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ISLAMIC REFORM AND REVIVALISM IN SOUTHERN
THAILAND: A CRITICAL STUDY OF THE SALAFĪ
REFORM MOVEMENT OF SHAYKH DR. ISMAIL
LUTFI CHAPAKIA AL-FAṬĀNĪ, 1986 – 2010
BY
ARYUD YAHPRUNG
A dissertation submitted in fulfilment of the requirement for
the degree of Doctor of Philosophy
(The Muslim World Issues)
International Institute of Islamic Thought and Civilization
International Islamic University Malaysia
NOVEMBER 2014
ABSTRACT
This study investigates the historical continuity of Islamic tradition of tajdīd (revival)
and iṣlāḥ (reform) in the Muslim majority region of the southernmost provinces of
Thailand. The focus is on the iṣlāḥ movement led by Shaykh Dr. Ismail Lutfi
Chapakia al-Faṭānī (1950-), the Saudi trained ‘ālim who graduated from the
Haramayn (Mecca and Madinah). Shaykh Dr. Ismail Lutfi along with others Patani
‘ulamā’ of his time began to advocate for Islamic reformism in 1986 in Patani, which
is the modern day of Pattani, Yala, and Narathiwat provinces of Southern Thailand
until it evolved into a loose Salafī reformist movement which culminated in their
establishment of Yala Islamic University in 2002. Calling themselves Salafī, the
followers of the Salaf (early Companion of the Prophet), this movement has believed
that the problems of the Malay Muslims society in the Deep South was primarily
caused by the deviation from the true faith prescribed by the two sacred sources,
namely, 1) the Qur’ān and the Sunnah (Prophet Tradition) and, 2) the way the Salaf’s
understanding of Islam. The Salafīs urged Patani Muslim fellows to return to, and
strictly follow the sacred sources, and purify Islamic ideas and practices from later
innovation (bid‘ah) and accretion of the past Indic ideas and cultures. The Salafī
movement has advocated for a social change through tarbiyyah (education) by
working within the Thai constitutional framework. The study examines three main
areas of Islamic reformism proposed by the Salafī reformist movement, namely, 1)
theological reform of Sunnah and bid‘ah, 2) the reform of the Patani Muslim society
regarding the political status of Patani in the modern time - the issue inextricably links
to religious pluralism in modern Thai nation-state, and 3) the reform of inter-religious
relations and coexistence between, particularly, Islam and Buddhism in Patani. Three
methods of data collection employed in this study are, 1) documentary including both
primary and secondary, 2) participatory observations, and unstructured in-depth
interviews. The study finds that the Salafī Islamic reformist movement has made a
transforming impact on the Malay Muslims society in Southern Thailand owing much
to their intellectualism which has been adjusted to suit the unique circumstances and
realities of the society they seek to reform. Their intellectual flexibility has enabled
them to be able to revive Sunnah of the Prophet in the Ḥadīth-form when the concept
of the Sunnah was enlarged to mean Ahl al-Sunnah wa’l-Jamā‘ah (MainstreamMiddle-Path Community). Second, the Patani political status was placed in the larger,
pluralist concept of Ummah (community of nations) instead of sectarianist, the century
old concepts of Dār al-Islām (the abode of Islam) and Dār al-Ḥarb (the abode of war).
These changes also lead to, third, the reform of inter-religious relations of Islam and
Buddhism to which the Salafī movement has provided a proactive principle called
‚principle of amiability towards religious others (lak maitripab kab chon tang
sasanig)‛ in comparison with the previous norm of ‚live and let live‛.
ii
ABSTRACT IN ARABIC
ً‫متوافقا‬
iii
APPROVAL PAGE
The dissertation of Aryud Yahprung has been approved by the following:
________________________
Mohd. Kamal Hassan
Supervisor
________________________
Wan Sabri Wan Yusuf
Internal Examiner
________________________
Omar Farouk Bajunid
External Examiner
________________________
Hassan Ahmed Ibrahim
Chairman
iv
DECLARATION
I hereby declare that this dissertation is the result of my own investigation, except
where otherwise stated. I also declare that it has not been previously or concurrently
submitted as a whole for any other degrees at IIUM or other institutions.
Aryud Yahprung
Signature……………………..
Date…………………..
v
INTERNATIONAL ISLAMIC UNIVERSITY MALAYSIA
DECLARATION OF COPYRIGHT AND AFFIRMATION OF
FAIR USE OF UNPUBLISHED RESEARCH
Copyright © 2014 by International Islamic University Malaysia. All rights reserved.
ISLAMIC REFORM AND REVIVALISM IN SOUTHERN
THAILAND: A CRITICAL STUDY OF THE SALAFĪ REFORM
MOVEMENT OF SHAYKH DR. ISMAIL LUTFI CHAPAKIA
AL-FAṬĀNĪ, 1986 – 2010
I hereby affirm that The International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM) holds all rights
in the copyrights of this Work and henceforth any reproduction or use in any form or by
means whatsoever is prohibited without the written consent of IIUM. No part of this
unpublished research may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in
any form or by means, electronics, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise
without prior written permission of the copyright holder.
Affirmed by Aryud Yahprung
……………………………….
Signature
……………………………
Date
vi
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Alhamdulillah, all praises belong to Allah (s.w.t) the most Gracious the most High.
I would like to express my gratitude to several individuals and institutions for their
contribution and assistance, without which this work would not have been completed.
First and foremost, I would like to thank my supervisor Professor Tan Sri Dr. Mohd
Kamal Hassan for his guidance with his critical and in-depth intellectualism. I much
appreciate and am grateful to Assoc. Professor Dr. Wan Sabri Wan Yusuf, for his
critical supervision and comments on the final correction until the completion of my
final work. I am indebted to Professor Dr. Imtiyaz Yusuf, Department of Religion,
Graduate School of Philosophy and Religion, Assumption University who played a
significant role in shaping my dissertation from the conceptual stage to the writing
process. He has been most generous with his time and intellectual resources. A special
thank goes to my external examiner, Emeritus Professor Dr. Omar Farouk, whose
remarks and suggestions had strengthen my work.
I wish to express my special appreciations to Professor John O. Voll, of the
Prince Alwaleed bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding at Georgetown
University, who pointed out a valuable approach on the studying of an Islamic
reformist movement. His short presence in ISTAC had provided insightful knowledge
in the field of tajdīd and iṣlāḥ tradition. My thanks also convey to Professor
Muddathir Abdel Rahim Eltayeb of ISTAC who has been an inspiration to me on the
path of knowledge. His continued support and encouragement made this study come
into fruition.
My sincere appreciation also goes to Professor Mohamed Ajmal bin Abdul
Razak al-Aidrus whose creative suggestions and comments had directed me to the
right track of doing a research project. Great thanks are also due to academic staffs of
the ISTAC, IIUM who during my long stayed had facilitated, and helped me with their
utmost efforts; some of their names deserved to be mentioned here: Sister Majdiah
Binti Che Othaman, Sister Zainiah Binti Md. Sood, Sister Noormaizah Binti Mokhtar,
Sister Rosfazilah Binti Mohamad Amin, Sister Nurul Hasyikin Binti Jamil, and
Brother Izwanriza Bin Mohamed Zawawi.
I am very much thankful to Dr. Soawapa Ngampramuan my colleague at
Faculty of Political Science, Ramkhamhaeng University who gave me support and
suggestion when necessary. Special thank also goes to Chokechai Wongtani of
Institute of Peace Studies, Prince of Songkhla University who allowed me to use his
personal library whenever I need.
There are two other special persons to whom I would like to express my special
indebtedness. Mrs. Darunee Sukthaworn who made a lot of sacrifice in order that my
study in Malaysia is possible. Mrs. Ilham Buwae also no less contribution in this
regard. Without both, I am certain that this dissertation could never have completed.
vii
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Abstract .................................................................................................................... ii
Abstract in Arabic .................................................................................................... iii
Approval Page .......................................................................................................... iv
Declaration ............................................................................................................... v
Copyright Page ......................................................................................................... vi
Acknowledgments .................................................................................................... vii
List of Abbreviations ............................................................................................... x
CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION ................................................................. 1
Introduction .................................................................................................. 1
Previous Studies and Scope of the Study ..................................................... 10
Statement of the Problem and Objective of the Study ................................. 22
Plan of the Study .......................................................................................... 26
Sources of Study .......................................................................................... 29
Methodology and the Significance of the Study .......................................... 31
CHAPTER TWO: ORIGINS OF ISLAMIC REFORMISM AND
REVIVALISM: THEORETICAL CONSIDERATIONS ................................. 33
Introduction .................................................................................................. 33
Tajdīd (Revival) and Iṣlāḥ (Reform): A Theological Origins ..................... 35
Tajdīd and Iṣlāḥ: A Socio-Political Origin .................................................. 43
Tajdīd and Iṣlāḥ: A Social Movement Theory Approach............................ 49
Broad Spectrum of Islamic Reform and Revivalist’s Characters ................ 55
Islamic Reformism and Revivalism and Ethnic Minorities ......................... 64
Conclusion.................................................................................................... 67
CHAPTER THREE: ISLAMIC REFORMISM IN THE DEEP SOUTH
OF THAILAND ..................................................................................................... 68
Introduction .................................................................................................. 68
Islam in Thailand: A Historical Background ............................................... 69
The Thai Policy towards the Muslims in the Deep South ............................ 75
The Early Phases of Islamic Reformism in the Deep South: The Role of
The Jawi ‘Ūlamā’ Network ......................................................................... 83
A. Shaykh Dāwūd b. ‘Abd Allāh b. Idrīs al-Faṭānī .............................. 86
B. Shaykh Wan Ahmad bin Muhammad Zain Mustafa al-Faṭānī ........ 93
C. Haji Sulong bin Abdul Kadir bin Muhammad al-Faṭānī .................. 101
E. Ustaz Abdullah Chinarong ............................................................... 107
Conclusion.................................................................................................... 114
CHAPTER FOUR: THE SALAFĪ REFORM MOVEMENT OF SHAYKH
DR. ISMAIL LUTFI CHAPAKIA ....................................................................... 116
Introduction .................................................................................................. 116
The Life of Shaykh Dr. Ismail Lutfi Chapakia ............................................ 119
viii
The Implications of Middle East Politics on the Islamic Reformism in
the Deep South ............................................................................................. 125
Some Features of the Salafi Reformist Movement ...................................... 141
Informal Networks of the Salafī ............................................................ 143
Network Structure and Its Expansion ................................................... 146
Political Connections and Economic Activity ...................................... 149
Conclusion.................................................................................................... 154
CHAPTER FIVE: SALAFĪ REFORMIST PERSPECTIVES .......................... 156
Introduction .................................................................................................. 156
Theological Reform: Sunnah and Bid‘ah ..................................................... 158
Social Reform: Religious Pluralism within the Thai Nation-State .............. 170
The Encroachment of Modernity .......................................................... 171
Re-interpretation of Patani Political Status: The Way towards
Pluralism ............................................................................................... 173
Reforming the Inter-Religious Relations ..................................................... 180
The Need to Formulate a New Frame of Coexistence .......................... 183
Conclusion.................................................................................................... 187
CHAPTER SIX: CONCLUSIONS ...................................................................... 190
Concluding Remarks .................................................................................... 190
A Critical Analysis ....................................................................................... 197
Reflections and Recommendations .............................................................. 199
BIBLIOGRAPHY .................................................................................................. 203
APPENDIX:
NAMES AND BACKGROUNDS OF INTERVIEW
RESPONDENTS. ........................................................................ 224
GROSSARY
..................................................................................................... 227
ix
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
AJISS
BIPP
BNPP
BRN
CICT
CIS
CIST
ICNST
IJMES
MWL
NLA
NRC
PAO
PIC
PPAO
PULO
SBPAC
SMO
SMT
SBPAC
YIU
YMAT
YPAO
American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences
Barisan Islam Pembebasan Patani (Islamic Liberation Front of Patani)
Barisan Nasional Pembebasan Patani (National Liberation Front of
Patani)
Barisan Revolusi Nasional (National Liberation Front)
Central Islamic Committee of Thailand
College of Islamic Studies
Central Islamic Committee of Thailand
Islamic Co-operative Networks of Southern Thailand
International Journal of Middle East Studies
Muslim World League
National Legislative Assembly
National Reconciliation Committee
Provincial Administration Organization
Provincial Islamic Committee
Pattani Provincial Administration Organization
Patani United Liberation Organization
Southern Border Provinces Administrative Center
Social movement organization
Social Movement theory
Southern Border Provinces Administrative Center
Yala Islamic University
Young Muslim Association of Thailand
Yala Provincial Administrative Organization
x
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
INTRODUCTION
Social changes in the Muslim world over the past half century have caused scholars to
rethink the role played by religion in modern society. The assumption previously held
which negated its importance has been severely tested as religious symbols and
languages have been increasingly visible not only in the private domain, but also in
the public sphere of the secular modern nation-state. Circumstantial evidence also
supports the view that the role of religion in the ever-changing globalized world
appears to be increasingly significant in shaping contents and directions of a modern
state, as being the case, especially, in most of the Southeast Asian countries, the
Indian sub-continent, and the Middle East. In Muslim society the regeneration of
religious ethos as expressed in the form of the Islamic revival and reform movement,
particularly, since the 1970s, has also overridden a distinctive modern attitude toward
religion which regard it as being merely a set of traditional rites and static beliefs;
impervious to change and irrelevant to the working of modernization.1 As man came
to the age of the ‚End of History‛, allegedly the most advanced era of human
civilization, one might safely conclude that the notions that religion, Islam in
particular, is in the process of withering away as society moves towards ‘progress’ is
proven to be a failed prophecy.
The misreading of scholars on the transformative forces of Islam is due mainly
to their indifference toward prominent actors in Muslim society, the ‘ulamā’ (singular:
1
S.V.R Nasr, ‚The Politics of an Islamic Movement: The Jama‘at-i-Islami in Pakistan,‛ (Ph.D.
Dissertation, MIT, 1991), 13.
1
‘ālim). This special class of religious scholars and their roles in determining and
shaping the courses and outcomes of Muslim society are crucial. Of equal importance
with regard to the understanding of social changes; its genesis, patterns and the final
shape, in relations to the role played by the ‘ulamā’ in bringing changes within
Muslim society is the Islamic concept of reform (iṣlāḥ) and revival (tajdīd). It is
argued that spirit of revival (tajdīd) and reform (iṣlāḥ) in the Muslim community
(ummah) is embedded in the very foundation of Islamic teachings, the most wellknown among which is the Tradition of the Prophet who was reported to have said:
God will raise for this ummah, at the head of every century, someone who will
rejuvenate for them their religion – inn’Llāh yab ‘ath li-hādhihi’l-ummah ‘alā ra’s
kull mi’ah sanah man yujaddid lahā dīnahā .2 These two main concepts together with
one of the most salient principles in Islamic thinking, ijtihād – personal reasoning,
have been facilitating change facing Muslim society arguably since the time of its
early formation.
Social change as a result of the process of modernization of modern nationstate; the industrialization and urbanization which brought social dislocation of
disprivileged people and created an urban underclass also contributed to the
resurgence of Islam in the modern world. Besides political integration of nation-state,
the process to which central government consolidates its power through various
policies of ‚nation building‛ excluding ethnic minority and dissent from equal
participation in political process. As these marginalized communities have been most
vulnerable to changes they found religion as the only place where they could take
refuge. Moreover, religious organizations always provide moral support as well as
2
Cited in M. H. Kamali, Civilisational Renewal: Revisiting the Islam Hadhari Approach (Kuala
Lumpur: International Institute of Advanced Islamic Studies, Malaysia, Arah Publications, 2008), 5152.
2
welfare services, and accompanied their adherents to the new, uncertain environment
of globalization.
Taken together the aforementioned factors, therefore, generations after
generations throughout Islamic history one witnesses revival and reform efforts
manifested in various forms in a wide spectrum, from groups formed simply to
reawaken Islamic consciousness (saḥwah) to a more organized and sophisticated
organization with a comprehensive program involving socio-economic reforms such
as those of the Ikhwan in Egypt, the Jama‘at-i-Islami of the Indian sub-continent, and
the most revolutionized mode of revival and reform, the ‘ulamā’ movement in Iran
which culminated in the 1979 Islamic Revolution, to name a few.
Historically speaking, the regression of the Muslim world’s power since the
late 16th century, and the following successive waves of crises brought about by the
onslaught of modernity which culminated in the colonization of most of the Muslim
lands by western powers had caused Muslims to ask themselves ‚Why Have the
Muslims Remained Backward while others Progressed?.‛3 The answer to this serious
question was an historic orchestrated call for ‚Islamic Reform‛. Initially its chief
propagators were the seventeenth and eighteenth century ‘ulamā’ and Sufis; arguably
perpetuating tradition of revival (tajdīd) and reform (iṣlāḥ) within Islam. They
espoused a reorganization of Muslim communities and the reform of individual
behavior in terms of fundamental religious principles.4 The hallmark of the reformist
ideology is a return to the true teaching of Islam as given in the genuine sources, the
Qur’ān and the Ḥadīth, and a decisive demand to purify Islamic doctrines and
3
A title of Shakib Arslan’s book, cited in Abdelwahab El-Affendi, ‚The modern debate (s) on Islam
and Democracy,‛ in Islam and Democracy in Malaysia: Findings from a National Dialogue, (ed.),
Ibrahim M. Zein (Kuala Lumpur: ISTAC, 2010), 3.
4
Yudi Latif, ‚On the Genesis of Intellectual Crossroads: Early Fragmentation in the Formation of
Modern Indonesian Intelligentsia,‛ Studia Islamika, Vol.11, No.1 (2004), 92.
3
practices from bid‘ah (heretical and improper ‘innovation’, namely those accretions of
practices and beliefs that historically lack Islamic justification).5 Ijtihād (the exercise
of independence and creative enquiry) instead of taqlīd (blind imitation of the
previous Muslim jurists) is instrumental in the Islamic revivalist and reformist
theology.
The attempt to rescue the Muslim world from its backwardness had taken
another turn in the 19th century when Muhammad ‘Abduh (1849-1905) and his mentor
Sayyid Jamal al-Din al-Afghani (1838-1897) the two premier proponents of the
reformist idea introduced new approaches aimed at reforming Muslim society,
particularly in the face of the challenge of modernity. Their ideas of reformism
extended not merely the Islamic reformism in the traditional sense, i.e. a continuation
of tajdīd and iṣlāḥ tradition which emphasize the reform and revitalization of Islamic
faith and practices – a puritanical endeavor. But they incorporated a new dimension,
formulated ‚to integrate modern thought and institutions with Islam.‛6 Abduh
regarded educational reform as crucial, arguing for synthesis of Islam with the modern
western mode of scientific knowledge.7 His efforts at interpreting Islam in the light of
modern thought had earned him a modernist label, hence, Islamic modernist
movements have since emerged. The modernist-reformist ideas passed through
Abduh’s disciple Rashid Rida (1865-1935) who took his master’s idea to a more
conservative, puritanical line of the Wahhabi puritanical movement in augurated by
5
Giora Eliraz, ‚The Islamic Reformist Movement in the Malay-Indonesian World in the First Four
Decades of the 20th Century: Insight Gained from a Comparative Look at Egypt,‛ Studia Islamika, Vol.
9, No. 2, 2002, 56.
6
Noorhaidi Hasan, ‚The Salafi Movement in Indonesia: Traditional dynamics and local development,‛
in Islam in Southeast Asia: Citical Concepts in Islamic Studies, (ed.), Joseph Chinyong Liow and
Nadirsyah Hosen (London and New York: Routledge, 2010), 303.
7
Ibid., This was expressed in his efforts to reform al-Azhar university by introduced more secular
subjects to its curriculum, improving faculty qualifications and library, and coursework also
standardized, see James Ockey, ‚Individual imaginings: The religio-nationalist pilgrimages of Haji
Sulong Abdulkadir al-Fatani,‛ Journal of Southeast Asian Studies, Vol. 42, No. 1 (February, 2011),
103.
4
Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab (1703-1792).8 The Islamic Modernist Movement,
nonetheless, spread rapidly across the Muslim world.
The ideas of revival and reform, particular during the nineteenth century passed
through the Indo-Malayan ‘ulamā’ which formed the influential ‚Jāwah colony.9‛ in
the Haramayn (Mecca and Madinah) to the Malay world, including southern Thailand.
Yudi Latif observed as regards to the ‘ulamā’ role:
The endurance of this so-called Jāwah colony enabled the continuous
transmission of reformed ideas from the Middle East to the archipelago,
which inspired the emergence of reform movements in tarīqah (Sūfī
brotherhood), Islamic doctrine, politics, and schools. And last but not
least, the Muslim adoption of lithographic printing helped with the
multiplication of the old manuscripts, which caused the explosion in the
amount of religious reading materials.10
The reform movement ideology, particularly its intolerance of non-Islamic
mysticism, magic, superstitions as well as animist, Hindu and Buddhist elements that
had been incorporated into Islam in Southeast Asia caused a bitter conflict between
two groups, the reformist Kaum Muda and the Kaum Tua, the guardians of traditional
values and institutions.11 The battles between the reformist and conservative ‘ulamā’
eventually culminated in the Padri War (1821-1827) in West Sumatra.
The Muslims in Thailand have witnessed Islamic reformism and revivalism as
early as the 1930s. The idea had been brought in by Patani Muslim students, MalayanIndonesian ‘ulamā’ and hajis who were exposed to it when they stayed in the centers
of Islamic learning in the Muslim world, Mecca and Madinah, and Cairo. In the
southern border provinces of Thailand, these ‚wakening calls‛ were heard through the
8
See Charles C. Adams, Islam and Modernism: A study of the Modern Reform Movement Inaugurated
by Muḥammad ‘Abduh (Kuala Lumpur: Islamic Book Trust, 2010), 185.
9
For more on this subject see, Snouck Hurgronje, Mekka in the Latter Part of the 19th Century, trans.,
J.H. Monahan (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1931), particularly, the Chapter on Jāwah community.
10
Yudi Latif, ‚On the Genesis of Intellectual Crossroads…,‛ 67.
11
Giora Eliraz, ‚The Islamic Reformist Movement…, 56; for a brief survey of the Kaum Muda and
Kaum Tua see William Roff, ‚Kaum Muda – Kaum Tua: Innovation and Reaction amongst the Malays,
1900-41,‛ in Readings on Islam in Southeast Asia, edited by Ahmad Ibrahim, Sharon Siddique and
Yasmin Hussain, (Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 1990).
5
writings of the Patani ‘ulamā’, noted among them being the 18th Ottoman editor in
Mecca, Shaykh Wan Muhammad Zain al-Faṭānī, and his disciple networks such as
Tuan Guru Muhammad Yusof bin Ahmad (1868-1933) or Tok Kenali whose
periodical, Pengasoh was a torch bearer of the reformist messages, and had inspired
several reformist minded periodicals in the Malay world including Patani.12 The
continuity of the reformist calls had passed through several Patani ‘ulamā’ of the later
generations. In the first half of the 19th century, Haji Sulong bin Abdul Kadir bin
Muhammad al-Faṭānī, better known as Haji Sulong, the Meccan educated ‘ālim
emerged. He was the earliest religious figure who introduced educational reform of
the Malay traditional learning institution known as pondok in the Deepsouth.13 His
Ma‘had Dar al-Ma‘arif al-Wataniyyah was introduced as Madrasah system where
non-religious subjects such as mathematics and geography were taught alongside the
religious curriculum. The establishment of the Provincial Islamic Committee, the
organization responsible for the administration and management of Muslim affairs
was due also to his efforts. Haji Sulong disappeared mysteriously in 1954, allegedly
killed by the Thai police.14 He left his reformist work to be carried out by his several
disciples, distinguished among whom was Ustaz Abdullah Chinarong (1931-) also
known as ‚Lah India‛ for he was trained in the Deoband seminary, India. Ustaz
Abdullah had extended Haji Sulong’s reformist ideas further to include a reform not
12
See more on the issue, for exmple, Azyumardi Azra, ‚The transformation of Al-Manar’s reformism
to the Malay-Indonesian world: The case of al-Imam and al-Munir,‛ in Islam in Southeast Asia:
Critical concept in Islamic Studies, (ed.), Joseph Chinyong Liow and Nadirsyah Hosen (London, New
York: Routledge, 2010). In the Deep South, the Azān, a journal founded by reformist Muslim
intellectuals to which Ismail Lutfi was its editor was also influenced by Pengasoh, see Sarani Duereh,
‚Siang Priag Mai: Nittayasan Azan lae Krum Panyachon Mai nai Patani Klang Totsawat 2510 [New
Voices: Azan Journal and the New Intellectuals in Patani in the mid 1967] in Rubaiyat: Thai Journal of
Asian Studies, Vol. 3, No. 2 (2011), 250-277.
13
Numan Hayimasae, ‚Malay-Muslim Educational Institutions in Southern Thailand (1930s-1990s),‛
(Ph.D. Dissertation, University Sains Malaysia, 2010), 171.
14
Nik Anwar Nik Mahmud, ‚The Malay Separatist Movement in Southern Siam and the British, 19451949‛, Jebat Jurnal Jabatan Sejarah, No. 22(1994), 72.
6
only of religious faith by focusing on educational reform of pondok, but also sociopolitical reform of the Patani Muslim community.15 He thus, apart from conducting
public preaching, set up philanthropic works alongside engaging in the Muslim youth
movement. His vision was to establish an Islamic movement fashioned upon those of
the Egyptian Ikhwan al Muslimūn (The Muslim Brotherhood), and the Jama‘at-iIslami of Syed Abu ‘Ala Mawdudi (1903-1979) of Pakistan. Ustaz Lah India’s ideas
and programs were, however, succeeded within an educated urban working classes
and secular educated youth. His fledgling movement later faded away as he could not
expand his base to the larger traditional Patani Muslim masses, neither could he win
political support from the local elites.
The works of Islamic reform and revival in southern border provinces of
Thailand turned to a new chapter when a group of Patani students who graduated from
institutions in Saudi Arabia came back to Patani in the late 1980s. Holding Ph.D
degrees in religious sciences, Dr. Ismail Ali (1950-), Dr. Abdul Halim Saising (1947), Dr. Jihad bin Muhammad (1951-2002), and Dr. Ismail Lutfi Chapakia (1950-)
launched a loose network of Islamic reformism, calling themselves the Salafī. Their
efforts were to reform Islamic faith by advocating the understanding of Islam directly
from the sacred sources – the Qu’rān and the Sunnah of the Prophet. And the way
Muslims understand these sources should be the same as the way those pious
forefathers (al-Salaf al-Ṣāliḥ) understood them since the Salaf represent the best
generations of Muslim who knew best about Islam.16 The Salafī have emphasized the
reform of the Muslim community through a reform of Muslim education. On the one
hand, they set up Islamic schools, Islamic university, and other learning institutions
15
The detail of his thoughts will be elaborated in Chapter 3.
Their argument is based on a renowned Ḥadīth narrated by Zahdam bin Mudarrib: `Imran bin Husain
said: The Prophet said: The best of mankind is my generation, then those that follow them and then
those that follow them. Sahih Bukhari Volume 8.hadith number 436, 437.
16
7
such as language colleges, Islamic educational foundations and printing houses. On
the other hand, the Salafī propagated their Islamic reformism through informal
learning process of mosque-based private lecture, study circle (halaqah), and
preaching through local radio, and internet. They are loosely linked through informal
social networks based on shared interpretation of Islam; a relationship which links
students of religious knowledge and prominent Muslim scholars in a system of
religious propagation.
There existed scores of scholarly works mentioning the Salafī reformist
movement led by Dr. Ismail Lutfi Chapakia in the Southern border provinces of
Thailand. With the exception of the one written by Liow17 most of those works did not
devote their space proportionate to the importance of the role played by the Salafīs in
shaping the course of Patani Muslim society.
And when the Salafīs were discussed they were often stereotyped as an
enclave of reconstituted Wahhabis whose impacts have been confined to small
numbers of educated urban dwellers. These shorthand depictions were partly due to
their obsession with separatist discourses which have dominated works on the Malay
Muslims of southern Thailand for the past half century or so.
Quite contrary to the above popular understandings, the Salafīs owing to their
de facto leader, Dr. Ismail Lutfi Chapakia have been expanding their socio-political
bases remarkably, moving slowly from political quietism to gradual engaging in local
-- the southern provinces of Pattani, Yala and Narathiwat -- as well as national politics
through several channels. Dr. Lutfi himself as the rector of Yala Islamic University
(YIU) is able to participate comfortably in several commissions set up by successive
governments dealing with the Deep South problems. His stature as a former member
17
Joseph Chinyong Liow, Islam, Education and Reform in Southern Thailand: Tradition and
Transformation (Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 2009).
8
of the National Assembly during the military-backed government of Surayud (20062008) had testified to the importance the Thai authority has accorded him. He was two
times Amīr al-Hajj (Haj leader), an official head of the Thai pilgrimage to Saudi
Arabia. Added to his Salafī movement political weights were that several Patani
Malay political figures, local as well as national also have been loosely linked either
through family ties or through an appointment in the YIU. The powerful Hadramaut
clan, ‚al-Yufri‛ who had dominated the Pattani Administrative Organization (PAO),
the local administrative body governing Pattani province is standing for the former,
while, Wan Muhammad Noor Matha, serving as YIU president represented the latter.
Archarn (teacher) Wan Noor as he is being called is one of the most respected Patani
Malay politicians, the former House Speaker, and former Minister in several
Ministries including the Ministry of Interior. These links, apart from political
protection, give the Salafī more channels to get their sympathizers if not ardent
followers from those political bases.
Financially speaking, the Salafī is considered relatively strong as funding from
the Gulf States, particularly Saudi Arabia and Qatar have been pouring in.
Nevertheless, their real financial strength comes not from foreign sources but a
network of local Islamic co-operatives, the Islamic financial institution in which the
Salafī have played an important role in operating. These relatively new found Islamic
institutions have been growing rapidly, and it was the Salafī who realized their
potential and utilized their benefits to serve their cause; financing their projects and
their YIU staffs. Taking the above observations together, the Salafī’s vital role in
bringing social change to their community can be neglected at the cost of misreading
the course and contour of the Patani Malay Muslims in the Southern border provinces
of Thailand.
9
PREVIOUS STUDIES AND SCOPE OF THE STUDY
An instant upsurge of violence in the Deep South of Thailand since January 2004 has
yet again triggered the need to understand Muslims affairs in Thailand in general and
the ethnic Malay Muslims in the Deep South in particular.18 The magnitude of the
violence its protracted occurrence have drawn interest from local and international
scholars as well as journalists to investigate the event. The result has been that works
such as those offered answer to the questions of what happened and who is
responsible for the Deep South upheaval flooded book shops, and dominated
academic research papers. Duncan McCargo, for his systematic account of the event
in his ‚Tearing Apart The Land19‛ appeared to be a leading scholar in this trend. The
‚legitimacy crisis‛, conceived by McCargo, has been at work in the Deep South,
paving the way for rebellious leaders and militant groups to challenge the perceived
illegitimate Thai ‚virtuous bureaucratic‛20 rule.
The crisis of legitimacy facing many contemporary societies has been well
theorized by Jürgen Habermas21. His concept of public sphere is crucial in
understanding conflicts within modern nation-state, particularly, that which derived
from minority ruled by majority such as the Malay Muslims minority in southern
Thailand ruled by the Buddhist mjority. Public sphere is defined as a realm of social
18
Data colleted by Srisompob Jitrpiromsri had shown that during the period of 11 years from 1993 –
2003 the unrest in the Deep South occurred 748 times, but the figures were instantly rose to 3546 times
within 2 years from 2004 to 2005, 374 % higher than the unrests occurred for the past period of 11
years, see, Srisompob Jitrpiromsri, ‚Laksana Khwam Runraeng nai Paktai,‛ [The features of violence
in the South], in Khwamru lae Khwam Mairu 3 Changwat Chaidaen Tai, [Knowledge and Ignorance
about the 3 southern bordered provinces], edited by Keaw Wituntean and Duongporn Rimdusit,
(Bangkok: Social Research Institute, Chulalongkorn University, 2006), 105; on insurgency and their
tactics of sustaining violence, see, Joseph Chinyong Liow and Don Pathan, Confronting ghosts:
Thailand’s shapeless southern insurgency (New South Wales: Lowy Institute for Internationl Policy,
2010).
19
Duncan McCargo, Tearing Apart The Land: Islam and Legitimacy in Southern Thailand (Ithaca,
London: Cornell University Press, 2008).
20
Ibid., 59.
21
See for example, Jurgen Haberbermas, The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere: An
Inquiry into a Category of Bourgeois Society, trans. Thomas Burger (Cambridge Massachusetts: The
MIT Press, 1989).
10
life which allows private individuals to freely express and publish their opinions
concerning various matters of general interest.22 Drawing from Weber’s theory of
modernization, to which his main argument is modern society moves toward
rationalization, Habermas maintained that throughout modernization process arises a
rational pursuit of self-interest, the equal right to participate in political decisionmaking, and ethical autonomy and self-realization, all of which need a public sphere.23
The spread of the print media and modern communication have widened the public
sphere, to which the issues bearing on the exercise of political power by the state can
be discussed openly alongside the standards of rational and critical debate.24 When the
spaces for participation in the public sphere are clogged by the dominance of a state
hegemony, resistance from within civil society to regain those spaces appears to be
inescapable. This resistance may take manifold forms, one of which is a religious
movement.25
McCargo’s conclusion regarding the Deep South unrest echoes that of
Habermas’s theory as he put that ‚the more political space the majority population of
a given nation-state grants to a minority group, the more legitimate the nation-state
will become in the eyes of that minority group.‛26 McCargo, however, stops short
before discussion the Islamic movement. Studies along the line of McCargo such as
those of Niti Aeawsriwong (2007), Srisak Walliphodom (2004), Supara Chanchidfah
(2004), Piya Kitthaworn (2007), and Ammar Siamwala (2007) have emphasized the
effect of development programs, and the failure of the larger process of modernization
22
Noorhaidi Hasan, ‚In Search of Identity: The Contemporary Islamic Communities in Southeast
Asia,‛ Studia Islamika, Vol.7, No.3 (2000), 72.
23
Ibid.
24
Ibid.
25
Ibid.
26
McCargo, Tearing Apart The Land…, 15.
11
in distributing natural resources equally among the rural population.27 The result has
been marginalization of large sections of the population. Niti goes further by asserting
that those marginalized easily found refuge in the religious movement which in many
respects can be mobilized to rebel against what they perceived as injustice and
illegitimate power. This theory proposed by Niti is better known as the Peasant
Rebellion.28 Scott provides a very usuful perspective on peasant resistance. His
influential works introduce the idea that peasant collective and organized action is rare
and uncommon. Scott finds that resistance in a subtle form which is expressed in
every-day cultural and non-cooperative ways such as foot-dragging, evasion, false
compliance, pilfering, feigned, slander and sabotage, infact play a powerful role of
responding to domination.29
Students of Muslim Studies in Thailand acknowledged that a study of the
Malay Muslims in the Thai southern border provinces has been conducted extensively
for the past three decades.30 Recent bibliographical research on the subject conducted
by Phrae Sirisakdamkoeng had revealed that in the period of 26 years between 1978 –
27
Nithi Iaosriwong, ‚Mong Sathanakan Pak Tai Phan waen kabot Chawna‛ [See Southern situation
through peasant revolution perspective] Sinlapa Watthanatham, Vol. 25, No. 8 (June, 2004), 110-124;
Srisak Wanliphodom, Faitai Rue Chadap?, [Is Southern’ fire will perished? ](Bangkok: Matichon,
2007); Piya Kitthaworn, ‚Chaw Malayu Phaitai Nayobai Phatthana,‛ [The Malayu Under
Development Policy] in Malayu Sueksa: Kwamru Puenthan kiaokap Prachachon Muslim Pak Tai
[Malayu Studies: Fundamental knowledge about Muslims in the South], Nithi Iaosriwong, (ed.)
(Bangkok: Amrin Printing, 2007), 118-148; Supara Chanchidfah, Violence in the mist: Reporting on the
presence of Pain in Southern Thailand (Bangkok: Kobfai, 2004); Ammar Siamwala, (ed.),
Kwamkhadyaeng Rawang Kan Phatthana Kap Saphapsangkhom nai 3 Changwat Chaidan Pak Tai
[The Conflict between Development and Social conditions in the 3 Southern Provinces] (Bangkok:
Knowledge Plus, 2007).
28
On the peasant rebellion which take on Millenarian characters see particularly, Sartono Kartodirdjo,
‚The Peasants’ Revolt of Banten in 1888: The Religious Revival,‛ in Readings on Islam in Southeast
Asia, (eds.), Ahmad Ibrahim et al. (Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 1990), 103-110.
29
James C. Scott, Weapons of the Weak: Everydays Forms of Peasant Resistant (New Haven and
London: Yale University Press, 1985), 31-33; idem, Domination and the Arts of Resistance: Hidden
Transcript (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1992).
30
See Chaiwat Satha-Anand, ‚Pattani in the 1980s: Academic Literature and Political Stories,‛ Sojourn
Vol.7, No.1 (February, 1992), 1-38; See also, Phrae Sirisakdamkoeng, ‚The body of knowledge on the
south over twenty-six years,‛ in Imagined Land?: The state and southern violence in Thailand, (ed.),
Chaiwat Satha-Anand (Tokyo: Research Institute for Languages and Cultures of Asia and Africa
(ILCAA), 2009), 45-72.
12
2004 there existed 337 works; Ph.D. and Master theses as well as research projects, all
of which were, in one way or another, focused on the Malay Muslims in the southern
border provinces of Thailand, especially issues related to the separatist movement had
dominated the scene.31 Phrae’s findings resonate with that of Omar Farouk’s literature
surveys on Muslim Studies in Thailand. Since Farouk’s study covers literature on
Muslims in Thailand written in Thai, English, Malay and Japanese he thus came to the
conclusion that the study of Muslims in Thailand has so far focused mainly on
problems of the Malay Muslims in Southern Thailand so much so that Muslim
communities in the other parts of the country have been largely neglected.32 Thanet
Arpornsuwan, the noted Thai historian, had excellently mapped out how the separatist
discourse in the Deep South was created, developed and dominated the discourse on
Muslims in Thailand. His central thesis was that separatism was a knowledge product,
inextricably linked to power consolidation process of the modern nation state of
Thailand during the nation-building eras after the World War II. These transformative
processes employed violence against the calling for cultural identities of the
peripheries. In the case of the Malay Muslims of Southern Thailand since they were
culturally and historically far differed from others regions, hence, the effect was great
and still felt until today.33
Along with the surge in nationalist-separatist discourse, several studies also
examined the phenomenon of Islamic reform and revival discourse which took its
shape on Muslim life in general and its effects on the ongoing conflict in the Deep
31
See Phrae Sirisakdamkoeng, ‚The body of knowledge on the south…,‛ 47-49.
Cited in Chaiwat Satha-Anand, Kwam Runraeng Kab Karn Chadkarn Kwam Ching: Pattani nai rob
kueng satawat [Violence and Truth management: Pattani in the period of half century], (Bangkok:
Thammasat University Press, 2008), 71.
33
Thanet Arpornsuwan, Kwan Penma Khong Thitsadi Banyakdindan Nai Pak Tai Thai [The Origins of
Separatist Theory in Southern Thailand] (Bankok: The Foundation for The Promotion of Social Science
and Humanities Textbooks Project, 2008), 99-101
32
13
South in particular, but none has thoroughly investigated the extent to which its power
has been exercised.34 The lack of attention given to the study on Islamic reform and
revival in Thailand and other ‚land of the Islamic periphery‛ derived, for the large
part, from the prevailing paradigm that the periphery was viewed as fundamentally
static and reliant upon the dynamics of the Middle Eastern core. 35 This flawed
approach, emphasizing Southeast Asia as a reactive participant to Middle Easternderived changes rather than as a prime mover in ummatic developments, has led to a
lack of understanding of Islamic revivalism in the region.36 A study by Chalermkiat
Khunthongphet37 on the role of Haji Solong as the leader of the Malay nationalist
movement had correlated his Islamic reform activities to his success in mobilizing the
Patani Muslim masses to support his socio-political activism against the Thais; his
reform particularly educational and theological aspects were, nonetheless, left
unexplored. A religious studies approach adopted by Imtiyaz Yusuf for the study of
Muslims in Thailand has filled the gap left by those social scientists. He illustrated
how a variety of Islamic features and trends impact the conflict and the general
situation of Islam in Thailand.38 This approach, according to Yusuf, is done, among
others by looking at the impact of global Islamic resurgence on Thai Islam, and its
34
Works mentioning the growing of the Islamic reformist movement and its role in bringing social
change in the Deep South see, for example, Sorayut Aimauryut, ‚Sanyalak Rangkai Phithikam: Rat
Thai Nai Kwam Pen Malayu,‛ [Symbols, Body, Rituals: The Thai State within Malayu-ness], in Fah
Diewkan, Vol.1(7), (Jan-March, 2009), 121; Ruangyos Jankiri, Bueangluek Sathanakarn Duead 3
Changwat Pak Tai, [ Inside the Boiling Situation in the 3 Southern Provinces], (Bangkok:
Suwannaphum Apiwat, 2007), 59-62; John Funston, Southern Thailand: The Dynamics of Conflict
(Washington: East-West Center, 2008), 11-15.
35
Ahmad Fauzi Abdul Hamid, ‚Sufi Undercurrents in Islamic Revivalism: Traditional, Post-Traditional
& Modern Images of Islamic Activism in Malaysia,‛ The Islamic Quarterly, Vol. 45 (2001), 120.
36
Siddique, quoted in Ahmad Fauzi Abdul Hamid, op. cit., 120.
37
Chalermkiat Khunthongpet, Haji Sulong Abdul Kadir…Kabot rue Wiraburut haeng si Changwat Pak
Tai, [Haji Sulong Abdul Kadir… Rebel or Hero of the Four Southern Provinces], (Bangkok:
Matichonbook, 2004).
38
Imtiyaz Yusuf, Faces of Islam in Southern Thailand (Washington: East-West Center, 2007), 4.
14