In recent years, a secessionist movement has sought the establishment of a Malay Islamic state, Patani Darussalam, encompassing the three southern Thai provinces.

[5] The inhabitants of the Patani region have been traditionally part of the Malay culture, having a historical background in which Islam has constituted a major influence.

Patani had a complex and distinct culture that included a rich oral literature, rice harvest ceremonies, colourful paintings on the hulls of Korlae boats, and the performances of a kind of Wayang theatre.

Living in a borderland at the northern end of the Malay Peninsula, over the centuries the Patani people adapted themselves to a life of harmony with the local Chinese, Buddhist, Indian, Arab and Orang Asli communities.

However, by 1934 Marshall Plaek Phibunsongkhram set in motion of a process of Thaification which had as its objective the cultural assimilation of the Patani people, among other ethnic groups in Thailand.

[10] By 1944, Thai civil law was enforced throughout the land including the Patani region over-riding the earlier concessions to local Islamic administrative practices.

This forced assimilation process and the perceived imposition of Thai-Buddhist cultural practices upon their society became an irritant for the harmonious relationship of the ethnic Malay Patani people and the Thai state.

[12] Denied recognition as a culturally separate ethnic minority, Patani leaders reacted against the Thai government policy towards them and a nationalist movement began to grow, leading to the South Thailand insurgency.

[13] After 2001, the Patani insurgency was taken over by groups whose leaders are mainly Salafist religious teachers who have promoted religion, rejecting the nation-building ideology of the early secessionist movements.

[15] So far, and in the present circumstances, to preserve an identity free of the influence of Militant Islam has been next to impossible for the people of the hapless Patani Region.

The activity of the present-day insurgents has changed the face of Patani society by the imposition of extreme religious undercurrents and the enforcement of the stern Salafi rules on local people.

Pattani subsequently became part of the Hindu-Buddhist Empire of Srivijaya, a maritime confederation based in Palembang, which spanned the seventh to the thirteenth centuries.

The founding of the Islamic kingdom of Patani is thought to have been around the mid-13th century, with folklore suggesting it was named after an exclamation made by Sultan Ismail Shah, "Pantai Ini!"

The Thai government, led by Marshall Plaek Phibunsongkhram became an active ally of Japan by promising to help Thailand retake some territorial claims back from the British and the French.

According to Ockey, even leading Thai politicians such as Pridi Phanomyong and Seni Pramot were among those that "overtly or covertly" supported this resistance against the Japanese.

In 1945, a petition by Malay leaders led by Tengku Abdul Jalal demanded that Britain guarantee independence for the southernmost provinces of Thailand.

During World War II, along with the Greater Patani Malay Movement led by Tengku Mahmud Mahyuddin, another resistance force under the leadership of Islamic scholar Haji Sulong Tokmina also fought against the Japanese.

Their stated goal was to create an Islamic republic in Patani, which frequently put it at odds with Prince Tengku Mahmud, who wanted to reestablish the Pattanese Sultanate.

[21]: 101  According to Thanet, the rise of Islamic nationalism in the South is not only attributed to Haji Sulong himself but also the religious students who 'were inclined towards modernism' from the northern states in Malaya.

It was during this time that the Provincial Islamic Council of Pattani drafted out a seven-point demand to the central government in Bangkok which sought for the betterment of Muslims in the region.

[21]: 101 By the late part of 1947, Haji Sulong and his supporters realised that their efforts with the government to negotiate better terms for the Muslims in the south was not working.

This include accusations that he held meetings which invoked "arousing rebellious feelings among the people almost to the point of creating unrest in the kingdom".

[21]: 119  According to Thanet, the most serious accusation was that he incited the people to seek for self-government with the intention of inviting Tengku Mahmud Mayuddin, who was the son of the last raja of Pattani, to preside as leader over the four southern provinces.

Haji Sulong was convicted and spent time in jail until 1952 and after his release, he was ordered by the government to give up his public activities and subject himself to checks by the police on demand.

The prosecutor in that trial wanted to press for a heavier sentence, citing evidence that Haji Sulong was planning something bigger to the scale of a rebellion.

[11]: 136 Today, the goals and ideas of Haji Sulong Tokmina are still carried on by minor resistance groups interested in creating an Islamic republic.