Habib Siddiqui

Buddhist extremists, the skinheads, esp. those belonging to the terrorist religious group called Ma Ba Tha in Myanmar have been behind much of the public face of terrorism against the Muslims. Thein Sein's government used them to do its dirty jobs, which it could not do itself to save its criminal face from international scrutiny.  In recent weeks they organized big rallies  against the death sentence handed down to Zaw Lin and Wai Phyo, two Thailand-based Burmese migrant workers accused of killing British backpackers David Miller and Hannah Witheridge on Koh Tao in September 2014. Journalists from different media outlets were covering the rally, allegedly led by Ma Ba Tha and the Myanmar National Network, when Ma Ba Tha supporters pulled a boy onto the field for supposedly disturbing the protest. Several journalists were ready with their cameras. “Beat the reporters, skin those guys,” one of the supporters said. On Wednesday, several private newspapers reported th...

Russell Whitehouse's article on Myanmar first appeared in the Eurasia Review. It later appeared in the International Policy Digest. It is worth reading. You can read the article by clicking here .

It seems no place is safe inside today's India from rapists. Even not a train, and surely not a compartment occupied by army men. A 14-year-old girl, a resident of Dumdum of Kolkata in India setting out to meet her Facebook friend without informing her parents, was allegedly raped by three Army men in Amritsar-bound Howrah Amritsar Express on Monday morning. Police have arrested one Army man, who had allegedly forced the girl to take alcohol and then raped her with her other colleagues. You can read the full text of the disturbing news by clicking here .

As I have noted a few times before China is in the denial process, very much like Myanmar. Just as in Myanmar (former Burma) the Buddhist people - from top to bottom - are in the denial of their Rohingya population (an indigenous people who has lived in the northwestern part of the country bordering Bangladesh for millennia) the same goes for China where its authorities are in the denial of the Uyghur (Uighur) people that live in their ancestral homeland of East Turkestan (now called Xinjiang province) in China's western frontier. Beijing does not want the world to know of its horrendous crimes and abuses of human rights against the persecuted Uyghur people - how they have been made a third class citizen inside China and a minority in their own ancestral land of East Turkestan. What these Uyghurs face is simply unacceptable by any civilized norm or standard. What the Chinese government is doing to them is simply racist, discriminatory and cri...

Hindutvadis in India are trying to impose pure vegetarian diet for entire India. Muslims are killed simply for trading in cattle, let alone eating beef. Intolerance against non-vegetarian Muslims is at an all time high. Here are some numbers that shows the clear hypocrisy in this matter. The slaughter of cows is banned in large parts of India but the country exports more beef than any other nation. India produced 43% of the world’s buffalo meat in 2015, the highest of any nation. India is expected to export 2.2 million tons of water buffalo in 2016, up from 2.1 million in 2015. The increase is due to rising demand from the Middle East, Africa and Southeast Asia. Vietnam and Malaysia are the largest export markets for India, according to the USDA. The Hindutvadis are emboldened by Modi's government at the center, which is  under the direct control of the Sangh Parivar. The latter is promoting myths and superstitions to widen the gap between relig...

Shashank Bengali  a fellow alumnus from my alma mater USC (where he studied journalism and later earned a master’s in public policy from Harvard University).has written an article in the BBC.com about a Rohingya boy who wants to leave the den of intolerance called Myanmar. You can read this by clicking here .

George Soros has written an article on the above subject which has appeared in the Guardian. You can read this by clicking here .

Professor Ram Puniyani's latest article in the Secular Perspectives discusses accusations against Muslim film stars of the Bollywood that are now routinely lobbed by Hindutvadi forces for their comments on the growing intolerance in India. It can be reached by clicking here . Shahrukh Khan; on the occasion of his fiftieth birthday few weeks ago had said that there is a growing intolerance in India and that being non secular is the worst crime for a patriot. In response to this the Hindutva cabal descended on him and he was labeled as anti-Nationalist, unpatriotic and that he should go to Pakistan. It is not the first time that Shahrukh Khan is being subject to such base abuses and charges of being anti national. In 2010, when he supported the idea of Pakistani cricket players to be allowed to come for IPL matches, Mumbai Hindutva group Shiv Sena protested intensely and the posters of his film, ‘My name is Khan’ were torn. At another level he has also been the victim of global I...

anghee Lee, the Special Rapporteur on human rights in Burma, is planning to make her fourth official visit to the country before the term of the outgoing government ends early next year. Lee’s last fact-finding mission in August was cut short by five days and access was denied to western Burma’s Arakan State—restrictions the South Korean child rights expert  described  at the time as hindering her ability to fulfill her mandate. With 2015 drawing to a close, The Irrawaddy spoke with Lee about Burma’s recent general election, her expectations of a new National League for Democracy-led government and rights issues including ongoing conflict and political prisoners. You can read the full text of the interview by clicking here .

I am sorry to say that Bangladesh has a shameful record on her treatment of the Rohingyas of Myanmar. The refugees that have taken shelter inside Bangladesh from Myanmar are maltreated and malnourished in the squalid camps and worse yet, all the avenues to uplift their lives are seemingly blocked by the government agencies.  It is a crime and I am ashamed of being a Bangladeshi for her treatment of this most persecuted people in our planet. Even the international NGOs with their noble intention of coming to the aid of the Rohingya people are frowned upon by the government and often face stiff penalties including prison times.  Recently,  Puemo Tchantchuing, who prefers to be known as Moussa Ibn Yacoub since his conversion to Islam, was arrested on Tuesday 22 December and has been detained since then. As well as being accused of "suspicious activities", punishable by up to 10 years imprisonment, he may be charged with using a false identity, because the name he uses i...

In the aftermath of the nihilistic attacks in San Bernardino and Paris by allegedly ISIS sympathizers, Republican presidential hopeful said something which is often missing from public discourse in the western world. In his attempt to interpret the sad events, " it is obvious to anybody the hatred is  beyond comprehension. Where this hatred comes from and why we will have to determine ,” Trump said in a statement. “ Until we are able to determine and understand this problem  and the dangerous threat it poses," the USA may not avoid repeat of such attacks, he opined.  Paul Street in a new article -  An Idiot’s Guide to Why They Hate Us   -  in the Counterpunch.org has tried to revisit the case. It is worth reading, which can be accessed by clicking here . Here are some excerpts from his writing: An “Aerial Traffic Jam” of “One-Sided Massacre” (1991) “No sense of reason or respect for human life”? Seriously? Among the countless episodes of mass-murderou...

The question why 'they' hate us has come up many times, esp. during election times in the USA. By 'they', obviously, what is meant are the Muslims, esp. Arabs. Back in 2002, I wrote an article refuting Princeton Professor Bernard Lewis's Washington Post Op/Ed -  “Targeted by a History of Hatred,” The Washington Post, 9/10/02), which was posted in various newspapers and internet sites. (See, e.g., here and here .) I wish we had taken prudent measures to create a world of compassion and understanding, correcting the wrongs so that our posterity won't blame us for the mess we continue to leave behind. But that was a wishful dream! Nothing much in the international arena has been done to fix those root causes that are behind the mess we are leaving behind.  I put below the old piece for new readers who did not read it. ================== In recent days, in remembrance of 9/11/01, there has been a plethora of articles, some even by people who are portrayed here...