"But in the end -
continues the missionary – it has become a clash between Islam and
Buddhism. In fact the government, to try to overcome this moment of
crisis, gives a lot of support to the Islamic schools and Islam. What
Muslims want they get. The most striking example is that Muslims have
been recognized as Thai, before being Thai meant you were Buddhist, for
over two years now, Muslims are recognized as Thai. It is a concrete
example. Every day, at eight o'clock in the morning and every evening
at six the national anthem is broadcast. The country stops, radio and
television stations broadcast the national anthem and everyone sings.
The television show images of Thailand. There
is...

"But in the end -
continues the missionary – it has become a clash between Islam and
Buddhism. In fact the government, to try to overcome this moment of
crisis, gives a lot of support to the Islamic schools and Islam. What
Muslims want they get. The most striking example is that Muslims have
been recognized as Thai, before being Thai meant you were Buddhist, for
over two years now, Muslims are recognized as Thai. It is a concrete
example. Every day, at eight o'clock in the morning and every evening
at six the national anthem is broadcast. The country stops, radio and
television stations broadcast the national anthem and everyone sings.
The television show images of Thailand. There
is the king, there are the Buddhist monks, and now there are also
Muslims with their distinctive dress, there are the Buddhist pagodas
and Muslim mosques”.
"This is not the case for our tribes. Christianity is
considered a foreign religion, even if now there are few foreigners:
our priests and nuns are almost all local. In Thailand, there are about
300,000 Catholics nearly one million Christians all together out of a
population of 65 million, Muslims are about three million. In the
diocese of the South, founded by the Salesians, Catholics
number about 6,000, while in our Diocese of Chiang Mai in the north
there are 50,000 baptized and 25,000 catechumens. Chang Mai is the
second biggest diocese in Thailand after Bangkok”.