Sugar coating a pogrom won't solve problem for Burma

I just came across an article posted in the Dawn which was full of twisting facts and denial of any responsibility for the Rakhine mobs who started the current pogrom against the Rohingyas of Burma, in total collusion with government support at the federal and local levels. I sent out the comment below for posting, although I am not sure if my message would be posted by the Dawn. Here below are my comments for those who care to read:


"Ms Khine's views here are not silent views of a reluctant observer but of a highly biased Rakhine Magh who has not grown up to understand that ethnic cleansing of anyone is unacceptable in our world, esp. in the 21st century. She does not tell about the lynching death of 10 Burmese Muslims who were not from the Rohingya race or ethnicity when they were returning from their trip to Arakan. Why were they killed, if not for sure: bigotry and racism? 

Point here is: Burma has been a racist and bigotry-ridden country for ages. The majority people in every territory is hostile to its minorities. They want them purged out one way or another. And that is a recipe for disaster for the country. If the people like Ms. Khine and others in Burma care about integrity of the country, they have to evolve into a more pluralistic society respecting each other and getting along without prejudice. That would require education and not propaganda from trashy history of denial and racism, which Burma is full of. The sooner the Burmese learn this and grow up, the better it is for them and the rest of the world. 

They ought to know that there is consequence for every evil deed. No one eventually gets away. There are world courts and other avenues to make the culprits pay for the crimes against any minority, including the Rohingyas of Burma who trace their origin to at least a thousand years. Read the history books of Moshe Yeager and others to find out the Muslim factor in Burma."

Comments

  1. Moshe Yegar's writing was about Myslims in the whole of Burma.
    Rohingyas in Arakan History is complex.

    Though Wikipedia is not the best source, here is a good overall picture of Rohibgyas histiry in Arakan:

    Rohingya people - Wikipedia
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rohingya_people

    Early History
    .
    .
    Arrival of Islam

    .



    According to Syed Islam, the earliest Muslim settlements in the Arakan region began in the 7th-century. The Arab traders were also missionaries and they began converting the local Buddhist population to Islam by about 788 CE, states Syed Islam. Besides these locals converting to Islam, Arab merchants married local women and later settled in Arakan. As a result of intermarriage and conversion, the Muslim population in Arakan grew.[107] This claim by Sayed Islam saying that, by 788 CE, locals in Arakan were being converted into Muslims clearly contradicts historian Yegar's findings which say, even in 1203, Bengal is the easternmost point of Islamic expansion, not to say further into Arakan.[112]

    .
    .
    .

    Early evidence of Bengali Muslim settlements in Arakan date back to the time of Min Saw Mon (1430–34) of the Kingdom of Mrauk U. After 24 years of exile in Bengal, he regained control of the Arakanese throne in 1430 with military assistance from the Bengal Sultanate. The Bengalis who came with him formed their own settlements in the region.[115][112] The Santikan Mosque built in the 1430s,[115][116] features a court which "measures 65 ft from north to south and 82 ft from east to west; the shrine is a rectangular structure measuring 33 ft by 47 ft."[117]

    .
    .
    .

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Defining the Biden Doctrine

George Soros at the Davos Forum