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Thailand's Muslim Insurgency has Wahhabi Ties
(Beirut Daily Star) John R Bradley - An insurgency by Islamist separatists in southern Thailand who have links to the Indonesian Al-Jamaa al-Islamiya (JI) and al-Qaeda has the makings of a full-blown uprising. The unprecedented violence, which escalated last week with the gunning down of more than 100 Islamists as they prepared to attack army posts, has become Bangkok's biggest domestic security challenge since the early 1980s. Buddhist Thai nationalists are also disturbed that southern Thailand is home to a hard-line Wahhabi cleric, Ismail Lutfi. He has an estimated 8,000 followers installed throughout the south in key Islamic posts, and the college, which like most Islamic institutions in southern Thailand is funded by Saudi money, has about 800 students who are reportedly taught hard-core Wahhabi doctrine.