Stop dreaming

[Chlp]

A voice of reason. Sadly, this piece could never be published under the PC self-censorship of the Western media.

 

The Nation, Sunday, May 13, 2007

 

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/2007/05/13/letters/letters_30034069.php

 

[color:brown]Stop dreaming: you'll never win the hearts and minds of Muslims[/color]

 

Re: "A failure on all fronts in South", Opinion, May 12.

 

In my opinion you have no right to condemn the army for sending troops into terrorist-infiltrated communities on peace missions, as this is exactly the approach you have called for in your past editorials so many times. Now you tell the army to stop and find new initiatives. Instead you should be asking the question why it is that our army, led by a Muslim who seems to take orders from Saudi Arabia, is pursing a strategy that actually appears designed to help the terrorists win.

 

You assume the mantle of multiculturalism and assume that all cultures are at par with one another. Yet the biggest error of judgement is believing Islamic militants refuse to recognise the Thai state for political reasons and not religious reasons.

 

You keep reinventing this fantasy of "moderate" Muslims who are trapped in the middle of this war, but you never stop to examine the core teachings of Islam that it is an intolerable act of oppression for infidels to presume to rule over Muslims and that it is the religious duty of all Muslims to assist in overthrowing infidel governments.

 

Seriously, has it ever occurred to you that you always hear after every last attack the Muslim leaders weakly condemn it and say that Islam teaches peace, and yet the attacks keep coming? Do you ever wonder if the slick excuses and disinformation of Islamic propagandists is actually an orchestrated act of jihad?

 

Does the question ever cross your mind why, if Islam really so clearly teaches peace, the attacks keep coming? And don't you even wonder why it is that most of these plotters are based in mosques guided by Islamic purists?

 

Furthermore, where do you plan to find these mythical, moderate Muslims you want to reach out to, and how will you persuade them? This group of people in our South does not want to be equal members of the Thai family but instead wants to destroy other faiths or put them into submission. You are afraid of being branded a racist or islamophobe if you say this, even though it is they who are clearly racist and intolerant.

 

You are also afraid that if you call this war by its real name, bombs may go off in the capital, the Saudis may cut off our oil and terror will come. But terror is going to come, whether you face it now or later, as it has to all of Asia, Africa and Europe that dares to resist. One does not see daily religiously motivated attacks anywhere in the world by Buddhist, Hindu, Jew or Christian upon the Muslims or anyone else in the name of their faith. And you know the plain truth that if the Malays in the South were not Muslim, this war would not be happening. Neither can you point to a single occasion in recorded history as an example of infidels winning the hearts and minds of Muslims, who then allowed those infidels to rule over them. So why do you continue to hope it will happen here, now?

 

There are only two choices for Thailand: give the South to the Muslims and wait for their next territorial assault to come elsewhere in the country, or expel those of their number who refuse to renounce violence to Malaysia and then repopulate the South with hard-working and peaceful Thais from other provinces. That is to say, abandon your multicultural fantasies and encourage our government to have the will to create a genuine new multicultural South populated by peoples who actually do practice peace, industriousness and love for their homeland, instead of waiting for hearts and minds that will never come.

 

Lek

Krabi

[Julian2]

Might have a problem finding enough hard working and peaceful Thais to repopulate it with.

And, yes I've seen stuff like that in the Western media, it's just very few people read it.

[chuckwoww]

"...the core teachings of Islam that it is an intolerable act of oppression for infidels to presume to rule over Muslims and that it is the religious duty of all Muslims to assist in overthrowing infidel governments."

 

He got that piece right but he sounds a little paranoid. And he obviously hasn't studied the history of Pattani. Lots of Muslims live peacefully in Thailand as a religious minority, why would an autonomous Pattani change that?

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pattani_kingdom

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pattani_United_Liberation_Organization

 

Surely the real question is what do the majority of Pattani muslims want? Including the moderate muslims who the writer says don't exist. My guess is they would be happy to live in Thailand.

[rickfarang]

My guess is that they would be happy to go about their lives peacefully. Much as most of us desire.

 

The author quoted in the original post clearly does not have a grip on reality, though yes, he does make a good point or two.

[Flashermac]

"our army, led by a Muslim who seems to take orders from Saudi Arabia"

 

Huh? Yeah, right ... the commander of the Royal Thai Army takes orders from the King of Saudi Arabia.

 

And "our army"? I'd like to meet the 'Thai' who wrote this! If genuine, he/she makes my western educated Thai colleagues seem like illiterates.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[chuckwoww]

Lek(?) makes a good point or two but his basic conclusion is simplistic. Kicking the separatists across the border and replacing them with Thais? That would just make things worse.

 

The Thais have to find a way of satisfying the moderate separatists. I think the big problem is that the moderates don't really want to separate. And the separatists don't want to moderate. Head ache.

[robaus]

The article's author makes a typical "take it or leave it" fallacy argument.

"There are only two choices for Thailand: give the South to the Muslims ...or expel those of their number who refuse to renounce violence to Malaysia"

 

Bullshit! There are more than 2 choices. What about the other options such as giving the locals democratic autonomy under a Thai Federal system just like the countries that make up the UK, and the states in USA and Australia.

 

Most people in this world want to live their lives in peace and prosperity, looking after their family's health, wealth and education.

 

The trouble with politicians is it's always too little too late, with extremists on both sides digging deeper holes from which it's harder to extricate themselves.

 

[Flashermac]

Ethnic cleansing works -- if you are strong enough to keep those dispossessed from trying to take back their land. (e.g. Eastern Europe post-WWII, Israel, the India-Pakistan expulsions)

 

Not a very good idea with a Malay Muslim nation right across the border!