Abstract
This article describes the present aspects of Islamic resurgence in the village setting of southern Thailand through the consideration of social change. Though Muslims are a religious minority in Thailand, Islamic resurgent movement has been permeating the country since the early 1980s. The movement started with a visit of one Islamic missionary organization, called Tablighi Jama'at, to one Muslim fishing village in Phang Nga province, southern Thailand, where this research was done. Islamic resurgent movement has contributed to the dissemination of Islamic norms and of the necessity of its practicing among the villagers, but fisheries and tourism development programs and the decentralization of authority have also been seen. The latter have promoted the expansion of economical, political, and religious disparities among the villagers. In this complicated situation, the villagers have tried to control social change by employing “equality” as one principle of Islam. In the villagers' discourse, expanding disparities among the villagers are interpreted by applying the principle of “equality”, which could justify, criticize, or hide the disparities. Such villagers' reactions to “equality” can be seen as an attempt to bridge the disparities between Islamic norms and social realities.
