We have seen the attempts to portray islamic violence as causing islamic and non islamic communities to suffer equally. It is a lie, a common lie oft repeated but it remains a lie.
I saw similar conditions to those highlighted in this story in Bosnia. Communities were separated, distrustful of each other and the rage, intolerance and hate remained it was just hidden. For the most part the violence was down and during the day, shops were open, children played in the streets and things looked good. As long as the sides steered clear of each other.
The problem in Thailand is one of scope, uncontrolled islam will continue to fester, the numbers of minions will increase and like it or not violence will return.
24 May, 2009. KO TO, Thailand (AP): The young Muslim man says he watched helplessly as soldiers broke his father’s bones and punctured his lungs with vicious kicks. After seven hours of relentless torture the Muslim religious leader died cradled in his lap.
-Awww so sad to bad. The imam was anything but innocent. By preaching the concept of jihad he made his bed.
In a nearby village, a 7-year-old Buddhist girl still dials her father’s mobile telephone number every evening. Then she readies his bed. But her father is never coming home. He and his brother were riddled with bullets and their bodies set afire as they motorcycled to a computer class.
-Attacking the weak a common muslim attack strategy. Why fight armed soldiers when there are unarmed civilians around?
A vicious Muslim insurgency in Thailand’s deep south has spared few. On the roll call of 3,400 dead are monks and teachers, shopkeepers and rubber tappers, officials and innocents from every background.
Islamic radicals are fighting for a separate state in Buddhist-majority Thailand. And a rift is widening between Buddhists and Muslims – communities that had lived harmoniously for generations and now share equally in the suffering.
The separatist movement, which periodically erupts into violence, was born after 1902 when Thailand took over an independent sultanate in a region where some 70 percent of the 1.8 million people adhere to Islam.
But past insurgency leaders restricted their attacks to Thai authorities. Violence seldom affected the ordinary people and thus did not embroil them in mutual suspicion and fear.
This changed dramatically in the wake of hardline government policies in the south coupled with the influence of international jihad. In recent years, the insurgency has spread into the fabric of society, creating tensions, suspicions and animosity between Buddhists and Muslims.
-It doesn’t matter who the targets were, the fact that the islamic community did not condemn or stop the violence speaks volumes. (more…)
Opinionated Infidels