• 
• 

The order issued by Narathiwat provincial authorities to close down an Islamic school after a group of teachers and students were arrested in connection with insurgent activities, and a cache of weapons was found on school grounds, is the first such closure since violence broke out in the Deep South. The Education Ministry has already revoked the licence of the Islam Burapha private religious school on the grounds that the school was used to indoctrinate students with a perverted brand of Islam that advocates violence and an armed struggle against the state. School administrators were given 30 days to file an appeal against the order; failing that, the school will be closed down permanently. The shutdown forced the parents of some 600 students at the school to transfer their children elsewhere and some 60 members of the teaching staff to look for new jobs. According to authorities, the order to close down the Islam Burapha school had the consent of the Narathiwat Islamic committee.

Prior consultation with the provincial Islamic committee suggests that authorities were aware of the political ramifications and the cultural sensitivity of such a drastic action. Even as legal actions are being taken against eight teachers and students for their alleged involvement in insurgent activities, Islamic Burapha school administrators must be guaranteed the right to the due process of law and be allowed to appeal the order. Officials should be allowed to reopen the school if they are able to prove beyond any reasonable doubt that the criminal activities that are alleged to have taken place on school grounds were carried out by individual teachers and students without their knowledge.

The Islam Burapha school, like many privately-run Islamic schools that also provide a secular education in the Malay-speaking southern provinces of Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat, was heavily subsidised by the Thai government. Private Islamic schools play an important role by serving the dual function of providing Islamic studies and a secular education in Thai that enables local children to appreciate their local culture, without sacrificing the opportunity to get ahead in society.

There have been similar incidents in the past involving individual teachers and students at other Islamic schools in the strife-torn region, but the schools they had been associated with were not shut down. It is important for authorities to be able to demonstrate that the harsh action taken against Islam Burapha school is backed up by hard evidence, and that it is not a form of collective punishment.

The combined military and police forces responsible for the raid on the Islam Burapha school last week, which resulted in the capture of eight suspected insurgents and the seizure of their weapons, insisted that they had acted on tips provided by members of the local community where the school is located.

Military commanders and local police officials say that based on the intelligence they have gathered there is a clear pattern of a number of Islamic schools being infiltrated by Islamic militants in order to instil in students a hateful ideology. It glorifies armed struggle against the Thai state in an effort to try to create an independent Islamic homeland in southern Thailand. Some 2,300 people have already been killed in the deep South since Islamic militants/Malay separatists renewed their attacks against government forces and began a campaign of terror targeting the civilian population, Buddhist as well as Muslim.

While the authorities, preferably with the help of local communities, should be on the lookout for Islamic militants/Malay separatists infiltrating Islamic schools, it must be made clear that the great majority of these schools are being run by dedicated, law-abiding administrators. Any actions taken against particular individuals or Islamic schools for promoting a perverted brand of Islamic or supporting the insurgency must follow exhaustive investigative efforts and the careful gathering of evidence.

Thailand could learn a lesson from Muslim countries like Malaysia where schools are required to provide Islamic studies alongside secular education and teachers are closely regulated to prevent individual religious zealots from poisoning young minds, and to make sure that students grow up to be law-abiding, productive members of the society.