Kuala Lumpur, June 14 (IslamOnline.net) - A three nation effort to catch suspected Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) members who are said to be around 500 and dispersed in the entire South East Asian region is used as a pretext to attack Islam and what it stands for, experts on terrorism said on Friday, June 13.

Cambodia has a record of oppression against Muslims and its recent arrest of several Islamic teachers and preachers under the guise they are members of the JI is part of the effort by regimes in the region to undermine the Islamic faith, said Ibrahim Ahmad, an Islamic teacher in Pnon Phen the capital city of Cambodia.

Malaysia has joined Thailand and Singapore in an operation to catch 29 members of the JI believed posing as Islamic religious teachers in the southern border area.

Rights activists such as Ibrahim say that the authorities may cause further damage to Islam’s image with arrests that targets only Muslim people, especially those who teaches Islam in general.

A source in Narathiwat said Malaysian security teams raided three targets in Ban Yeu Lee, opposite Ban Ba-oh in Narathiwat's Waeng district, and arrested an unidentified number of religious teachers for questioning on Thursday, the Bangkok Post newspaper said on Friday, June 13.

The 29 suspected JI members were identified by Singaporean authorities following the arrest in Thailand on May 16 of Arifin bin Ali, a senior Singaporean JI member accused of planning to bomb five embassies and tourist spots in Bangkok.

Arifin's interrogation led to the arrests on Tuesday of an Islamic religious teacher and his son and a doctor in Narathiwat suspected of being members of a JI cell that was planning terrorist assaults in Bangkok, the Post added.

IslamOnline.net reported last week that Thailand and Malaysia would step up security measures and that Islamic leaders in Thailand should expect tougher measures to be taken against them in a bid by the authorities to prevent a surge in violence or acts of terror in the region.

The source told IslamOnline.net on Friday that the recent arrests are not related to JI alone but with separatists in the region. The Islamic leaders and teachers arrested in Narathiwat by Malaysian secret agents are also supporters of a free and Islamic Patani.

Malaysia is working very close with Thai authorities on its border checkpoints, seeking JI members who might be planning violent attacks in retaliation for the arrests of their comrades.

Most of the suspected JI members were named by Singapore and some had reportedly already fled the region and might be in Cambodia or Laos, the source said according to other press reports in South East Asia.

In Yala, the governor Kitti Kittichokewattana has ordered village headmen and owners of schools teaching Islam to keep a close watch on strangers, especially Malaysian and Indonesian travelers as well as Arabs.

Maisuri Haji Abdullah, owner of an Islamic religious school; Muyahi Haji Doloh, Maisuri's son; and Waemahadi Wae-dao, a doctor and owner of a drug store were arrested on Tuesday, allegedly with plans to bomb five embassies and tourist spots in Bangkok.

In Thailand, Muslim politicians and academics expressed reservations about the police allegations and warned the arrests could further heighten tension between state authorities and residents of the five Muslim-dominated provinces in the far South.

Thai Rak Thai MP Areepen Utarasin and Senators Uma Toryip and Den Tohmina echoed the southerners' doubts about the police allegation, said the Bangkok Post on Friday.

“The people in Narathiwat who know the suspects personally were all stunned by the police allegation,'' said Areepen, an adviser to Interior Minister Wan Muhammad Nor Matha.

Uma said he also knew the suspects personally and he believed they had been framed by officials in a plot by an influential country to draw Thailand into a campaign against terrorism.

”JI might be popular and better known in Indonesia but not here. Muslims down here are all peace-loving people,'' Mr Uma said.

Ibrahim supported the views of the Muslims in Thailand adding that the authorities in the region must not fall into the trap laid by the U.S. which he said was living in the scare of possible terror attacks by Muslims after its “atrocities in Afghanistan and Iraq and its support to Israel regardless of its killing of Palestinians.”

He added that he knows if his real name is revealed, he too would be the target of searches or even arrest and tagged as a JI member even though he is speaking right from his heart.

“This is how the Muslims in Cambodia, Thailand and even in Singapore or Malaysia and Indonesia are living today. The threat by the authorities that every Muslim may be a terrorist is insane and is only part of the U.S. fears that it might be a target by Muslims only,” said Ibrahim.