Fire of hatred continues to burn in southern Thailand

In this previous post, I wrote about how Islamist insurgents in southern Thailand are targeting civilians and using fire as a weapon. It's now more than a month later, and the fire of hatred continues to burn. From the International Herald Tribune:

Two teachers were shot and burned to death in Thailand's restive south Friday by suspected Muslim insurgents, while a government worker and a grocery store owner were killed in other attacks, police said.

[...]

Despite offers of peace and reconciliation by the country's military-backed government, violence has increased in recent months.

Just as Christians worldwide aren't paying enough attention to what's happening to their co-religionists in the Middle East (see this previous post), Buddhists worldwide haven't been paying enough attention to the changing nature of the interaction between Muslims and Buddhists, and between Islam and Buddhism, in Southeast Asia (see these previous posts).

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Update: The following article from The Nation refrains from naming the religion of the victims or that of the killers and bystanders, despite explicitly alluding to religious differences:

The wife of a teacher who was shot dead and set on fire by suspected militants has accused local villagers of doing nothing while her husband and his colleague were set ablaze.

On Friday, suspected militants shot dead Chamnong Chupatpong, the director of the Ban Bado elementary school, and a teacher, Manoe Sonkaew, and set their bodies on fire on a road just 100 metres away from the village school at which they worked in Yala's Tambon Yupo.

Kawin Chupatpong said the attack on her husband and his colleague had taken place in front of the villagers, who remained inside their homes instead of coming out to help the two victims.

"My husband has been helping them and educating their children for the past decade, and the differences in our religious beliefs was never an obstacle. But this shows that our good deeds were not reciprocated," Kawin said.

"My father and his school helped raised money for the construction of the local mosque, so the children could have a place to pray. He even used his own money," said the couple's daughter Monthida, a senior at Kasetsart University.

The context makes it clear that the victims were Buddhists while the villagers were primarily Muslim. While I understand the family's anguish, the villagers were probably too terrified for their own lives to do anything to prevent the murders.

Police Maj-General Phaitoon Choochaiya, commander of the Yala Provincial Police, told reporters yesterday that the absence of eyewitnesses has made his work much more difficult.

He said the brutal attack had sent a chilling message to the entire community, and hence the refusal of the villagers to come forward with information. [...]

Authorities said a new generation of militants have effectively shattered the fabric of the local community by singling out monks and teachers, along with security officials and their informants. [...]

This sentence is written in code: "monks and teachers" means "Buddhists", "informants" means "Muslims" (i.e., those who are sympathetic to Buddhists), and "shattered the fabric of the local community" means "driven a wedge of distrust and fear between them". And that is precisely the goal of the terrorists.

南無阿彌陀佛