WHERE I LIVE, in a city called Bangkok, when I think of Muslims I think of dried fruits. In the dried fruits counter of supermarkets, there will be two young women in beige or green Malay-style head-covers dispensing apricots, almonds, walnuts and so forth. The only women you might see in black hijabs are likely to be tourists from Middle Eastern countries around Soi 3, Sukhumvit, the so-called Arab gully.

According to the 2015 census here, there are 28,92,311 Muslims in Thailand, making up roughly 4.29% of the population. Only about 3,65,000 of them live in Bangkok, selling dried fruits and other things, so no wonder I only see them in pairs. The bulk of them, 22,27,613, may be found in southern Thailand, bordering the mainly Muslim Malaysia. Here they constitute over 24% of the population.