The US Special Representative to Muslim communities has expressed concern over the education and the livelihood of young Muslims in southern Thailand.Farah Anwar Pandith spoke yesterday after her visit to Thailand in August, where she met a group of 60 young Thai Muslims. Pandith, who was appointed to her job at the US State Department two months ago, said one of her missions was to forge links with young Muslims around the world. Pandith told a media briefing, "The young [Muslim] voice matters to us. We can work together."
She said Thai Muslims had talked about how the violence has affected their quality of life, education and communities. Pandith said Muslim youths are particularly concerned about their education. US ambassadors around the world are working with young Muslims to make their voices heard.
But she added that the US was concerned about extremism at Islamic religious schools, and hoped young Muslims stand up and voice their opposition.
Pandith said, "Combating extremist ideology is important for all of us everywhere, not just from the government, but from people themselves. It is local-to-local, and it is community-to-community. Many young Muslims around the world are saying this kind of ideology cannot exist in my backyard."
| Those 'civil libertarians' who go into such hysterics over trivial symbolic support of Christianity seem to have little to say about taxpayer funded intervention to help one religion in a way that our government helps no other. |