Source: Yahoo! News
Wire Service: AFP
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070630/wl_asia_afp/thailandpoliticsconstitutionreligion
BANGKOK (AFP) - Thailand's constitution writers have rejected a plea to name Buddhism as the national religion, a drafter said Saturday, despite protests and hunger strikes by campaigning monks.
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The Constitution Drafting Assembly (CDA), appointed by the junta that seized power last year, on Friday voted 66-19 not to include Buddhism in the new charter, which replaces a 1997 version torn up by the coup leaders.
"Religion is a very sensitive issue, which has never before been mentioned in the constitution, so we are afraid that it will be divisive," said Wuthichart Kalayanamitra, a CDA member.
About 95 percent of Thais are Buddhist, but critics of the proposal had warned that naming a national religion could inflame tensions in the Muslim-majority south, where a separatist insurgency has raged for three years.