Many Muslims who are suspected of being or having links to militants have also fled their homes because they are certain that when the police come knocking on their doors they won't get fair treatment under the current justice system. But in this region, Malay Muslims are the majority - accounting for about 80 per cent of the local residents - while the Buddhists are a minority. With those living in towns more secure and equipped to protect themselves, what concerns the authorities is the Buddhist villages situated in remote corners and under the watchful eyes of militants, who see them as a way of getting at state agencies. But images like the one of an abandoned old woman being carried out of her home by a soldier, touched the hearts of many people. It is the kind of picture that transcends religion and compels people who see it to do something.

And so people did. Scores of local residents, both Buddhist and Muslim, came to the temple grounds of Wat Nirotsangkharam in Yala's Muang district on Thursday evening to donate goods to ease the displaced villagers' plight. Some of the Muslim women who came with donated goods were said to have taken off their headscarf, perhaps out of concern that the symbol of their Islamic faith would provoke anger from the Buddhists.

Sadly, many Thais continue to see the problem in the region as one of Buddhist versus Muslim, conveniently ignoring the fact that majority of the 1,800 people killed since January 2004 were local Muslims suspected of collaborating with the state.

Although the Muslim turnout at the temple was small compared to the number of Buddhists, it was nevertheless an encouraging display of courage that gives all of us hope that mercy and compassion can transcend faith and ethnicity.

Unlike previous episodes of insurgent violence, which were a matter of militant separatists versus state security forces, this latest wave of violence has done tremendous damage to the fabric of society that once held Buddhists and Muslims together.

Today we have reached the point where a Muslim school-bus driver is afraid to pick up Buddhist students for fear he will be killed by insurgents. Everyone is in the grip of fear, which has shattered friendships and turned neighbours into enemies. But the people who came to offer help - food, blankets, clothing and money - remind all of us that there is hope.

As a society, we must not lose sight of the fact that we are all in the same boat. We need to see the insurgents' violence for what it is - a tactic aimed at destroying the community. And we must not let it get the better of us.

Our leaders of all ranks, colour and stripes, need to come out and go beyond the usual condemnations. Our Buddhist officers need to be more sensitive to the cultural needs of the Malays, while the Muslim leaders need to go beyond their rhetoric of condemning the violence whenever Islamic symbolism or other elements of Islam are raised in connection with the ongoing violence.

Our Muslim religious leaders and clerics could show more intellectual and theological honesty by confronting these troublesome issues head on, instead of flatly declaring Islam to be a religion of peace, as if that were enough to solve the problem.

The current government, which has publicly apologised for past mistakes, must stay the course and work towards reconciling the differences with the ethnic Malay community. The vast majority of Malay Muslims in the deep South are peace loving and do not want any part in the ongoing violence, but are disturbed by the historical tendency of the Thai state to force them to assimilate at the expense of their own cultural identity. To obtain peace, we must find a way to tap into the hearts and minds of people from all walks of life in this Kingdom.