Yeah, opebo, I've heard about it. It did make page 2 news here.
I was wondering what you thought, actually.
I was also wondering - those tourist, beach areas are pretty close to the Muslim part of Thailand, right? Are Thai Muslims very visible? Do they dress different from the majority, say? And is there/has there always been noticeable tension?
Of course, I don't know where in Thailand you are right now, but I figure you probably have been to the South.
I've been to the southern islands, but not inside the Muslim areas. Right now I'm on the beach, but on the opposite side of the Gulf of Thailand (in Pattaya). One does see a very small number of Muslims here and a few in Bangkok, usually engaging in certain types of trades or businesses - often selling 'Muslim' foods. The women sometimes wear a moderate amount of headgear. They tend to look poorer than typical Thais.
There is no tention noticable here, where they're just a tiny itinerant minority. But in the South there's a separatists movement, and Thailands way of dealing with anyone who threatens the authority of the heirarchy has always been very harsh. For example Communists in the Northeast in the late 1970's and early 1980's were slaughtered wholesale.
In general this sort of thing works well, but I dislike Taksin for other reasons so I'm hoping it brings down his Government.
