PHUKET'S Muslim community leaders were irate yesterday over a perceived slight from Thailand's Government that ordered local councils to stop donating to Phuket's 51 mosques.

However, the perceived slight turned out to be a misunderstanding. The Auditor General's Department had written to all local administrations earlier in the year, telling them that donations could no longer be made to any religious organisations.

The reason? According to the Auditor-General's Department, donations of that kind could be misconstrued as vote-buying. A letter written by the Auditor-General's Department was sent to Phuket's Provincial Hall.

However, in writing their own letter to various religious authorities on Phuket, Provincial Hall expressed the reason for the withdrawal of financial support poorly.

Phuket's 51 mosques have traditionally been given 50,000 to 100,000 baht by local councils during the holy month of Ramadan, when communities feast together after a day of fasting.

The withdrawal of funding was interpreted as an insult - until Phuket journalists compared the original letter from the Auditor General's Department with the one from Phuket Provincial Hall, and realised the rewrite had left the rationale for the cut open to misinterpretation.

Once the leaders of Phuket's Muslim community understood that the Auditor General was not targetting them but applying the new rule to all religious donations, they were sanguine about the cut.

However, all Phuket's Muslim communities may be struggling to finds a replacement source of funds for Ramadan this year.