students to hate non-Moslems, and to see violence as as solution to the problems of poverty and discrimination against Moslems in Thailand.
April 30, 2005: The government believes that Islamic radicals teaching in Islamic schools have been indoctrinating adolescent boys and turning them into Islamic terrorists. This is a pattern found throughout the Islamic world. The schools are often set up and subsidized with money from Saudi Arabian religious charities. Islam in Saudi Arabia promotes intolerance towards other religions, and support for violence against non-Moslems. A police investigation of Islamic teachers in Thailand has been going on for some time, but it remains to be seen if the evidence uncovered is sufficient to obtain a conviction. Local criminal gangs have been accused of participating in the pro-Islamic violence as well, and the Islamic terrorists could not operate in the area without the cooperation, or at least tolerance, of the gangs. |