ISSN 2039-2117 (online) ISSN 2039-9340 (print) Mediterranean Journal of Social Sciences MCSER Publishing, Rome-Italy Vol 6 No 4 S1 July 2015 426 Freedom of Religion: A Study on the Level of Understanding Among the Religious Believers in the Southern of Thailand Mutsalim Khareng Jaffary Awang Rohanee Machae National University of Malaysia, Malaysia Email: habba_yabnee@hotmail.com Doi:10.5901/mjss.2015.v6n4s1p426 Abstract One of the elements of freedom is the individual freedom in embracing his or her chosen religion, as well as practicing it without any force or distraction from any party. Thailand is known as a democracy country which permits freedom to the citizens in all aspects of life including the freedom of religion. However, the interaction between Muslims and Buddhists portrays the presence of doubt among each other. This is due to the implementation of few programmes that deny the rights for freedom of religion especially among the Muslims in the Southern of Thailand. Therefore, this study will investigate on the level of understanding on the freedom of religion among Muslims and Buddhists in the Southern of Thailand. There are two approaches that are used in this study which are the qualitative and quantitative methods. Findings from the descriptive analysis have proven that the respondents did not really understand the concept of freedom of religion as most of their answers for the questionnaires given are 4.49% said they strongly disagree and 8.7% said they disagree. Nevertheless, all in all most of the respondents are strongly agreed that they have understood the concept of freedom of religion. The findings are believed to be influenced by few factors which are the roles of both Islam and Buddhism that teach the believers to be aware of the importance of freedom of religion in a community, the declaration of the freedom of religion in the National Constitution of Thailand and the Human Rights 1948 and their roles in preaching the community to acknowledge the equal rights in a community, and finally the awareness of each believer that wants to have a peaceful and harmonious life. Keywords: Freedom, Religion, Interaction, Islam, Buddhism Introduction 1. This study is an observation on the freedom of religion based on the perspective of Thailand’s Constitution. In handling that right, the definition, principles and its implementation will be discussed thoroughly in investigating the level of its connection with the Theravada Buddhism which is known as the dominant religion in Thailand. The study will focus on the locations at the three districts of the Southern of Thailand which are Pattani, Yala and Narathiwat. The position of the community in those districts is different in terms of the religion, culture and language. They are practising their respective customs and cultures by fully following their embraced religion. Even though Malays are dominating a few districts of Thailand, they are regarded as the minorities due to the political power through the cultural assimilation, national political integration and Thai education. Those factors have made them known as the Thais or the Siamese Muslims. As a result, every Thailand citizen either the resident or the immigrant, regardless of their religions should follow and respect the Laws of Thailand. That situation caused the cultural integration especially among the Muslims is always related to the religious teaching, customs, society rules and internationalism. The phenomenon has worried the Malay Muslims in defending their religion and identity as the cultural assimilation process and national political integration is directly related to the society rules that are guided by the Thailand government. Thus, it finally gave the negative impacts on the citizens especially the Malay Muslims in the Southern of Thailand (Saleh, R. 2001). The impacts can be seen through a few tragedies of fighting against the government by the citizens because of the misusing policy which led them and their religion to be the victims of betrayal. Uniting the believers of different religions is a truly challenging effort. Misusing a policy will yield on the misunderstanding as well as conflicts between races. Hence, the effort of bringing harmony and peace to the multiracial and multi religious society requires the involvement of every citizen and believer especially the authorities. In running the