The omission of that name holds true as well. This report, however, is not about roses, but more about thorns. The Bangkok Post reports this prickly issue concerning jihad semantics.
The military has given the green light for the reopening of the Jihad Wittaya ponoh, a school in Pattani closed down four months ago due to suspicion of links with terrorists, but only under the condition that it changes its name. Col Jatuporn Kalumpasut, commander of the 22nd special task force, said the military will allow the school to reopen but it must be renamed since “the word `jihad’ is too violent”.
Mr. Kalumpasut understands the traditional interpretation of jihad.
School headmaster Dulloh Waemanor, 50, who fled before the raid, would also be permitted to return to teach at the school, the officer said.
Jihad Wittaya School, or Suan Maphrao ponoh school in Yaring district, was ordered closed on May 19 by the provincial governor after soldiers and police raided its compound and found weapons training and shooting areas, al-Qaeda training VCDs, separatist propaganda manuals, bomb-making handbooks and state officers’ work and patrol schedules.
These findings will no doubt be explained away as standard educational tools.
Authorities believed the closure upset southern agitators’ allies and incited them to create further chaos and to persuade school students to join their activities.
But school manager Arduenun Jeh-arsae rejected the condition, saying if reopened, the school, established by his family 40 years ago to assist poor children, would not change its name from Jihad Wittaya since jihad was a word from the Islamic religion and had no bad meaning.
Ahh, Mr. Jeh-arsae must be speaking of the “inner struggle” interpretation of jihad and obviously believes that weapons training and bomb making instructions will endow his students with the proper accoutrements to attain that spiritual pinnacle.