ABSTRACT
This chapter draws a comprehensive overview of the relevant academic literature and on extensive interviews with people in the troubled region. For the Thai state, and seen from outside the country, the Malay Muslims of the south are a minority group in Thailand, on the same level as other minority groups within the kingdom, such as the Khmers or Laotians. The end of the Patani sultanate, and the forceful assimilation of the southern regions of today's Thailand into the modern Siamese/Thai nation, did not mean the end of a virtual nation, or a nation without a state. A Patani nation-state does not exist, but a virtual Malay nation encompasses people on both sides of the border, in contrast to the Thai nation of which Patani is officially part. In the case of southern Thailand, Islam simply provides a further ideological underpinning for the rejection of the rule by an infidel occupier' of the territory of a Malay Muslim majority.
