Word: buddhists
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...hour slouched on a wooden pew. You see, my father was once one of you. Like many Irish-American boys of his generation, he joined the seminary as a teen and wore the collar until his mid-30s. On his mission in Japan, he met a lovely young Buddhist whom he successfully converted. After he wrote to the Vatican and renounced his priesthood, she in turn successfully converted him into a husband. I am one of four offspring of a former priest and a convert who overcame great odds--even scandal--to marry in the faith. Mass...
...militants, razing classrooms and slaughtering teachers is a justified strategy. Besides their anger-and that of many ordinary Thai Muslims-at what they perceive to be the marginalization of the south (the region is among Thailand's poorest), the insurgents have long despised government schools, whether Buddhist or Muslim. The rebels see them as representative of a Thai state they believe suppresses the culture, language and religion of Malay Muslims, who make up the majority of people in the southern provinces of this otherwise overwhelmingly Buddhist nation. Resistance to Bangkok's assimilation policies-banning Muslim headscarves, closing schools not conforming...
...crush opposition within their own communities, the militants are killing just as many Muslims, including village chiefs, religious leaders, and anyone suspected of spying for the police or military. When it comes to teachers, however, the victims are nearly all Buddhists. As one of Ban Bukoh's two Buddhist teachers, Prapa Boonaeb, 57, who runs the kindergarten, feels marked for death. "You don't know when they'll pull the trigger," says Prapa, a short-haired woman with a brisk but cheerful manner. "We try to keep a constant lookout, but it's hard because our attention is usually...
...While Prapa herds her children into class, Principal Mayakoh hunches over a two-way radio issued by the local education department. Before long, it crackles to life: a Buddhist official has been wounded by four gunmen about a mile away. Mayakoh is a short, gray-haired man who looks worried even when he's smiling. But he says he's hopeful. Ban Bukoh's people make a modest living tapping rubber and growing bananas, rice and coconuts, yet parents have already raised 5,400 baht (about $160)-the equivalent of a monthly salary in these parts-to build a temporary...
...insurgents seem to regard no one as a noncombatant-women, children, the elderly and monks have all been killed. Also, murder alone no longer satisfies the militants: they routinely mutilate their victims' corpses or burn them beyond recognition, a deliberate blow to grieving families. In May a Buddhist fruit picker became the 29th victim to be decapitated; his head was left outside a Yala school to scare teachers and children. At another Yala village, insurgents shot dead and set alight a Buddhist health official, then detonated a 10-kg bomb buried beneath the road. The blast injured 12 people, including...