Islam
Main article: Islam in ThailandIt is often thought that the majority of the country's Muslims is concentrated in the kingdom's three Southernmost provinces of Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat. However, the Thai Ministry of Foreign Affairs' reports that only 18% of Thai Muslims live in the border provinces. The rest are scattered throughout Thailand, with the largest concentrations in Bangkok and throughout the southern peninsula. According to the National Statistics Office, in 2005, Muslims in Southern Thailand made up 30.4% of population over the age 15, while constituting less than 3% in the other regions of the country.
Thailand's Muslim population is diverse and multicultural, with ethnic groups having migrated from China, Pakistan, Cambodia, Bangladesh, Malaysia, and Indonesia, and including some indigenous Thais. About two-third of the Muslims in Thailand are of Malay ancestry, though most no longer speak that language.
According to the Thai Census of 2005, there are 2,777,542 Muslims living in Thailand, making up 4.56% of the total population. The Muslims are younger compared to the general population, comprising 6.28% of those in the age-group of 0–4 years, but only 3.91% of those who are 85 years or more.
Read more about this topic: Religion In Thailand
Famous quotes containing the word islam:
“Awareness of the stars and their light pervades the Koran, which reflects the brightness of the heavenly bodies in many verses. The blossoming of mathematics and astronomy was a natural consequence of this awareness. Understanding the cosmos and the movements of the stars means understanding the marvels created by Allah. There would be no persecuted Galileo in Islam, because Islam, unlike Christianity, did not force people to believe in a “fixed” heaven.”
—Fatima Mernissi, Moroccan sociologist. Islam and Democracy, ch. 9, Addison-Wesley Publishing Co. (Trans. 1992)
“During the first formative centuries of its existence, Christianity was separated from and indeed antagonistic to the state, with which it only later became involved. From the lifetime of its founder, Islam was the state, and the identity of religion and government is indelibly stamped on the memories and awareness of the faithful from their own sacred writings, history, and experience.”
—Bernard Lewis, U.S. Middle Eastern specialist. Islam and the West, ch. 8, Oxford University Press (1993)
“The exact objectives of Islam Inc. are obscure. Needless to say everyone involved has a different angle, and they all intend to cross each other up somewhere along the line.”
—William Burroughs (b. 1914)