Religion of Peace Strikes Again in Thailand, OIC Advises Appeasement

* Because appeasement works, right?

* from LGF

Well, it certainly works for spreading Islam. Ever since a Muhammedan general putsched himself to power in Thailand the jihadi’s are laughing all the way to the 72 virgins:

Two Buddhists set ablaze in Thai Muslim south.

PATTANI, Thailand (Reuters) – Suspected Muslim militants beheaded a Buddhist man, shot dead his nephew and set both bodies on fire in Thailand’s rebellious far south, police and soldiers said on Monday.

The 30-year man and his 14-year-old nephew were killed in a Muslim village in Pattani, one of the three southern most provinces hit by three years of separatist violence in which more than 2,100 people have been killed.

The head was found 5 km away at a government school where three bombs were planted at the entrance, police Lieutenant Colonel Yuthakan Plienpoe told Reuters.

“They wanted to trap us with these bombs,” Yuthakan said by telephone. Mobile phone service was switched off in the area to prevent the bombs being set off by phone signals.

The Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) advises more appeasement:

World Muslim body backs Thai policy on south.

BANGKOK, April 30 (Reuters) – The head of the world’s largest body of Islamic nations urged Thailand on Monday to stick to its soft approach to resolving a bloody insurgency in the Muslim-majority far south.

“We are encouraged by the new government’s policy toward the Muslim population,” Ekmeleddin Insanoglu, secretary general of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC), told reporters.

“We support the measures taken by the government and we hope to cooperate for a better future,” he said after talks with Foreign Minister Nitya Pibulsonggram on unrest in which more than 2,100 people have been killed since January 2004.

* Of course they are ‘encouraged’– useful idiots are indeed very encouraging when they unwittingly facilitate the jihad.

According to reports from close sources of the Thai military intelligence, there is an alarming rise of Muslim women in the southern part of Thailand, who are carrying out the illegal activities of the Muslim insurgents.

From hard-core assassinations to being a mediator to gather support from the local villagers, they are helping the Muslim rebel groups in every possible way.

Bangkok Post reports of 30 Muslim women who are now carrying out major operations in the southernmost provinces of the nation.

All women, aged 22 to 28 years old, are members of the Muslim Separatist groups who have taken up arms after their male relatives were killed in military encounters.

*

Update:

Buddhists arming themselves against Islamic Insurgency 

The latest violence is a blow to the government’s hope of solving the problem.

The regime that took power following a military coup in September had vowed to make peace in the south a priority, distancing itself from ousted Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra’s widely criticized reliance on heavy force.

But Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont’s softer approach and offers of negotiation have also failed and the violence has worsened despite government insistence that progress is being made.

Ban Bala is an example of a mixed community that had been peaceful and is now infected by the violence.

A few days after the van ambush, a Buddhist man in Ban Bala was shot dead in his home and two nearby houses were burned down, while three Muslim men were wounded in two separate shootings. Rumors spread that Muslim insurgents wanted to torch the temple.

Romali Jehheng, a 51-year-old Muslim in Ban Bala, said he had no idea whether vengeful Buddhists shot the three Muslims, but he is “afraid of everybody.” He said he has stopped visiting teashops, popular gathering places that have become terrorist targets.

Army spokesman Akara said 38 Muslim families, fearing revenge by Buddhists following a shooting incident, abandoned their homes in Yala province’s Bannang Sata district in February, and returned only after the authorities remonstrated with their suspicious neighbors.

The region is awash in firearms, thanks in part to the government.

Queen Sirikit bluntly urged people to defend themselves, and she sponsors arms training programs that cater almost exclusively to Buddhists. After the attack on the van her military aide, Gen. Napon Bunthap, quoted her as saying: “We have to help people there to survive. If they need to be trained, train them. If they need to be armed, arm them.”

In Ban Bala, some 400 village militia members, mostly Buddhists, share 140 shotguns they take out on patrol, according to village chief Prasit. The Interior Ministry has also trained and armed thousands of other civilians, Muslims and Buddhists alike, to defend their villages.

Many southerners have bought handguns and rarely leave home without them despite a ban on carrying unlicensed weapons in a public place.

The government is persisting with its peace effort. Visiting the south last week, Prime Minister Surayud said the government was considering offering the insurgents an amnesty, something the previous government rejected.

At the same time, he supported the arming of Buddhists to protect their families.

But the government’s inability to curb the violence is raising tempers. Lately, Buddhist mourners at funerals for insurgency victims have directed their fury against the authorities for failing to protect them.

“When state power does not function, people feel the responsibility to protect themselves and take justice into their own hands,” said Chaiwat Satha-anand, a political scientist at Bangkok’s Thammasat University.