Word: thais
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...this, witnessed recently by a TIME reporter, would not be unusual in Indonesia, which, since the Bali atrocity two years ago this week, has been periodically rocked by bombings instigated and executed by Islamic extremists. But this assembly took place in Sungai Golok, a small town deep in the Thai south, a poor region that borders Malaysia and which is home to Thailand's 6 million-strong Muslim minority. All year, the south has been wracked by a wave of violence that has already claimed more than 350 lives. Hardly a week seems to pass without a bombing...
...predicted at the beginning of the year. In his interview with TIME, Thaksin blamed the reduced forecast on unrest in the south along with SARS, bird flu and rising oil prices. Yet even if the other problems disappeared, the south would continue to demand his attention. Though Thai authorities have imposed martial law in the south, pledged hundreds of millions of dollars in development aid, and tried to involve local communities in decision making, the area is still not fully under control. And in an economy where tourism remains an important driver, the prospect of unrest and the presence...
...Thai authorities say they suspect but cannot positively prove foreign involvement in the violence in the south. Clearly, however, the insurgency is showing the fervor of jihadist groups elsewhere, most notably a readiness to die for the cause. The most potent evidence surfaced on April 28, when 108 Thai Muslims were killed by security forces in what appeared to be coordinated suicide attacks on military and police posts throughout the south (17 others were captured). Mostly young men in their 20s, the attackers almost to a man carried only knives and machetes and shouted "Allahuakbar!" as they approached their targets...
...Thai security officials say interrogations of those apprehended reveal that most of their leaders are young ustaz, or Islamic teachers, who spent their formative years in Pakistan and Afghanistan, many of them returning to Thailand as recently as a few years ago. This generation imbibed the heady, radical ideas swirling through the madrasahs after the mujahedin's success against the Soviets in Afghanistan. And many brought the idea of jihad back home with them. "We're not saying all these men are terrorists, of course," says General Pisarn Wattanawongkeeree, commander of the roughly 8,000 troops charged with keeping peace...
...just the sermons of radical clerics that brainwash young Thai Muslims. On many of the youths killed on April 28, a 65-page booklet was found. TIME has seen a copy. Handwritten in Malay, the language of Thai Muslims, but using Arabic, not Roman, script, most of the pamphlet consists of repeated exhortations to the "Warriors of Martyrdom." A sample: "Sacrifice your flesh to the last drop of blood ... blood that will trickle down the warriors' bodies and flood the soil in red, reflecting a red radiance across the sky at dawn and dusk, the East and West calling...