Aziz Phitakkumpon, known generally in news stories as "the spiritual leader of Thai Muslims", has been Chularatchamontri for more than five years. He is soft-spoken, but never has been afraid to speak out, which he did again last week.
Mr Aziz came into the job in June 2010 under less than splendid circumstances. His predecessor, before coming down with a lingering and eventually fatal illness, had left the religious office in some disarray, most notably involving charges of corruption among the staff and, some say, rising quite high in the ex-Chularatchamontri's hierarchy.
Friends say Mr Aziz had to be persuaded to throw his taqiyah into the ring and become a candidate for the position. Once nominated, he quickly became the front-runner. Once elected as the 18th Chularatchamontri, he immediately began to clean out the remnants of any ethical dirt left behind, and put his own stamp on the office.
He resurrected an old title for the job, and mildly insisted that everyone forego the traditional Thai name, Chularatchamontri, and use its religious equivalent, the Sheikhul Islam Office. It is a well-known honorific within Islam, given to scholars of the Islamic sciences. Mr Aziz has put it on the official stamp of the Chularatchamontri's office.
From the beginning, Mr Aziz made several points clear, in addition to the new office title. He insists he is above politics, a policy he drove home when he was named and quickly resigned from the National Legislative Assembly after last year's coup.
He intends to represent all Muslims in Thailand, including even the sometimes rambunctious and political Shia groups. He emphasised that point in August 2013, when he agreed to talk to Channel 7 on behalf of the tiny Muslims for Peace group which claimed the fantasy soap opera Fah Jarod Sai (Where the Sky Meets the Sand) had scenes defaming Islam. (No major changes were made.)
The first southerner to serve as Chularatchamontri, the Songkhla native has spoken often in private, seldom in public about the army-insurgent shenanigans.
And for the past two years, he has ducked almost every chance to speak out publicly on the two biggest items in the minds of all Thai Muslims. Almost every chance.
Less than two years ago, he made a high-profile visit with central Islamic committee secretary-general Surin Parale to the biggest Rohingya holding centre in the South, in Songkhla province. He and the delegation gave 300,000 baht collected from mosque donations to help authorities buy necessities for the migrants. His visit was highly publicised among Thai Muslims, including at the Friday prayers and sermons, and resulted in heavy support and calls for help for the Rohingya. Last July, 33 days before the Erawan Shrine bombing, he urged the government to halt deportations of Uighur migrants to China.
Last week, Mr Aziz made his third important appearance in public in the past five years. His office made a formal call to Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha to take a decisive ethical stand in the growing controversy of anti-Muslim speech by important Buddhists.
Social media has taken up the divisive call first made publicly by Phra Apichart Punnajanto, a Buddhist monk instructor at Bangkok's highly respected Wat Benchamabophit, to destroy a mosque for every monk killed in fighting in the deep South. To emphasise the call went far beyond eye-for-an-eye, the monk demanded mosques be razed starting with the northernmost one first, and then systematically working southward.
The Sangha Council quickly silenced Phra Apichart, but the controversy won't die, which brings us to the actual crux of this story. It was sparked more than two years ago with the birth and growth of the Myanmar group which actually enjoys it when the media calls it the "Buddhist al-Qaeda". Ashin Wirathu, the violent, xenophobic and foul-mouthed leader of the 969 Movement, or Ma Ba Tha, calls for war on Islam and cheers when Rohingya and other Muslim communities are slaughtered.
By ignoring him, by refusing to challenge his hate speech and incitements, Myanmar authorities have effectively encouraged the monk. Wirathu, without a vote or a member of parliament, can claim credibly to be more powerful and influential than any politician.
Unfortunately, that includes the next most powerful person in the country. Aung San Suu Kyi said last week she will be "above the president" in power, but her moral compass has veered far off true, magnetic North.
In 2013, when the Thai government and Chularatchamontri took a prominent stance to help Rohingya, Myanmar authorities including Mrs Suu Kyi took the only other path available. Doing nothing is also a decision with consequences, one that has earned the Nobel Peace Prize winner derision for failing to speak out against the murderous violence of the anti-Rohingya atrocities.
That has had disastrous knock-on effects, including massive numbers of boat people, the profitable if vicious growth of human trafficking, and massive numbers of deaths.
Mr Aziz's call for a moral war by the Thai government against hate speech in Thailand could go a long way towards preventing even the threat of similar situation here.