Thailand: Where the Happy Muslims Are

In my neighborhood, and of the students at my university, there are many, many Muslims in evidence. Lots and lots of head scarves, I guess the guys are harder to spot but I have met quite a few. I also know that lots of Muslim girls don't wear head scarves. So there's a lot.

And they are happy. Thai Muslims should do seminars for those miserables in the Middle-East. It's just not an issue in Thailand, you're a Muslim, good for you. It's a lot like the way it is not an issue if a sixth grade boy wants to wear make-up and talk like a girl. That's his business. No one cares at all. And the Muslims are as Thai as anyone else. They love it here and are just as proud as anybody to be Thai. Proud of the King too. And there's no Taliban to bother the girls if they wear a tight t-shirt revealing a sexy bra and tight jeans along with the head scarf. That's their business too. The Muslims leave each other to practice each according to his own conscience.

I can clearly hear the call to prayer being broadcast over loudspeakers at the appointed hours every day. Hey, it's a free country. In fact, Thailand (Brataet Thai) means, "Land of the Free." You can look it up.

Incidentally, the "Muslim" problem in the three southernmost provinces is not a religious problem at all, it's cultural. Those Muslims speak Malay and were part of Malaysia until the Twentieth Century.

I'm beginning to think that the problem's not religious in the Middle East either. More likely it's a problem with the underlying culture.