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Thousands of Thai Muslims Pray for Afghan Victims
BANGKOK, Oct 21 (News Agencies) - Thousands of Muslims from across Thailand gathered Sunday for meetings in Bangkok and the predominantly-Muslim south to pray for Afghan Muslims suffering the U.S.-led strikes against Afghanistan, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.
Some 15,000 Thai Muslims massed in the southern province of Nakhon Si Thammarat while another 10,000 joined in prayer in the southern province of Pattani, according to local reports. About 300 Muslims met in Bangkok.
"We are praying for the safety of Afghan Muslims and for peace," Nimu Makaje of the Muslim Organization of the Southern Provinces told a local radio station.
"And we are against using violence to solve this problem," he added. "We also contacted Muslims in other countries to join our mission as well."
Police beefed up security in each of the areas.
At the Bangkok prayer meeting, vendors sold T-shirts bearing the image of Saudi-born Osama bin Laden while Muslim organizers took up donations for relief efforts in Afghanistan.
A Bangkok-based Muslim organization also urged Thai Muslims to boycott more than 120 U.S., Israeli, British and German products and businesses in protest to the U.S.-led attacks on Afghanistan.
Thai Muslims distributed a list of the boycotted products consisting of some 16 companies, including Carrefour, Citibank, the Coca Cola Company, Lotus, Nestle, Pizza Hut, Paramount Pictures and Xerox.
The chairman of the Thai Health Institute, Hathai Chitanon, reportedly called on Thai Muslims to add to the list cigarettes made by the U.S. and its allies, according to a report in the
Nation daily.
Earlier plans to press the Thai government for answers about the use of a Thai naval airbase, U-tapao, in the U.S.-led strikes appeared to be sidelined as Thai Muslims opted for peaceful prayer for Muslims in Afghanistan.
The Thai government has made efforts to consult Muslim leaders over its decision to back the U.S.-led alliance against so-called terrorism, and has sent senior officials to the predominantly Muslim provinces to explain its position.
But many Thai Muslims have rejected the strikes against Afghanistan, holding a demonstration at the U.S. embassy in Bangkok last week and launching a boycott of U.S.- and allied-made goods.
Thailand and the United States are close allies with a long history of military cooperation dating back to the Vietnam War, when U.S. bombers flew sorties from airbases in northern Thailand.
Muslims represent just five percent of Thailand's predominantly Buddhist population of 62 million, and live mostly in five southern provinces bordering Malaysia, namely Pattani, Yala, Narathiwat, Satun and Songkla.
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