Islamist rebels slaughter Buddhists in Thailand

July 15, 2011

Fides, the news agency of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, notes that an Islamist terrorist insurgency has claimed 4,000 lives in southern Thailand since 2004. Recent victims include two beheaded boys; “they are all innocent victims, guilty only for not being Muslims,” according to a Fides source.

“We will kill, burn, and destroy all Buddhists: you will never be able to live in peace here,” notes a pamphlet distributed by the terrorists. “The Pattani Islamic guerrillas announce that they will never stop the slaughter of infidels of Siam until the land of Pattani [becomes] an Islamic state.”

The nation of 66.5 million is 0.5% Catholic, according to Vatican statistics. Nearly 95% of Thais are Buddhist, while nearly 5% are Muslim.

 

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Further information:

• Buddhists massacred by Islamic rebels in the South: the first challenge for new government (Fides)