By Don Pathan
Prachatai
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| Korean diplomats visiting Thamvithya Mulnithi School in Yala, Aug. 2023. The school is where the three Cambodian students are studying. (Credit: Don Pathan) | . |
When cross-border fighting erupted between Thailand and Cambodia in late July, Hamad Sos received urgent messages from his family in Cambodia encouraging him to come home immediately.
They feared for his safety as anti-Khmer sentiment swept through Thailand during the clashes between the two Buddhist kingdoms over disputed ancient Hindu temples along their undemarcated border.
Yet after eight years of living and studying in Yala, the 20-year-old considers this city his second home. A student at Thamavitya Mulniti School, Hamad is nearing completion of the Tahfiz Science Programme, the rigorous and systematic process of memorizing the entire Quran.
His academic journey will next take him to Al-Azhar University in Cairo, Egypt, one of the world's premier institutions for Islamic scholarship.
Though his Tahfiz Science classes are taught in Arabic, Hamad found learning the local Malay dialect surprisingly easy. His native Cham language and Bahasa Melayu belong to the same Malayo-Chamic language family. Cham and Malay share a more recent common ancestry than they do with other Austronesian languages such as Javanese or Tagalog.
Hamad returns home annually to see family in Kracheh, an eastern Cambodian province along the Vietnamese border. Still, Yala feels equally like home. Muslims comprise about three percent of Cambodia's population, predominantly from the Cham ethnic group. Throughout his time in Thailand's Malay-speaking South, Hamad says he has never experienced discrimination. "Some people asked about the border conflict out of curiosity, but the overwhelming majority made sure I knew I was welcome here," he explains.
The July violence was not the first military confrontation between Thailand and Cambodia, though it proved the most devastating in human and economic terms. Following fighting that displaced more than 500,000 people on both sides, a second ceasefire was established on December 27, 2025.
According to Razi Bensulong, the school's director, Cham students integrate seamlessly into the local community due to cultural similarities and because Patani Malays look past nationalist narratives promoted by Thai and Cambodian state institutions, focusing instead on their shared identity.
“The Patani region is their safe-space, away from the nation-state construct and the toxic nationalism that comes with it,” said Asst Prof Ekkarin Tuansiri of the Faculty of Political Science at Prince of Songkhla University, Pattani Campus.
"Malays of Patani possess their own distinct identity and historical-cultural narrative that sets them apart from the rest of Thailand," explains Artef Sohko, President of The Patani, a political action group advocating self-determination rights for people in this historically disputed southern region.
Thai Muslims—those outside the Malay-speaking South—face anti-Islam sentiment but constantly look for ways to demonstrate their deep patriotism and loyalty to the country.
They resent those who challenge the state-constructed narrative and are upset at the Patani Malays for rejecting Thainess or “khwam pen Thai” and for taking up arms against the government in pursuit of a separate state.
The Malays of Patani, conversely, reject state-constructed narratives and continuously seek ways to affirm their historical-cultural identity. For Patani Muslims, their Malay identity and Islam are intrinsically linked. Embracing a Thai identity as put forth by the policy of assimilation would automatically undermine their ethno-religious identity.
Patani Malays and Cambodian Chams are both ethnic minorities within two different Buddhist kingdoms. While Malays in Thailand's far South are locked in conflict with a state that views their identity and narrative as threatening national unity, Cambodian Muslims generally maintain a low political profile, concentrating on preserving religious and cultural practices rather than challenging state authority.
Champa was a group of independent Cham polities along the central and southern part of Vietnam from the 2nd century AD to 1832. Known for its maritime power, trade, and culture, the kingdom was influenced by Indian Shaiva Hinduism and built notable temples such as Mỹ Sơn. Muslim traders arrived in the area in the 8th century, and conversion to Islam started around the 15th century. Waves of migration to Cambodia started in the late 15th century following the capture of Cham’s capital, Vijaya, in 1471, by the Vietnamese kingdom’s southward expansion.
For centuries, Muslim students from the Malay Peninsula have travelled to Patani for Islamic education. The region has produced internationally renowned scholars such as Shaykh Dawud al-Fatani and Shaykh Ahmad al-Fatani, whose 19th-century writings remain foundational to Islamic studies across Southeast Asia.
While Thamavitya is classified as a private religious school that incorporates a Thai curriculum with Islamic studies, Muslim students from neighbouring countries are attracted to the region’s traditional Islamic boarding schools known locally as ponoh. They operate informally with minimal or no government regulations and oversight. As an institution, ponoh remain central to Malay-Muslim life in the far South and essential for preserving the cultural heritage along with religious studies.
Shahida Ly-zakariya, a 16-year-old second-year Islamic studies student at Thamavitya's secondary school, comes from Phnom Penh. An avid traveller who has explored the Andaman coast multiple times, she hopes to attend flight school in the United States or Australia after graduation. "I think Phuket is just so beautiful," she says.
"My father has visited Yala several times and loves everything about this place—the people, the schools. He holds the religious institutions here in high regard because of their standardized teachings," Shahida notes.
Her 16-year-old cousin Riduan, also studying at Thamavitya's secondary level, believes unfounded fear surrounds Thailand's Malay-speaking South, particularly among those who have never visited or made efforts to understand local people and their way of life.
All three students learned about Patani through friends and relatives who studied there, returned to Cambodia, and encouraged them to pursue their religious education in this region. Separatist insurgency violence in the Patani region is not an issue for them as they keep to themselves and focus on their studies.
Razi notes that local hospitality extends beyond Muslims. "People here appreciate visitors and migrant workers. “The people who built the school mosque were Buddhists from Myanmar, Cambodia and Thailand's Northeast. Three different languages filled the air as they worked around the clock to complete the mosque construction in time for our annual cultural event," he recalls.
Artef contends the Thai state has never attempted to understand this region's people. "By fixating on assimilation, the Thai state overlooks the strategic value of existing human connections, which could serve as powerful soft-power tools for regional diplomacy, particularly with Cambodia," he argues.
Armed insurgency in this historically contested region reemerged in mid-2001 after a relatively peaceful decade. Since January 2004, separatist violence has claimed more than 7,700 lives, with no resolution in sight, despite intermittent peace talks that have never progressed beyond preliminary discussions.
Don Pathan is a Thailand-based security analyst specializing in the Myanmar/Burma conflict and insurgency in Thailand's Malay-speaking South.
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