Conditions Enhancing the Role of Buddhist Monks and Islamic Religious Leaders to Strengthen the Relationship between Muslims and Buddhists in the Three Southern Border Provinces

Abstract

The objective of this qualitative research was to investigate conditions enhancing the role of Buddhist monks and Islamic religious leaders to strengthen the relationship between them in the three Southern border provinces.  Data were collected from documents and the fieldtrip of nine communities. Observation and in-depth interviews with 31 Buddhist monks, 29 Islamic religious leaders and 77 other Buddhists and Muslims were conducted to validate and conclude using descriptive analysis.
The study found that the conditions enhancing the role were as follows. 1) common history and awareness shared by local Buddhists and Muslims migrating in the area and built the communities together resulting in their having relatives and friends of different religions and beliefs, 2) individual characteristics of religious leaders included peace-loving, helpful, proper,  group-oriented, trustworthy, able to communicate in Thai and Malay, sought knowledge about other religions, good attitude toward people of other religions, and no direct affect by the violence, 3) support for government activities and public relations, 4) being an urban or rural community–In rural communities, religious leaders played more important roles than those in urban communities, 5) if there were the strong relationship between Muslims and Buddhists from past to present could strengthen the current relationship between religious leaders, and 6) modern media and practice of messengers–Religious leaders who could use online media for presentation to people of different religions could strengthen the relationship better than those who could not.