Praying in the rain: the politics of engaged Muslims in anti‐war protest in Thai society

Abstract

In this article the author examines the anti‐war protest on March 26, 2003, in Southern Thailand and suggests the notion of engaged Muslims as a theoretical alternative to political Islam to better reflect both a realistic Muslim perspective and a critical understanding of what constitutes ‘the political’. Such an alternative, when it exists, depends on the ways in which a Muslim minority, such as in Thailand, chooses to engage with others in a manner that could reflect a reaffirmation of membership in the imagined community that is the nation‐state, while preserving their identity as those who belong to their distinctive community of faith. In protesting for peace and symbolically ‘praying in the rain’ as both citizens and members of a distinctive community of faith, an alternative role for Muslims in politics as engaged Muslims has been creatively explored.

Notes

Islamic Guidance Post (Tarng Nam) 20, 236 (September–October 2003), p. 11 (in Thai).

* Dr. Chaiwat Satha‐Anand, Faculty of Political Science, Thammasat University, Prachan Road, Bangkok 10200, Thailand. Tel.: +66‐2‐21‐61‐11‐20. Fax: +66‐2‐224‐1406. Email: ⟨[email protected]⟩. I wish to thank Aziz Pithakkhumpol for the invitation to speak at the protest, Jularat Damrongviteetham of Peace Information Center for data collection, Dr. Decha Tangseefa for helpful suggestions, and two anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments.

Kazi Mahmood, ‘Fears of Pattani Muslim Eradication from Thailand Real’, ⟨http://www.islamonline.net⟩ August 22, 2001.

Kazi Mahmood, ‘Thailand Perpetuating the Taming of Islam in Patani’, ⟨http://www.islamonline.net⟩ March 13, 2002.

Tarng Nam (Islamic Guidance Post), 20, 231 (January–February 2003), pp. 1, 3 (in Thai).

Olivier Roy, The Failure of Political Islam Caren Volk (trans.) (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1996). Roy's book in French was first published in 1992.

Ibid., p. vii. See for example, Georgii I. Mirskii, ‘ “Political Islam” and Western Society’, Russian Social Science Review, 44, 3 (2003), p. 68; and Graham E. Fuller, ‘The Future of Political Islam’, Foreign Affairs, 81, 2 (2002), p. 49.

Roy, The Failure of Political Islam, p. ix.

Roy, The Failure of Political Islam, p. 24.

Gilles Kepel, Jihad: The Trail of Political Islam (Cambridge, MA: The Belknap Press of Harvard University, 2002).

Nazih N. Ayubi, Political Islam: Religion and Politics in the Arab World (London and New York: Routledge, 1991), p. 3.

Ayubi, Political Islam, p.4.

Fuller, ‘The Future of Political Islam’, p. 49. It should be pointed out that Fuller defines political Islam or ‘Islamism’ broadly as the belief that Al‐Qur'an and the Hadith (Traditions of the Prophet Muhammad) have something to say about the way society and governance should be ordered. Pointing out that the Islamist phenomenon is hardly uniform, he then claims that one could encounter ‘(political) Islamists’ as either radical or moderate, violent or quietist, and ‘political or apolitical’.

Jeremy Jennings, ‘The Return of the Political?: New French Journals in the History of Political Thought’, History of Political Thought, 18, 1 (Spring 1997), pp. 148–156.

Carl Schmitt, The Concept of the Political George Schwab (Trans. Intro. and Notes) (Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press, 1996), p. 26.

Leo Strauss, ‘Notes on Carl Schmitt, The Concept of the Political’, in Schmitt, The Concept of the Political, p. 86.

Michael Herzfeld, Anthropology: Theoretical Practice in Culture and Society (Oxford: Blackwell Publishers; Paris: UNESCO, 2001), p. 121.

See for example, Leo Strauss, An Introduction to Political Philosophy: Ten Essays by Leo Strauss Hilail Gildin (Ed. and Intro.) (Detroit, MI: Wayne State University Press, 1989), p. 3.

Kenneth Minogue, Politics: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 1995), p. 113.

Scott B. MacDonald and Jonathan Lemco, ‘Political Islam in Southeast Asia’, Current History, 101, 658 (2002), p. 389.

In giving an interview to Al‐Jazeera, Shaikh Yusof al‐Qaradawi, an Egyptian ulama, maintained that ‘If we view Islam from a balanced and correct perspective, we will find that Islamic teachings are far from rigidity, weakness or compartmentalization’. Islamic Guidance Post, 20, 231 (January–February 2003), p. 30.

This is also the argument against some recent writings on ‘Islam’ made by Geertz. See Clifford Geertz, ‘Which Way to Mecca?’, The New York Review of Books, L, 10 (June 12, 2003), pp. 27–30.

See Chaiwat Satha‐Anand, ‘Muslim Studies, Radical Social Science and Alterity’, Islamic Studies in ASEAN: Presentations of an International Seminar (Pattani: College of Islamic Studies, Prince of Songkhla University, 2000), pp. 89–98.

Quoted in Arnold Kotler, ‘Buddhism Must Be Engaged’, in Sulak Sivaraksa et al. (eds.), Radical Conservatism: Buddhism in the Contemporary World (Bangkok: Thai Inter‐Religious Commission for Development and International Network of Engaged Buddhists, 1990), p. 135.

Sulak Sivaraksa et al. (eds), Radical Conservatism: Buddhism in the Contemporary World , p. 556.

Kotler, ‘Buddhism Must Be Engaged’, p. 137.

See Chaiwat Satha‐Anand, ‘Hijab and Moments of Legitimation: Islamic Resurgence in Thai Society’, in Charles F. Keyes, Laurel Kendall and Helen Hardacre (eds), Asian Visions of Authority: Religion and the Modern States of East and Southeast Asia (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1994), pp. 279–300.

The Thai Senate, A Report by the Special Committee Studying Problems in the Five Southern Border Provinces: Pattani, Yala, Narathiwat, Songkhla and Satun (Bangkok: The Thai Senate 1999), Ch. 1, p. 8 (in Thai).

Cited in Chaiwat Satha‐Anand, ‘Bangkok Muslims and the Tourist Trade’, in Mohamed Ariff (ed.), The Muslim Private Sector in Southeast Asia (Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 1991), p. 96.

Raymond Scupin, ‘Muslim Accommodation in Thai Society’, Journal of Islamic Studies, 9,2 (1998), pp. 229–258. The figure of Muslims in Thailand is from The Thai Senate, A Report by the Special Committee Studying Problems in the Five Southern Border Provinces: Pattani, Yala, Narathiwat, Songkhla and Satun, Ch. 1, p. 8.

Scupin, ‘Muslim Accommodation in Thai Society’, p. 238.

Bangkok Post, January 5 and 6, 2004.

Krungthep Thurakit , March 7, 2004 (in Thai).

Data privately collected from Ministry of Interior, March 2004.

Jane Macartney, ‘Asian protests muted by authority, potential risks’, Bangkok Post, March 25, 2003.

Macartney, ‘Asian protests muted by authority, potential risks’.

John Keane, Reflections on Violence (London and New York: Verso, 1996), p. 98.

See guidelines for ‘phronetic social science’, in Bent Flyvbjerg, Making Social Science Matter: Why social inquiry fails and how it can succeed again (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001), pp. 129–140.

A letter from Aziz Pitakkhumpol, Chairperson, The Islamic Committee of Songkhla to the Governor of Songkhla, March 23, 2003 (in Thai).

Bangkok Post, March 18, 2003, p. 3 (picture).

Bangkok Post, March 19, 2003, p. 2.

The Nation, March 20, 2003, p. 2 A.

Bangkok Post, March 21, 2003, p. 3. (picture)

Bangkok Post, March 22, 2003, p. 2.

On Chularajamontri (Shaikh‐ul‐Islam) see The Royal Act on Islamic Organization Administration (1997) Compiled by Teerapol Arunakasikorn et al. (Bangkok: Winyuchon, 1999), Division 1, Articles 6–10, pp. 9–12 (in Thai).

The Nation (March 21, 2003), p. 2A.

The five Southernmost provinces are Yala, Pattani, Narathiwat, Satun and Songkhla while there are altogether 14 provinces in Southern Thailand.

A letter from Aziz Pitakkhumpol, Chairperson, The Islamic Committee of Songkhla to all the Imams in all the mosques and all leaders of people's organizations, March 23, 2003 (in Thai).

For methods of nonviolent protest, see Gene Sharp, The Politics of Nonviolent Action (Part Two): The Methods of Nonviolent Action (Boston, MA: Porter Sargent Publishers, 1973).

The Message of the Qur'an Muhammad Assad (Trans. and Explained) (Gibraltar: Dar al Andalus, 1980), Surah (Chapter) 60: Ayat (Verse) 1, p. 855.

The Nation (March 24, 2003), p. 2A.

The Nation (March 26, 2003), p. 6A.

A letter from Aziz Pitakkhumpol, Chairperson, The Islamic Committee of Songkhla, to the governor of Songkhla, March 24, 2003 (in Thai).

A letter from Aziz Pitakkhumpol, Chairperson, The Islamic Committee of Songkhla, to the mayor of Haadyai, Songkhla, March 25, 2003 (in Thai).

The Royal Act on Islamic Organization Administration (1997), Division 4, Articles 23, 26, pp. 20–22 (in Thai).

Bangkok Post, March 26, 2003, p. 3.

Bangkok Post, March 25, 2003, p. 2.

A letter from Aziz Pitakkhumpol, Chairperson, The Islamic Committee of Songkhla to the Governor of Songkhla, March 24, 2003 (in Thai).

Bangkok Post (March 26, 2003), p. 3.

The Nation (March 26, 2003), p. 6A.

The Nation (March 27, 2003), p. 6A.

Bangkok Post (March 27, 2003), p. 6.

Post Today (March 27, 2003), p. 1; Khao Sod (March 28, 2003), p. 1 (in Thai).

Kom Chat Luek (March 28, 2003), p. 1 (in Thai).

Daily News (March 28, 2003), p. 1 (in Thai).

The Nation (March 27, 2003), p. 6A.

Bangkok Post (March 27, 2003), p. 6.

Khao Sod (March 28, 2003), p. 1 (in Thai).

Daily News (March 28, 2003), p. 1 (in Thai).

Post Today (March 27, 2003), p. 1 (in Thai).

The Nation (March 24, 2003).