While the world has been focusing on the climate change in Caribbean, the earthquake and its aftermath in Mexico City and the wars in Iraq and Syria and the upcoming Kurdish referendum, the Rohingya people from Rakhine State in Myanmar (formerly known as Burma) have been chased literally out of their homeland. For 75 years, since 1942, the Rohingya Muslims have been treated as persona non grata by their own Myanmarese government even before the military junta came into power in Yangon in . The Rohingya are Myanmarese like their former Buddhist neighbours in Rakhine state. The Myanmar government has historically turned a blind eye to stripping of Rohingya of citizenship and purposely ethnic cleansing the Rohingya from Rakhine state and other provinces across Myanmar. The Rohingya are not asking for their own state nor have been launching a decades long insurgency movement like Bangsa Moro people in Mindanao, the on and off street clashes in South Thailand or the often forgotten Moaist insurgency across India. All of the mentioned insurgencies are driven by socio economic and political grievances towards the government's abuses, corruptions and neglect and not religion or spirituality for the still blinded people.
Buddhist Monk U. Wirathu says Islam is putting Burmese Buddhist Culture at risk
Unromanising Buddhism: Even Pacifists can be brutal
There is a centuries old stereotype that all Buddhists are the most pacifist people in the world. No matter if they live Myanmar or in Japan. While that maybe true for some countries or people, it is a sugar coated myth for Burmese Buddhists. Utra nationalist, islamophobic and racist Buddhist monks and priest among them the famed hate vigilante turned leader Ashin Wirathu have been at the forefront of demonizing, dehumanizing and encouraging violence against Rohingya Muslims. Some Buddhist groups have discouraged sympathy for Rohingya. The violence goes well beyond nationalistic xenophobia to paranoa that sees all Muslims and Islam as terroristic regardless of the people at the other end of the atrocities and attacks are innocent.
The Rohingya along with the Palestinains are the oldest stateless people in the world. Both peoples have been dehumanized by their government and ignored until recently by the world. With the exception of . Myanmar borders Bangladesh to its West and has treated Rohingya as though they are part of the larger Bangladeshi people across the border. Despite the fact that Rohingya were born, grew up in Myanmarese culture, society, language and way of life. Many Rohingya have rarely visited Bangladesh despite living near the border. If not for the government sanctioned ethnic cleansing and massacres, most wouldn't be in Bangladesh unless for tourist visits or curiousity. Many Rohingya don't see themselves as part of Bangladesh but as Myanmarese. Many millions of Rohingya Muslims want to return to their home towns and villages in Rakhine and across Myanmar.
The Myanmar government much like the former Junta (who are still seen as the hidden hand of the current "Democratic government") have tried to excuse the mass exodus and migration of Rohingya people to other parts of Myanmar, Malaysia, Bangladesh and Indonesia. The West's champion of Myanmar Democracy Aung San Suu Kyi has mostly dodged answering to the horrors faced by Rohingya her own countrymen. It was only this week, that Suu Kyi finally commented specifically on the Rohingya by dancing around the question of the massacres and genocide. Most of the Myanmar government officials have lied or downplayed what is happening to the Rohingya by blaming the victims ie the Rohingya are burning their villages, killing their own families, and attacked their Buddhist neighbours in a twisted justification for ignoring their long standing grievances, expulsion and stateless. Like many other governments, the Myanmarese officials have labeled Rohingyas fighting against the massacres and ethnic cleansing as terrorists. Many neighboring governments have also used the War on Terror to brutally and cruelly punish their respective ethnic and religious minorities under the banner of fighting terrorists. Terrorism has become the catch all term to inflict excessive violence against innocent people who protest government or call for human rights or respect of their humanity. Throw in irrational fears of terrorism, security police state and justified Islamophobia by Myanmar government and larger society and eventually the denial of rights and humanity of the Rohingya becomes clearer right before millions of eyes.
Buddhist Monk U. Wirathu says Islam is putting Burmese Buddhist Culture at risk
Unromanising Buddhism: Even Pacifists can be brutal
There is a centuries old stereotype that all Buddhists are the most pacifist people in the world. No matter if they live Myanmar or in Japan. While that maybe true for some countries or people, it is a sugar coated myth for Burmese Buddhists. Utra nationalist, islamophobic and racist Buddhist monks and priest among them the famed hate vigilante turned leader Ashin Wirathu have been at the forefront of demonizing, dehumanizing and encouraging violence against Rohingya Muslims. Some Buddhist groups have discouraged sympathy for Rohingya. The violence goes well beyond nationalistic xenophobia to paranoa that sees all Muslims and Islam as terroristic regardless of the people at the other end of the atrocities and attacks are innocent.
The Rohingya along with the Palestinains are the oldest stateless people in the world. Both peoples have been dehumanized by their government and ignored until recently by the world. With the exception of . Myanmar borders Bangladesh to its West and has treated Rohingya as though they are part of the larger Bangladeshi people across the border. Despite the fact that Rohingya were born, grew up in Myanmarese culture, society, language and way of life. Many Rohingya have rarely visited Bangladesh despite living near the border. If not for the government sanctioned ethnic cleansing and massacres, most wouldn't be in Bangladesh unless for tourist visits or curiousity. Many Rohingya don't see themselves as part of Bangladesh but as Myanmarese. Many millions of Rohingya Muslims want to return to their home towns and villages in Rakhine and across Myanmar.
The Myanmar government much like the former Junta (who are still seen as the hidden hand of the current "Democratic government") have tried to excuse the mass exodus and migration of Rohingya people to other parts of Myanmar, Malaysia, Bangladesh and Indonesia. The West's champion of Myanmar Democracy Aung San Suu Kyi has mostly dodged answering to the horrors faced by Rohingya her own countrymen. It was only this week, that Suu Kyi finally commented specifically on the Rohingya by dancing around the question of the massacres and genocide. Most of the Myanmar government officials have lied or downplayed what is happening to the Rohingya by blaming the victims ie the Rohingya are burning their villages, killing their own families, and attacked their Buddhist neighbours in a twisted justification for ignoring their long standing grievances, expulsion and stateless. Like many other governments, the Myanmarese officials have labeled Rohingyas fighting against the massacres and ethnic cleansing as terrorists. Many neighboring governments have also used the War on Terror to brutally and cruelly punish their respective ethnic and religious minorities under the banner of fighting terrorists. Terrorism has become the catch all term to inflict excessive violence against innocent people who protest government or call for human rights or respect of their humanity. Throw in irrational fears of terrorism, security police state and justified Islamophobia by Myanmar government and larger society and eventually the denial of rights and humanity of the Rohingya becomes clearer right before millions of eyes.
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