Islam is a minority faith in Thailand, with statistics suggesting 4.9 percent of the population are Muslim. Figures as high as 5 percent of Thailand's population have also been mentioned. Most Thai Muslims are Sunni Muslims, although Thailand has a diverse population that includes immigrants from around the world. Demographics and geography Popular opinion seems to hold that a vast majority of the country's Muslims are found in Thailand's four southernmost provinces of Satun, Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat, where they make up majority of the population. However, the Thai Ministry of Foreign Affairs' research indicates that only 18 percent of Thai Muslims live in those four provinces. The rest are scattered throughout Thailand, with the largest concentrations being in Bangkok and throughout the southern region. According to the National Statistics Office, in 2005, Muslims in Southern Thailand made up 30.4 percent of the general population above the age 15, while less than three percent in other parts of the country. History Muslim merchant communities resided in Thailand as early as the 9th century. In early modern Thailand, Muslims from the Coromandel Coast served as eunuchs in the Thai palace and court. Thailand, as Siam, was known for religious tolerance, and there were Muslims working for the Siamese Royal Governments throughout the eras. This culture of tolerance in Siam and later Thailand resulted in the great diversity of Islam in Thailand. Malay separatism in South Thailand is mostly a war based on ethnicity, as Malays in the region have sought to separate from Thailand, although extremist Muslim groups are involved in the conflict. Ethnicity and identity Thailand's Muslim population is diverse, with ethnic groups having migrated from as far as China, Pakistan, Cambodia, Bangladesh, Malaysia, and Indonesia, as well as including ethnic Thais, while about two-thirds of Muslims in Thailand are Thai Malays. Indigenous Thai Many Thai Muslims are ethnically and linguistically Thai, who are either hereditary Muslims, Muslims by intermarriage, or recent converts to the faith. Ethnic Thai Muslims live mainly in the central and southern provinces - varying from entire Muslim communities to mixed settlements. Former Commander-in-Chief of the Royal Thai Army General Sonthi Boonyaratglin is an example of an indigenous Thai Muslim. Sonthi is of remote Persian ancestry. His ancestor, Sheikh Ahmad of Qom, was an Iranian expatriate trader who lived in the Ayutthaya Kingdom for 26 years. Many Thais, including those of the Bunnag and Ahmadchula families