Press Release
Only the Khilafah State Will Bring Justice to the Muslim Women Who Lost their Relatives in the Tak Bai Massacre by the Thai Police and Military

The 25th of October 2024 marked the 20th anniversary that recalls the horrific massacre carried out upon the Patani Muslim men in Southern Thailand by the criminal Thai police and military. The Tak Bai massacre occurred during the Holy Month of Ramadan on October 25, 2004, in which multiple units from the Thai army alongside the local police dispersed thousands of protesting Muslim men, women and children outside the Tak Bai police station in Southern Thailand following the unjust arrests of several innocent community men. If the shooting of seven civilian protestors by police officers wasn’t criminal enough, the army proceeded to systematically round up and handcuff over 1,300 protesting men after separating them from the women and children. The men’s hands were tied behind their backs as they were kicked and beaten onto the military trucks. The barbarity of stacking 50 fasting men per truck five piles high upon each other caused 78 men to suffocate or be crushed to death as 26 military trucks drove the Muslims as they pleaded and begged for their lives, 150 kilometres away to the Ingkhayuthboriharn army camp.

For 20 painful years, Muslim women in Thailand have persistently sought justice from successive Thai governments for the brutal killing of their male family members, waiting to have the criminal officers responsible prosecuted. Yet despite their lengthy campaigns in seeking justice, all they received one day prior to the judicial case being permanently closed was a pathetic apology from Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra, the daughter of Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra who was criminally responsible for the killings which occurred when his government was in power in 2004.

For the past two decades, Muslim women and children in Southern Thailand have not only had to live with the pain, suffering and injustices caused by the Tak Bai massacre but they also have had to live under a constant Emergency Decree enacted by the Thai Government in 2005 that sees “competent officials” enforce martial law and an Internal Security Act which when implemented, directly discriminates, incarcerates, tortures and even kills men, women and children who are not even suspected of having committed a criminal offence.

The anger that boils in the hearts and minds of Muslims in Southern Thailand as a direct result of the injustices and forced assimilation policies they face from the Thai Government cannot be relieved by working for a separate nationalist entity from the discriminating and unjust state of Thailand by creating an independent homeland for Malay Patani Muslims. We need to recognise that it was the British colonisers who drew up these nation state borders that are nothing but artificial lines on a map and were created as part of their colonial policy of divide and rule. In the case of Southern Thailand, there is no distinction between the Islamic beliefs and cultural practices upheld and practised by the Patani Muslims and their fellow Muslims over the border in Malaysia or Indonesia for that matter. Furthermore, concerning nationalistic aspirations imitated and taken from the West, the Prophet (saw) said regarding nationalism, «دَعُوهَا فَإِنَّهَا مُنْتِنَةٌ»“Leave it. It is rotten” and, «لَيْسَ مِنَّا مَنْ دَعَا إِلَى عَصَبِيَّةٍ وَلَيْسَ مِنَّا مَنْ قَاتَلَ عَلَى عَصَبِيَّةٍ وَلَيْسَ مِنَّا مَنْ مَاتَ عَلَى عَصَبِيَّةٍ»“He is not one of us who calls to Asabiya (tribalism or nationalism), fights for the sake of Asabiyah, or dies following the way of Asabiyah.”

The only political and spiritual project that will not only provide the justice of Islam to Patani Muslims in Southern Thailand but to all Muslims living in the South-East Asian region in the Philippines, Malaysia and Indonesia and indeed across the world is the Khilafah Rashidah State. The Khilafah (Caliphate) based on the method of the Prophethood will be the upholder of Islamic justice, the true guardian and shield of the Ummah and will remove the false nationalistic borders that divide the Muslims and ultimately unite all our lands under one banner and under the shade of one ruler. It will also defend the sanctities of the Muslims and offer them sanctuary and provide them with all their needs – regardless of their race, ethnicity or land of origin – for this is the Order of Allah (swt). The Prophet (saw) said, «إِنَّمَا الْإِمَامُ جُنَّةٌ يُقَاتَلُ مِنْ وَرَائِهِ وَيُتَّقَى بِهِ»“The Imam (Khalifah) is a guardian and he is responsible for his subjects.”

Women’s Section
in the Central Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir