The Imagined Communities of Malay Muslims in the Three Southern Border Provinces of Thailand

Abstract

This academic article aims to establish a new body of knowledge based on an analysis of the imagined Malay Muslim communities in Thailand’s three southern border provinces (Yala, Pattani, and Narathiwat) from the perspective of a concept theory in which holistic integration with Islamic concepts is at the core of the analysis.

Findings are as follows: The creation of an imagined community in the three southern border provinces of Thailand was a factor of identity along with numerous other factors, including history, ethnicity, language, education, religion, culture, politics, and governance, social structure, and globalization integration with the Muslim and Islamic world. The context of these appeared to be motivating individuals and elite’s imagination to create imagined communities through discourse to build an Islamic community or Islamic nations (Ummah) through a concept known as “Fundamentalism,” which means returning to the community society of the Prophet Muhammad’s (PBUH) era, when the Muslim community was peaceful, peaceful, and just according to the Islamic way. Therefore, the process of establishing such a community society must utilize existing “Islamic movements” (propaganda activities). The pattern from such a phenomenon created an imagined community because varying interpretations, there were both benefits and drawbacks. Conflicts may result from some interpretations of semantic approaches that go beyond what is required. Nevertheless, a significant number of these practices contributed to positive social development, demonstrating the actual dynamics of all societies, which vary based on context, time, and other factors, as well as the emergence of imagined communities in Thailand’s three southern border provinces.