Thailand
Located in Southeast Asia, Thailand is bordered in the north by Myanmar, Laos, and Cambodia. The smaller part in the south lies between the Andaman Sea and the Gulf of Thailand.
Thailand's first contact with Islam was when the Malays in the south of the region converted to Islam in the 15th century. Later on, after the Patani king in the region converted to Islam (1457), this state developed politically, militarily, and economically over time and continued as an independent Islamic state until 1603. However, after that, the Thais, who conquered the region, started to take taxes from this state by annexing it to themselves. In 1632, the then-Patani queen refused to pay annual taxes to the Thais and declared their independence again. After that, the relationship between the Patanis and the Thais continued in the form of war and mutual land occupation.
In the 19th century, the lands of the Islamic State of Patani were under constant threat due to the rivalry between the British and the Thais. This rivalry ended in 1832 when Britain accepted the Kingdom of Thailand's sovereignty in the region. Although Thailand did not interfere in the internal affairs of the Patanis according to the treaty, it later abolished the autonomy of the region (1902). Thereafter, Muslims in Patani lived as a minority under Thai rule. Until 1925, Thailand carried out a policy of intense pressure on Muslims to convert to Buddhism. Those who refused to become Buddhists were stripped of some of their rights and prevented from practicing Islamic duties. In 1932, with the new constitution, the Patani region was fully annexed to Thai territory.
Today, there are 2500 mosques and 4000 Islamic schools (Pondaks) in Thailand and the Holy Qur'an has been translated into Thai. In addition, the Thai state wants to control Islamic development by establishing Islamic educational institutes (Panoh). Islamic civil law is only effective in the provinces of Pattani, Narathiwat, Songkhla, and Yala. Each of these provinces has two qadis, appointed by the Thai Government's Islamic Affairs Council. This means that Muslims are appointed to their highest legal office by the Thai government, not by themselves. The Patanis function under an organization to prevent government oppression and disidentification and to regain their rights in the southern part of the country where they used to dominate.
Today, the majority of Muslims in Thailand are Malay Muslims from Patani. Patani Muslims, totaling over 5 million, live in the cities of Pattani, Narathiwat, Yala, Songkla, and Satun in the southern part of the country. Other Muslims live in other parts of the country, especially in the capital Bangkok, and some of them are of Malay origin, while others are Thai, Chinese, Indian, Iranian, and Arab.