Thailand: Kill a Buddhist, Become a Folk Hero

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March 16, 2007: The violence in the south is slowly increasing. The average weekly death toll is going over twenty, with about twice as many wounded. There are still many attacks on Moslems, indicating that the Islamic terrorists still have problems with Moslems who oppose the violence. These people must be terrorized into cooperating with the Islamic radicals. In some rural areas, the Islamic terrorists have driven out all government officials. Aside from an occasional visit by the army, these areas are run by the Islamic terrorists, who have driven out all non-Moslems.

There are only about 3,000 Islamic terrorists carrying out all this violence. Most of these guys are unemployed, or work for various criminal gangs. That's how they get by, as there isn't much money in terrorizing non-Moslems and planting bombs. Only one or two percent of the three million Moslems in the south support the terror, but the majority of Moslems know that the terrorists will also kill any Moslems caught cooperating with the police. This is nothing new, as it has gone on for generations with regard to the many criminal gangs (mostly smuggling operations) in the south. The gangs trained the thugs who got into Islamic radicalism. But hundreds of young Moslems also took advantage of "religious scholarships" offered by Islamic charities to go study Islamic conservative doctrine in Pakistan, North Africa and the Middle East. There, the young men were taught to hate, and kill, non-Moslems.

There's a least one bomb maker in the south with sufficient skills to produce roadside bombs that can be detonated remotely with wireless devices (like cell phones.) So far, these kinds of attacks are rare, most of the deaths come from guns or knives (often followed by a beheading.)

Government attempts to negotiate with terrorist leaders have failed largely because the leaders of the separatist organizations have lost control of many of their younger members. These guys have gone freelance and defy the orders of their elders. Because these young killers have become folk heroes to young Moslems, the elders are not willing to discipline them. When the army kills one of these young thugs, they create a martyr.


 

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