Aspects of Islam in Thailand Today

Abstract

Thai Muslims and their co-religionists in Sri Lanka and Burma provide three examples of Muslim minority communities living in Theravada Buddhist majority countries. Two main groups comprise the Thai Muslim community: the 'native Muslims', or the Malays residing in the southern provinces, and the 'settled/naturalized' Muslims of different ethnic backgrounds residing across the country - hence the ethnic, linguistic, cultural and political variation within the Thai Muslim community. The southern Muslims make up the majority (approximately 700,000, or 80%) of the total current Thai Muslim population (approximately 5-7 million).