According to a recent report by a US Government commission, Myanmar is among the worst countries when it comes to religious freedom. However, there seems to be no debate on the issue and even the international community is treating it as an internal matter,
Analysis
According to a recent report by a US Government commission, Myanmar is among the worst countries when it comes to religious freedom. However, there seems to be no debate on the issue and even the international community is treating it as an internal matter, only urging the Myanmar government to put an end to the violence. The regional ramifications for this ignorance are lost in the anti-Muslim propaganda plaguing the country.
What started as racially motivated violence in 2012 against the ’Kalas’, as the deeply-persecuted Rohingya community is derogatorily referred to, has since turned into a Islamophobia throughout the country -- against Muslims of all races. This dangerous trend opens Myanmar to the possibility of Islamic fundamentalism as terrorist organisations like Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), Jamat-ud-Dawa (JuD) and Harkat-ul Jihad-Banglaesh (HuJi-B) have already expressed solidarity with the Muslim community in Myanmar post recent riots in Rakhine and the rest of the country.
After the attacks on Muslims by the Budhdhists in Meiktila in March this year which left over 43 people dead and thousands displaced, the recent attacks in Okkan in Yangon only reiterates the growing intolerance for Muslims in the country. Initially, especially after the attacks on the Rohingya community in Rakhine state last year in June and October, which brought to fore the plight of this stateless community, it was thought that the xenophobia in the country was directed only to the Rohingya community. However, recent attacks against Kaman (who are a recognised minority) and other Muslims in the country provide evidence otherwise.
’Burmese Bin Laden’
The new wave of radical Buddhist monks led by a monk named Wirathu who is called the ’Burmese Bin Laden’, have undertaken the ’969 anti-Muslim campaign’ (969 is significant of Buddha’s nine attributes, six attributes of his teaching and nine attributes of the Buddhist order) originating in Masoeyein monastery in Mandalay. He has asked his followers to clearly mark the Muslim households and businesses in every city with these numbers to easily identify "the other".
This movement is aimed "cleansing" the country of Muslims whom Wirathu blames of "raping and sexually exploiting Buddhist women" and cronyism through a "crude and savage Muslim minority" in every city of the country. Although Wirathu was handed a 25-year jail sentence in 2003 for his hate-propaganda which he had started in 2001, he was released in 2010 under a general amnesty and his activities remain unchecked. His hate speeches are easily available on DVDs, pamphlets, CDs and booklets all across the country which instigate violence against Muslims.
Radical Buddhists have been resorting to acts of arson and brutal violence against mosques, Muslim households and businesses. The Muslim community which comprises only about five per cent of the total population of Myanmar is greatly outnumbered and in the light of the recent incidents, treated with hostility, moving from one refugee camp to another. Their protection is not assured leaving them extremely vulnerable to radicalisation.
Some believe that this Islamophobia is only an extension of the general Xenophobia for any community except that for the Buddhists in the country it has been more so after Buddhism was declared the official religion in 1962 under Gen Ne Win. However, the extent of violence as witnessed in the recent attacks is unprecedented.
Not forthcoming
A country which is only stumbling towards a credible democratic reforms process, the prospect of a radicalised community is a big danger. However, neither President Thein Sein, nor the leader of Opposition, Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, has been forthcoming on the issue of protection of the Muslim community.
There are reports of Islamic terror outfits already starting latent activities in refugee camps where the Rohingyas and other Muslims are escaping to from the ongoing violence. Given the dangers that this possibility comes with, there is a need for a greater regional and international role in making the government of Myanmar acknowledge and address this problem. In failing to do so, the possibility of yet another radicalised community is only increasing as this is a ticking time bomb which can go off any time.
(The writer is an Associate Fellow at Observer Research Foundation)
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