Islamic reform and revivalism in Southern Thailand : critical study of the Salafi reform movement of Shaykh Dr. Ismail Lutfi Chapakia Al-Fatani (from 1986-2010)

Abstract

This study investigates the historical continuity of Islamic tradition of tajdid (revival) and islah (reform) in the Muslim majority region of the southernmost provinces of Thailand. The focus is on the islah movement led by Shaykh Dr. Ismail Lutfi Chapakia al-Fatānī (1950-), the Saudi trained ‘ālim who graduated from the Haramayn (Mecca and Madinah). Shaykh Dr. Ismail Lutfi along with others Patani ‘ulamā’ of his time began to advocate for Islamic reformism in 1986 in Patani, which is the modern day of Pattani, Yala, and Narathiwat provinces of Southern Thailand until it evolved into a loose Salafi reformist movement which culminated in their establishment of Yala Islamic University in 2002. Calling themselves Salafi, the followers of the Salaf (early Companion of the Prophet), this movement has believed that the problems of the Malay Muslims society in the Deep South was primarily caused by the deviation from the true faith prescribed by the two sacred sources, namely, 1) the Qur'an and the Sunnah (Prophet Tradition) and, 2) the way the Salaf's understanding of Islam. The Salaf's urged Patani Muslim fellows to return to, and strictly follow the sacred sources, and purify Islamic ideas and practices from later innovation (bid'ah) and accretion of the past Indic ideas and cultures. The Salafi movement has advocated for a social change through tarbiyyah (education) by working within the Thai constitutional framework. The study examines three main areas of Islamic reformism proposed by the Salafi reformist movement, namely, 1) theological reform of Sunnah and bid'ah, 2) the reform of the Patani Muslim society regarding the political status of Patani in the modern time - the issue inextricably links to religious pluralism in modern Thai nation-state, and 3) the reform of inter-religious relations and coexistence between, particularly, Islam and Buddhism in Patani. Three methods of data collection employed in this study are, 1) documentary including both primary and secondary, 2) participatory observations, and unstructured in-depth interviews. The study finds that the Salafi Islamic reformist movement has made a transforming impact on the Malay Muslims society in Southern Thailand owing much to their intellectualism which has been adjusted to suit the unique circumstances and realities of the society they seek to reform. Their intellectual flexibility has enabled them to be able to revive Sunnah of the Prophet in the Hadith-form when the concept of the Sunnah was enlarged to mean Ahl al-Sunnah wa’l-Jamā‘ah (Mainstream-Middle-Path Community). Second, the Patani political status was placed in the larger, pluralist concept of Ummah (community of nations) instead of sectarianist, the century old concepts of Dār al-Islām (the abode of Islam) and Dār al-Harb (the abode of war). These changes also lead to, third, the reform of inter-religious relations of Islam and Buddhism to which the Salafi movement has provided a proactive principle called ,principle of amiability towards religious others (lak maitripab kab chon tang sasanig)' in comparison with the previous norm of ,live and let live'.