Thailand - Waedueramae Mamingchi was educated for eight years in Saudi Arabia, studying Arabic and the precepts of Islam before returning to his home in southern Thailand.
The Saudi stint greatly enhanced his standing among his community. But in the fear-filled post-9/11 world, Muslim leaders like Waedueramae say schooling and spiritual guidance in the Middle East has made them suspect in the eyes of the Thai government as it battles an Islamic separatist insurgency in the south.
"When we go to learn abroad, they say we went to learn to be terrorists," said Abdulraman Abdulsamad, another respected Muslim leader. "They accuse us of going to train to be terrorists."
Prejudices, say local Muslims, were in evidence in early February when army rangers raided the grounds of an Islamic school owned and run by Waedueramae after a soldier was shot to death about 800 yards away.
"The soldiers continued to search, and this is why we got upset. Villagers came and watched this," Waedueramae, who lives on the premises, said.
Heavy-handed government attempts against escalating violence have sharpened tensions between Muslims — a majority of the population in Thailand's southernmost provinces of Narathiwat, Pattani and Yala — and officials, recruited mainly from Thailand's Buddhist majority.
The government denies it is targeting Arab-educated Muslims.
"That is not true," government spokesman Jakrapob Penkair said. "If that were the thought of the government, all students who go abroad to further their education would be barred."
Thai Muslim complaints of discrimination in jobs and education have long provided fodder for a separatist movement that died down only in the in the late 1980s after a government amnesty. It resurfaced two years ago but was confined to sporadic and ill-planned attacks.
Separatism has deep local roots in the south. Historically, the three provinces were part of the Muslim kingdom of Pattani, which was annexed by Thailand in 1902.
About 90 percent of Thailand's 63 million people are Buddhists.
No evidence points to the involvement of foreign terrorist groups, but there are fears that the separatists could link up with al-Qaida linked groups like Jemaah Islamiyah.
A Jan. 4 attack on an army camp in Narathiwat in which four soldiers were killed and hundreds of guns stolen showed unprecedented sophistication and organization among the insurgents previously labeled bandits by the government.
Since then, at least 56 people have been killed in hit-and-run attacks by gunmen and violence in the south has suddenly become Thailand's biggest domestic security challenge in decades.
Muslim leaders say they are being scrutinized because authorities assume that a Saudi education means "Saudi-trained" Islamic radical leaning. If a leader studied in Pakistan or Afghanistan, he is treated with even more suspicion.
Waedueramae, who is the chairman of Pattani province's Islamic Council, said most prominent Thai Muslims including politicians and civil servants have been educated in the Arab world.
Following the raid on Waedueramae's school, provincial Islamic Council leaders announced they would stop cooperating with the government. They relented after Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra assured them that security forces would be more careful.
Islamic schools, known as "pondoks," offer religious education, a regular curriculum and language training in Arabic and the local Yawi dialect. They provide an alternative to a government-run secular schools, where the language is Thai.
Experts say much of the Muslim alienation is because of the government's failure to alleviate their poverty and to recognize their distinct culture and language, Yawi, a dialect of Malay.
As a result, many Thai Muslims have looked to the Arab world for education, funding and guidance, rather than to Bangkok.
Each year, 300 Thai Muslims win scholarships from institutions in Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan and other Middle Eastern countries, while another 200 are funded in other Muslim countries, including Brunei, Sudan and Indonesia.
Some families have sent abroad generations of sons who become imams at mosques and directors or teachers at pondoks. These teachers place more emphasis on study of Arabic and the Quran.
The Middle Eastern influences also have spilled over into everyday life.
Islamic practices in southern Thailand used to be mixed with local traditions. These customs are now being branded un-Islamic by clerics.
Until a few years ago, women rarely wore headscarves. But the foreign-returned Muslims are insisting on purer form of Islam such as "hijab" for women and regular attendance at mosques.
Vairoj Phiphitpakdee, a Muslim member of Parliament for Pattani, said some Thai Muslims mistakenly believe the religion is about adopting the Arab culture
"They're taken to the Middle East, and they're brainwashed," he said.