The Thai government isn’t occupying Palestine

Why are Islamists murdering people in south Thailand every week? The Thai government isn’t occupying Palestine or invading Iraq or placing bases in Saudi Arabia. Why pick on Thailand?

Islamists have been continuously attacking South Thailand near Malaysia for several years. Every week there is an attack on school teachers, policemen, or a tire factory. The Australian

TWO weeks ago, gunmen stopped a small passenger van in the street. They forced all of its occupants out and on to the roadside. The gunmen then shot all nine of them dead. Three of the passengers were women, one was a young girl.
Just another day of Baghdad carnage, you say. But no, this was Thailand, traditionally a peaceful, prosperous and stable Southeast Asian state at the heart of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, a formal treaty ally of the US and a close trade and diplomatic partner of Australia.

Mark Steyn first jokes that it helps fill the ecumenical nature of the jihad: Muslims vs Jews in the West Bank, Muslims vs Christians in Nigeria, Muslims vs Hindus in Kashmir, Muslims vs Buddhists in Thailand. And let's add Muslims vs Muslims in Algeria and elsewhere.

But They don't demand anything.

The insurgency is all the more difficult to combat because it does not show its face. Unlike similar movements around the world, this one has not set out its demands or published a manifesto. It is a collection of violent groups without an identifiable central leadership.

He observes that by targeting the low-level civil servants, teachers, police offices, that it shows that they cannot protect you and that if you associate with them you will be at risk.
What do they want? Mark Steyn:

... these “collections of violent groups” are in favor of a no-state solution. ... The Buddhist villages in the south are emptying out, week by week, remorselessly. [And that's what they want.]

If you can hollow out a state from within, the husk provides useful cover for all kinds of activities, as we should have learned from Afghanistan. In fact, these non-state actors practice a more effective multilateralism than most great powers. There’s a kind of United Non-Nations Insecurity Council out there that seems all but impervious to disruption.

It's very dangerous. Scaring the people out of an area so illegal activity can reign.

Update

Gates of Vienna covers the situation in Thailand. "Islam intends to consume Thailand"