Islamophobia as Represented by Thai Buddhist Organizations

Abstract

Scholarly works on Islamophobia in Thailand always focus on the state’s marginalization of Islam in Thai historiography and ultimately makes Muslims become strangers. I argue that the negative labeling of Islam has not only been adopted by the Thai state to support its militarization in the three southern provinces, but is also reproduced by conservative Buddhists to seek supports from the government and Buddhist followers themselves. Therefore, Islamophobia in Thailand cannot be understood without scrutinizing Buddhist groups who reproduce hatred and anti-Islam campaigns. This phenomenon occurs under the condition that the Thai state fails to promote secularism. While the government chooses to assimilate and satisfy Muslims with many projects in order to avoid giving in to their demands for an autonomous or independent state, Buddhists criticize the government for being biased in serving Islam. Interestingly, justice in the Thai Buddhists’ perspective is not secularism, but to prioritize Buddhism in the state’s identity. This paper also provides the concept of peace in the eyes of institutes of peace studies in Thailand, who work to promote multiculturalism without intensively discussing equality and the secular state.