Religiosity and Social Problems among Muslim Adolescents in Southern Thailand

Abstract

Substantial commentary has been written about the historical context of the Malay-Muslim minority in the deep south of Thailand. Much of the recent scholarship on the Malay-Muslim minority of Thailand has focused on the ongoing ethnic insurgency in southern Thailand, the region's troubled history of annexation, and its relevance to Thailand's political landscape. However, there is little empirical research on the Malay-Muslim population itself, although it is assumed that expressions of their religious identity are a fundamental aspect of collective identity formation. In an effort to fill this gap, this study explored perceptions of religiosity and risk behavior among Muslim adolescents affiliated with a private Islamic school in the province of Yala, Thailand. The study examined perceptions of this group's religious behavior and relationships to perceived social problems of concern to the community, and found that increased religious adherence mediated engagement in risk behaviors. We also found that girls were perceived to be more likely to engage in religiously adherent behavior, and less likely to engage in socially problematic behavior, than boys. This study and its findings are relevant to deepening empirical knowledge about Malay-Muslim adolescents in southern Thailand. It may also have implications for community leaders and policy makers interested in improving wellbeing among Muslim adolescents in the area.

Institutional Transformation of Madrasa of Muslim Minority in Thailand

“…Traditional Islamic educational institutions such as ponok played an important role in the transmission of knowledge from one generation to the next and also in the spreading of religious values through education to save religion. From the time of the Islam spreading to the region of Southern Thailand, Islamic schools were known as ponok (Sateemae et al, 2015).…”

“…Ponok which adopted the central government policies created institution in it (madrasa or modern Islamic school). Madrasa teaches additional subjects (general lessons) in addition to religious lessons (Sateemae et al, 2015).…”

“…Articles reviewed are the related articles by previous researchers, primarily Thai education are History and Politics of The Muslims in Thailand (Aphornsuvan, 2003), The Muslim Malay community in Southern Thailand: A "Small people" Facing Exsistential Uncertainty (Von-Feigenblatt, 2010), Southern Thailand: A Cosmic War?) (Andre, 2008), Religious Minority, Education and Separatism in South Thailand (Sarkar, 2014), and Religiosity and Social Problems among Muslim Adolescents in Southern Thailand (Sateemae, Abdel-Monem, & Sateemae, 2015). The final stage of this series of activities was a focused discussion involving researchers at STAIN Sorong to ensure the reliability of data obtained.…”

“…Suhaimee Sateemae's (2015) journal entitled Religiosity and Social Problems among Muslim Adolescents in Southern Thailand contains the discussion about modern Islamic educational institution, madrasa, which is started with the history of a classical Islamic educational institution called ponok, then about madrasaon page 7. The Islamic educational tradition of ponok in Southern Thailand had been started since the spreading of Islam to Pattani (15 th -18 th century), which developed significantly and got encouraging results, in which Pattani became the Islamic science center for the whole Southeast Asia region at that time (Madmarn, 2009).…”

Investigating preferences for patriarchal values among Muslim university students in southern Thailand

“…The general conclusion of the focus group was that prioritizing opportunities for men in education would yield results that would benefit the Muslim communities in the area generally. Part of this was because of the perception that Islamic education would deter young men from engaging in harmful conduct, particularly drug use, which is a major concern among local community members (see, e.g., Binwang and Laeheem 2013;Sateemae et al 2015 …”