Thai society, islamophobia, and reversed discrimination

Abstract

A few years ago, people and Thai media were giving full attention to the violence in the four most southern provinces of Thailand. Every day, reports of murders of innocent non-Thai Muslims were shown on TV and newspapers. Today, the news has disappeared from the Thai newspapers’ front page. Nor has it appear on TV. Does this mean that the violence has already stopped? This question is still left unanswered. Thai society is implanted with the concept of “Thai-ness” that was built around the fundamental three concepts: loyalty to the King, dedication to the nation, and devotion to Buddhism. As these three main themes play significant roles in Thai society, two interesting trends emerged with the concern of the Thai-Muslim population. One is the trend of Islamophobia. Another is the reversed discrimination against the Muslim population. Therefore, the goal of this paper is to explore the two mentioned phenomena. To do this, the paper will be divided into three main parts. The first part of the paper discusses the concept of Thai nation-state in relations to the concept of Thai-ness. The second part approaches the Islamophobic trends. Finally, the paper will explore the leaning towards a reversed discrimination which reflects in Thai media.Through interviews, books, newspapers, articles, and observation, this paper should be able to give a clear idea and explanation of the mentioned shift in Thai society for further mutual understanding and coexistence between religions and people.