Thailand Cracks Down On Islamic Schools

by Marwaan Macan-Markar

(IPS) BANGKOK -- As the violence in Thailand's south threatens to spiral out of control, the government has begun sharpening its knives with a view to cracking down on Islamic schools in the region.

The thinking behind this crackdown on 'pondoks,' as the Islamic schools are called, stems from a theory that Bangkok has embraced since the recent spell of unrest began in the predominantly Muslim provinces in the south on Jan. 4.

According to this theory, the 'pondoks' have become a ''breeding ground for Islamic militants,'' and hence the only solution is to either reform them -- by having them join the education mainstream -- or close them.

Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra is among those pushing to consign the 'pondoks' in southern provinces of Narathiwat, Pattani, Satun, Songkhla and Yala to the history books.

The Thai army is also marching in step with this view. On Saturday, a military source was quoted in the 'Bangkok Post' newspaper saying: ''Southern insurgents and their allies commanded more than 3,000 mostly teenage followers who were given weapons and guerrilla warfare training in the past two years.''

Currently there are some 550 'pondoks' -- 300 of which offer an Islamic education while the rest use the dual curriculum of religious and secular lessons.

But this clampdown on the religious schools has given rise to a tide of concern, particularly in the wake of the confusing messages from the government about who the actual perpetrators of the violence are.

Since the Jan. 4 event attack by assailants on a major military camp in the south, which killed four soldiers, and their escape with over 300 weapons, senior military officials and government ministers have been floating a number of theories to explain the attacks.

The list of new suspects appeared to keep pace with the increasing frequency of the violence, which has resulted in 42 deaths, including the gruesome murder of Buddhist monks and the killing of soldiers, policemen and local bureaucrats. This spurt of unrest has also resulted in injuries to 23 people the torching of public buildings and schools.

Bangkok's desperate search for the assailants can be understood given rising casualties of the violence. After all, the death toll over the past seven weeks in the Muslim south is much higher than the estimated 50 deaths of government and security officials over the past three years.

Thailand's south has witnessed bursts of unrest since the early 1970s, when Thai Muslim rebels launched a separatist struggle. This region -- home to the majority of Thailand's six million Muslims out of the country's 63 million people, most of whom are Buddhists -- was once an independent Muslim kingdom till it was annexed by Bangkok in 1902.

After blaming the usual suspects -- bandits and criminal elements -- the government then trotted out accusations linking three Thai Muslim separatist groups with the violence and, subsequently, added on Muslim militants from neighboring countries to this list of possible suspects.

Then on Friday, Thaksin broke new ground with another theory when. For the first time, he told reporters that Bangkok felt that disgruntled state officials were behind the violence.

But as it was with the previous theories floated by the government, Thaksin was unable to back this charge of ''government officials (are) involved'' with relevant details, such as how many are suspected and from which arm of the bureaucracy they came.

Little wonder why the government's decision to clamp down on the 'pondoks' in the wake of such uncertainty has given rise to one question: have these Islamic schools become convenient scapegoats for an administration frustrated by its inability to find out who is behind the violence in the south?

An editorial in Thursday's 'The Nation newspaper, in fact, cautioned Thaksin about the danger of such a ''heavy-handed approach,'' since the closure of the schools could trigger widespread resentment among the southern Muslims toward the central government.

''His authoritarian approach targets all pondoks indiscriminately, assuming they all foster militancy among students and that these youths have the potential to become terrorists,'' the editorial declared. ''Such insensitivity will prove counterproductive as it seems to confirm many Muslim southerners' suspicion that the government is bent on weakening (their) social fabric.''

Muslim scholars who spoke to IPS were also concerned, saying the 'pondoks' are a pillar in shaping the identity and culture of Thailand's Muslims.

''These religious schools are very significant and have played a historic role for the Thai Muslims,'' said Imtiaz Yusuf, head of the religious department at Bangkok's Assumption University. ''It is true across the rest of South-east Asia where you find Muslim minorities, like in the Philippines.''

Furthermore, these schools can be credited for generating ''a very impressive '' number of Islamic literature and religious scholars, he added. ''The government needs to recognise this before it tries to enforce the change.''

According to Nimu Makaje, vice president of the Islamic Council in the southern province of Yala, the government's move against the schools has resulted in confusion, since ''people are not sure what the policies are and what kind of change will take place.''

''The people who run the schools are also not ready to register their institutions,'' he added.

The 'pondoks,' which function outside of the education mainstream, specialise in teaching the unique language that the Muslims in the area speak, aspects of that region's rich culture and heritage and Islam.

But since last year, these Islamic schools, which are largely privately owned, have come under a cloud of suspicion following reports that the Islam being taught in the classrooms had begun to propagate the more intolerant and archly-conservative Wahabi strand of Islam from Saudi Arabia.

The searching of 'pondoks' for separatists and interrogation of teachers since January indicate how preoccupied Bangkok is with the ''danger'' that says is posed by these schools.

This mindset exposes the government's inability to grasp what matters to Thai Muslims, Surin Pitsuwan, a former foreign minister and one on the Muslim minority's high-profile public figures, has argued in the press.

''The appeal of the traditional Islamic education is still very strong,'' he wrote in early February. ''It must be realised that in the pondoks today are not tomorrow's extremists separatists, but a future leadership that can offer hope for the region.''