Isn't the violence due to the attempt to create (yet another) separate Islamist state in a non-Muslim majority country? The wording of this article seems to mostly be designed to obscure this.
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Wow, another country that has a muslim problem or that is oppressing muslims depending on your leanings. This list grows China, India, Israel, France, Burma and now Thailand. Why is it that people of this faith are being marginalized everywhere. Maybe the countries are too liberal to let this group practice Sharia law or some other ritual that they view as too draconian for their society. The problem is that there is a element of extremists hiding in this society terrorizing people elsewhere, and any attempts to flush them out is viewed as a crackdown on the rights of this group.
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@John
You left out America, the U.K., and Germany.
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The sad fact of the matter is, Thailand is a military-royalist government that has - for decades - shown little if any willingness to address core issues of human rights and autonomy for a people that have been subject to Thai rule (against their wishes) for over a century now. They have no solutions now either, other than military ones. If you think Trump is a bad leader figure, he's nothing compared to some of these Southeast Asian leaders like PM Prayuth of Thailand. The rule of law in Thailand is a joke.
There is no question that the so called "Muslim" insurgents are tragically sowing needless harm and killing innocents of all religions. Having said that, the government's unwillingness to address the legitimate grievances of the Malay-Muslim minority of Thailand, and unwillingness to decentralize its iron-handed authority, are the real structural culprits here. If you meet people half way, especially after centuries of imposed authority, abuses and marginalization, the government may find that a lot of the support for the insurgency will deflate significantly. In fact the vast majority of locals in the area just want peace and justice, and want nothing to do with violence.
Even more complicated, this regional situation will likely continue until the dysfunctional military-royalist government of the country somehow releases its iron grip on the entire country. But of course, this is unlikely.
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@Muslim Guy "Having said that, the government's unwillingness to address the legitimate grievances of the Malay-Muslim..."
Who determines what is a "legitimate grievence" and what is not? In my experience the determination is usually based on ones personal bias and demographic allegiance.
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@Lisa R In any dispute, it is useful to look at some root causes around grievances. In this case, it might help to look at the role of colonial-era treaties that defined borders and regulations, and the impacts of those treaties on the marginalized communities over time. Why and how did the states in question fall under Thai sovereign borders? Who benefitted? What happened next?
And, Malaysia is a majority Muslim country, but does not follow Shari'a law (and yes, ML politics comes with another set of serious issues, but Shari'a isn't one of them). The northern states-turned Thai provinces don't either.
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@Lisa R
There is a legitimate grievance, please reread the article: "... those provinces [were] once
an independent Muslim Malay sultanate before Buddhist-majority Thailand imposed its political will." I thought "Muslim Guy" summed up things very well.
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