{"id":88967,"date":"2019-05-17T15:56:22","date_gmt":"2019-05-17T22:56:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=88967"},"modified":"2019-05-17T15:56:22","modified_gmt":"2019-05-17T22:56:22","slug":"muslim-treachery-violence-in-myanmar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2019\/05\/17\/muslim-treachery-violence-in-myanmar\/","title":{"rendered":"MUSLIM TREACHERY & VIOLENCE IN MYANMAR"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dr. Daya Hewapathirane<\/em><\/span><\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n

The Muslim community\nassociated with Myanmar or former Burma, known as Rohingya Muslims are not\nindigenous to Myanmar. They are a relatively recent migrant community of\nMyanmar. Most of these Muslims are illicit immigrants who migrated from Muslim\nneighborhood regions of Bengal India during the British colonial period and\nlater from East Pakistan or the present Bangladesh. The Myanmar government s of\nthe past and present  do not consider\nRohingya Muslims as legitimate citizens of Myanmar. The people of Myanmar\nconsider the Rohingya people as illegal immigrants. Myanmar\u2019s Muslims account\nfor an estimated 04% of the total Myanmar population of about  60 million. In 2012, there were about 800,000 Rohingya Muslims living\nin Rohang, the western state of Myanmar known officially as Rakhine or\nArakan. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

THE INDIGENOUS PEOPLE\nOF BURMA (MYANMAR)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The indigenous people\nof Myanmar are ethno-linguistically Sino-Tibetan and are predominantly\nBuddhists as opposed to the Rohingya Muslims \nwho are ethno-linguistically related to the Indo-Aryan Bengali people of\nIndia and Bangladesh and their religion is Islam.  The language spoken\nby the Rohingya Muslims is different from that of the indigenous people of\nMyanmar. It is derived from  a Indo-Aryan<\/a>\nsub-branch of the greater Indo-European\nlanguage<\/a> family and is closely related to\nthe Chittagonian\nlanguage<\/a> spoken in the southernmost part\nof the present Bangladesh<\/a>\nbordering Myanmar.  Therefore,\nculturally the Rohingya  Muslims are quite\ndifferent to the indigenous people of Myanmar. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

ROHANG AND THE RAKKHITA\nBUDDHIST COMMUNITY<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was mostly during\nthe British colonial period that these Muslim people crossed the borders and\nsettled in border regions of Burma, concentrating largely in Rohang which was\nalso known as Rakhine or Arakan, located in the immediate neighborhood of Bengal.\nTheir numbers increased substantially during the British colonial period, and\nthereafter. Rakhine State consists of a population of about 3,8 million, with\nthe indigenous Rakhine people forming the overwhelming majority in the State,\nwho live mainly in the lowland valleys. \nMost of the indigenous people living in Rakhine State adhere to\nTheravada Buddhism. In spite of the government rule limiting Muslims to two\nchildren per family, the Muslim population in Myanmar shows an increasing\ntrend. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to\nhistorians of Myanmar, the name \u2018Rohingya’ is of recent origin and appears to\nhave been created in the1950\u2019s, by the descendants of the Muslim Bengali people\nwho settled down in the Rohang or Arakan region of Myanmar. The name Rohingya\nhas not been used or recognized in the Burma population census conducted by the\nBritish in the year 1824.  It is also\nnoteworthy that the name Rohingya is not found in any historical source in any\nlanguage before the 1950\u2019s.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rohang is an\nimportant  region of Myanmar inhabited\nfrom ancient  times by the Rakkhita,\nRakkha or Rakhaing people, who belong to the indigenous Buddhist community\nof  Burma.  From historic times, this was a highly\nrespected Burmese community, well known for the honourable life they led. They\nwere well known for their contribution to the development  and preservation of the national cultural\nheritage and Buddhist spiritual values.  These\nRakkhita people had their own language and their livelihood was strongly based\non Buddhist principles. The name of the state Rakhine is derived from the Pali<\/a> word Rakkhita or Rakkhapura which means “the land\nof the Rakhasa” or Rakkha or Rakhaing. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were striking differences in\nthe customs, traditions and livelihood patterns of the two communities \u2013 the\nindigenous Burmese Buddhists of the Arakan region, especially the Rakkhita\ncommunity and the Muslim immigrants from Bengal. These cultural\nincompatibilities and differences resulted in open conflicts between the two\ncommunities, which were well evident from about the mid 20th<\/sup>\ncentury.  Soon violence broke out in the\nArakan region and the Muslim\nRohingyas became a serious threat to the people of Myanmar. Occasional\nisolated violence involving Myanmar’s majority Buddhist and minority Muslim\ncommunities has occurred for decades, even under the authoritarian military\ngovernments that ruled the country from 1962 to 2011.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

BRITISH RESPONSIBLE FOR\nAGGRAVATION OF THE PROBLEM <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Aye Chan, a historian at the Kanda University, communal\nviolence between the Arakanese or the indigenous Myanmar (Burmese) Buddhists\nand the Rohingya Muslims began during World War -II in 1942.  The British were primarily responsible for\nthe aggravation of disharmony between the Rohingya Muslims and the indigenous\npeople of Myanmar. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

During the World War, when the British were retreating, they took action\nto arm Muslim groups in Northern Arakan in order to create a buffer zone\nagainst the Japanese invasion.  Furthermore,\nthe British promised the Muslims living in Burma (Myanmar) at this time, that\nif they supported the British during the war, the Muslims will be given their\nown “national area” within Burma. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Once acquiring arms, the Muslim Rohingyas became a serious threat to the\npeople of Myanmar. They soon began a spree of violence against the Buddhists of\nthe Arakan region. They began destroying Buddhist villages in Arakan, using the\nfirearms given to them by the British. \nIn 1942, a major armed confrontation occurred between the Rohingya\nMuslims and indigenous Arakanese people \nwhich led to many casualties on both sides.  Rohingya Muslims massacred about  20,000 Arakanese in Buthidaung<\/a> and Maungdaw<\/a> townships.  In retaliation, about  5,000 Muslims in Minbya<\/a> and Mrauk-U<\/a> Townships<\/a> were killed\nby the Arakanese. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the mid 20th<\/sup>\ncentury, Rohingya Muslims living in Arakan organized into several militant\ngroups. They formed an aggressive movement known as the Mujahideen movement\nwhich was active during the 1947 to 1961 period.  There\nwere several Mujahideen uprisings in Arakan. \nThe aim behind the riots of the Rohingya militant groups was to\nseparate the northern part of Arakan, or the Muslim populated Mayu frontier\nregion and create an independent Muslim state for the Rohingya Muslims and annex\nit to the newly-formed Muslim East Pakistan as an exclusively Muslim country.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1947, when a new Islamic country of Pakistan<\/a> was about to\nbe formed, Rohingya Muslims who had already possessed arms from the British,\nwanted to obtain a “national area” for them within Burma, in accordance\nto the assurance given to them by the British. They formed the North Arakan Muslim League<\/a>  and  met \nMohammad Ali Jinnah<\/a>, the founder of Pakistan, and requested that Mayu region\nof Myanmar be annexed to East Pakistan<\/a> which was\nabout to be formed. Jinnah however, was not in favour of such a move. This did not\nstop the Rohingya Muslims in their agitation for separation from Myanmar.  During the 1960\u2019s and early 1970\u2019s, there were\nseveral uprisings which were popularly known as Arakan State Riots.  A widespread armed insurgency started with the\nformation of a Muslim political party called Jami-a-tul Ulema-e Islam,\ndemanding separation.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Burmese<\/a> central government refused to grant a separate Muslim state in the Mayu<\/a> region and the Muslim militants of Northern Arakan declared jihad<\/a> on Burma. The Mujahid militants began their insurgent activities in the\nButhidaung<\/a> and Maungdaw<\/a> townships within the Mayu<\/a> region that lies on Burma-East\nPakistan<\/a> border, led by a long-term Muslim criminal named\nAbdul Kassem who was a leader of the Mujahid movement. There was  widespread violence in the Arakanese<\/a>\nvillagers and the Buddhist Arakanese inhabitants of Buthidaung and Maungdaw\nwere forced to leave their homes. By June 1949, the Mujahid rebels were in\npossession of all of northern Arakan<\/a>. In the meantime, the Mujahid extremists encouraged and supported illegal\nimmigration into the Arakan<\/a> region of thousands of Muslim Bengali\npeople<\/a> from the over-populated East Pakistan. <\/a> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

 <\/h3>\n\n\n\n

CONTAINING MILITARY OPERATIONS OF MUJAHID MILITANTS <\/h3>\n\n\n\n

When\nthe rebellion was becoming intensified the Burmese government declared martial\nlaw and took firm action to contain the militants. This led to the subjugation\nof the Mujahid insurgency and the Muslim insurgents fled to the jungles of\nnorthern Arakan. Between 1950 and 1954, the Burmese army launched major\nmilitary operations against the Mujahid rebels in Northern Arakan. All major\ncentres of the Mujahids were captured and several of their leaders were subdued.\nTowards the end of 1961, most Mujahids surrendered, but some formed small armed\ngroups and continued to loot, harass and terrorize the Burmese Buddhists,\nespecially in remote regions in Northern Arakan.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

                                                                                                                                                \nTHE\nRADICALIST MOVEMENTS (1971-1988)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

During Bangladesh<\/a> Libration War in 1971, the Rohingya Muslim who resided in the Myanmar-Bangladesh\nborder had the opportunity to collect weapons. \nIn 1972,  the Rohingya Muslims formed\n the Rohingya Liberation Party (RLP) with\nactivities based in the jungles of Buthidaung.  Military Operation conducted by the Burmese\nArmy in 1974 led to many Muslim insurgents fleeing to neighboring Bangladesh. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In\nMarch 1978, the Burmese government launched a campaign to check illegal\nimmigrants residing in Burma. This led to many thousands of Rohingyas in the\nArakan region crossing the border to Bangladesh.  Arrests of illegal migrants by the Burmese\narmy created unrest in Arakan and as a result, there was a mass exodus of  around 252,000 refugees to Bangladesh. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In late 1982, the Burmese Citizenship Law<\/a> was introduced and most of the Rohingyas were denied Burmese citizenship.\nRadical Rohingya\nmilitant group took this opportunity to recruit many Rohingya Muslims who were occupying\nthe region along the Bangladesh-Burma border. In the early 1980s, radical\nMuslims formed the Rohingya Solidarity Organization (RSO) which soon became the\nmost militant faction among the Rohingyas on the Burma-Bangladesh border.  Using the Islam religious card the RSO  was able to obtain various forms of assistance\nand  support from the Muslim world,\nincluding the JeI in Bangladesh and Pakistan, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar\u2019s\nHizb-e-Islami (HeI) in Afghanistan, Hizb-ul-Mujahideen (HM) in the Indian State\nof Jammu and Kashmir and the Angkatan Belia Islam sa-Malaysia (ABIM), and the\nIslamic Youth Organization of Malaysia. In 1991 and 1992, there was forced relocation of Muslims by the\ngovernment and the creation of new Buddhist settlements in Buthidaung<\/a> and Maungdaw<\/a> townships. This provoked another mass exodus of Rohingya Muslims to\nBangladesh. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

CONNECTIONS WITH TALIBAN AND AL-QAEDA (1988-2011)<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The\nmilitary camps of Rohingya Solidarity Organization (RSO) were located in the Cox’s Bazaar<\/a> district in southern Bangladesh. In 1991, it possessed a\nlarge number of military equipment, including light machine-guns, AK-47 assault\nrifles, RPG-2 rocket launchers, claymore mines and explosives. They were\nequipped with UK-made 9mm Sterling L2A3 sub-machine guns, M-16 assault rifles\nand point-303 rifles.  Afghan’s Taliban\ninstructors were associated with RSO camps along the Bangladesh-Burma border.\nMany RSO rebels were undergoing training in the Afghan province of Khost with\nHizb-e-Islami Mujahideen. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nexpansion of the RSO in the late 1980s and early 1990s made the Burmese\ngovernment  launch a massive\ncounter-offensive to clear up the Burma-Bangladesh border. In December 1991,\nBurmese troops crossed the border and attacked a Bangladeshi military outpost.\nThe incident developed into a major crisis in Bangladesh-Burma relations, and by\nApril 1992, more than 250,000 Rohingya civilians had been forced out of Arakan<\/a>, western Burma. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In\nlate 1998, Rohingya Solidarity Organization (RSO) and Arakan Rohingya Islamic\nFront (ARIF) combined to form the Rohingya National Council (RNC) with its own armed\nwing, gathering the different Rohingya insurgents into one group. In 2001, they\nunderwent training in Libya and Afghanistan, in guerrilla warfare and the use\nof a variety of explosives  and\nheavy-weapons. They had several meetings with Al-Qaeda representatives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Throughout  2012 and in 2013,  there have been a series of riots and much\nviolence in Northern Arakan in the Rakhine State, between extremist Rohingya\nMuslims  and the indigenous Rakhini or\nArakanese  people.   Muslim\nfanatics are largely responsible for the outbreak of violence. The 2012 riots\nbegan after\na Rakhine teenage girl was brutally raped and cut into pieces by three Muslim fanatics.\nThis immediately led to an outrage and retaliation by the Rakhine community.\nThis was followed by the extremist Muslims resorting to extreme forms of\nviolence, destroying many villages in their entirety and murdering many innocent\npeople. Those displaced by these riots exceeded 50, 000.  The situation in the Rakhine state remains\ntense.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2013, the worst\nviolence in Myanmar was in Meikhtila city, which resulted in widespread\nbloodshed  and destruction of property,\nand the  displacement of nearly 10,000\npeople who were forced out of their homes. A State of Emergency was declared\nand the army took control of the city.  The\ndevastation was reminiscent of last year’s clashes between ethnic Rakhine\nBuddhists and Muslim Rohingya that left hundreds of people dead and more than\n100,000 displaced. The struggle to contain the violence has become a major\nchallenge to the government.  Buddhist\nand Muslim communities live in near-total segregation, constantly fearing more\nviolence. The violence in Meikhtila city began once news spread that a Muslim\nman had killed a Buddhist monk. Soon, Buddhist mobs rampaged through a Muslim\nneighborhood and the situation quickly became out of control.
\n
\n
\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A CURSE TO HUMANITY<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n


\nThose conversant with global affairs,\nare aware of the fact that, especially in recent years,  Muslims have become a curse to humanity,\nresorting to violent and unethical means of serving their religious ends, or to\n\u2018resolve\u2019 their obsessive religion-based issues and self-created problems.  Peace and harmony in many countries in the\nWest and East,  have been impaired\ngreatly owing to unwholesome actions of Muslim religious fanatics.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As far as Sri Lanka is concerned, Muslim encroachment of traditional Sinhala\nBuddhist land and the demolition of historic sites and archeological remains of\nBuddhist heritage  show the sheer lack of\nrespect for Buddhism and related and cultural heritage of the country that gave\nthem shelter.  The situation does not\nseem  too different in Myanmar or\nThailand.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\nis clear evidence of disregard and disrespect on the part of most Muslims, for\nthe Buddhist cultural heritage of our country. There is evidence of destruction\nof archeological and historic cultural monuments and remains, especially in\nareas inhabited by Muslims. The fundamentals of \u2018Islam\u2019 that are being widely\npropagated by the Muslims have serious negative implications as far as the\nnational culture is concerned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

ISLAM AND VIOLENCE   <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Buddhists cannot consider Islam as a religion of\ncompassion and peace. Those professing Islam have been the biggest enemies of\nBuddhists and Buddhism throughout history. There are ample historic records\nwhich describe vividly the atrocities committed against millions of Buddhists\nin several countries. Their criminality has not subsided in spite of their\nliving among other religions in different countries.         <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is a well known fact that Buddhism disappeared from\nIndia under the sword of Islam. Dr. B.R. Ambedkar, the great Indian Buddhist\nleader said that there is absolutely no doubt that the fall of Buddhism in\nIndia was due to the invasions of the Musalmans or the adherents of Islam. For\nfive centuries, from the 13th<\/sup> to 17th<\/sup> centuries, most\nparts of India were under Muslim rule. Over 50 million Buddhists and Hindus\nwere massacred by Islamists in greater India (which in the past included   Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afganistan).  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Islam destroyed Buddhism not only in India but wherever it\nwent. Before the onslaught of Islam, Buddhism was the religion of almost the\nwhole of Asia – ancient countries\/regions such as Bactria, Parthia,\nAfghanistan, Gandhar, Chinese Turkestan, along with Tibet and Inner Mongolia\nwere Buddhist nations that formed almost the whole of the Asian continent.\nBuddhism was the dominant religion of the people of this vast area of the Asian\ncontinent. Islam destroyed and eliminated Buddhism from almost all these\ncountries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

BANGLADESHI  BUDDHISTS<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Buddhists of Bangladesh have\nbeen subject to untold violence by Muslims in recent years. The Chakmas form\nthe community of Buddhists that inhabit the Chittagong Hill Tracts of\nBangladesh. Chakma Buddhist monks were forced\nto flee their traditional lands due to Islamic persecution and violence in the\nearly 1990s. Some obtained Indian citizenships and formed the organization\ncalled  Peace Campaign Group and are\nactively focusing on working against human rights violations  systematically carried out by Muslims in\nBangladesh.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Jumma Buddhists, successive governments of Bangladesh were\nengaged in implementing a policy of ethnic cleansing to eradicate the\nindigenous Jumma Buddhists. The government has settled more than 400,000 Muslim\nsettlers in the ancestral lands of Buddhists in the Chittagong Hill Tract\nregion. This encroachment of land owned and occupied previously by Buddhists is\nsaid to be continuing on a rapid scale even at present. In addition, more than\n100,000 military and paramilitary personnel have been stationed in the\nChittagong Hill Tract making life insecure and miserable for the Jumma Buddhist\ncommunity. The region today is crime prone, characterized by arson, killing,\nrape, land grabbing, and destruction of Buddhist temples, extra-judicial arrest\nand detentions. Between 1986 to1989 more than 70,000 Jumma Buddhists have fled\nBangladesh and sought refuge in the Tripura state of India. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Violence\ncentering on land issues has been going on in this region since 1978, when the\ngovernment decided to settle Muslim people in the Chittagong Hill Tracts which\nis land traditionally owned and occupied by Buddhists.  Many Buddhists were harassed and were forced\nto leave their traditional land.  Owing\nto continued harassment the Buddhists collectively protested and launched an\narmed struggle during the early 1980s, demanding full autonomy for the\nChittagong Hill Tracts. This continued\nfor two decades and an Accord was signed between the Jumma People\u2019s political\nparty of the Buddhists and Bangladesh government in December 1997, to withdraw\nthe new settlers and the military from Chittagong Hill Tract. Expecting a peaceful situation\nfollowing the Peace Accord, many indigenous people who had fled to refugee\ncamps in India during times of violence, started returning home, only to find\ntheir land encroached upon by Muslims. The Buddhists allege that the Accord was not respected by the government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

BUDDHIST RIGHTS VIOLATED BY MUSLIMS<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thousands of Jumma Buddhist families who were displaced owing to\nviolence have not been resettled  as\nyet,  and the number of poverty-stricken\nJumma refugees have increased substantially. Among them are thousands of\nchildren who are deprived of their education. Human Rights abuses  continue to occur with the military resorting\nto violence against Buddhists. On 20th April 1999, the military and Muslim\nsettlers attacked the Jumma Buddhists at Babuchara bazaar killing and wounding\nmany Jumma Buddhists. In recent years\nMuslim extremism and violent tendencies appear to have intensified. In the early part of 2010, the\nChittagong Hill Tracts region was rocked by violence, flaring up decades old\nethnic-religious tensions, as Muslim settlers set fire to hundreds of homes of\nindigenous Buddhists resulting in many deaths and many injuries. Thousands of\nBuddhists have been left homeless. These attacks were meant to forcibly grab\nland and properties of Buddhists. This violence was committed in the presence\nof law enforcement officers  including\nsoldiers who were Muslims. According to Jumma people, Muslim military personnel\nhave been involved in gross human rights violations with impunity, in the\nChittagong Hill Tracts for many years. Many indigenous Buddhist people of affected\nvillages continue to live in hiding, in dense forests and some have abandoned\ntheir ancestral land and had moved to other villages and are leading desperate\nlives.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

THAI BUDDHISTS<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Muslims are a very small minority settler community in\nSouthern Thailand, smaller than the Muslim settler community of Sri Lanka.\nTheir objective is to have a separate country for Muslims in Sothern Thailand.\nBuddhist civilians and monks have been frequent targets of Muslim attacks in\nSouthern Thailand in recent years. In late 2005, Muslims again started killing\nBuddhists in Southern Thailand. The bloodshed here could mark a resurgence of a\nlong-simmering Muslim insurgency and, some officials fear, fertile ground for\nIslamic terrorists. More than 500 people were killed in 2006, in three southern\nThai provinces, including attacks targeting Buddhists in possible bids to drive\nout non-Muslims. Authorities are investigating possible links between these\nMuslim separatist groups and Islamic terrorist organizations such as Jemaah\nIslamiyah, which seeks a pan-Islamic state in Southeast Asia. It is blamed for\nattacks including the 2002 bombing in Bali that claimed 202 lives. Thitinan\nPongsudhirak, an assistant professor of international relations at Bangkok’s\nChulalongkorn University says “We have not yet seen escalation, “but\nI still think we may be headed from bad to worse.” “The gruesome\nfashion of beheadings of Buddhists by Muslim assailants … is not normal violence,”\nsaid Pongsudhirak. “It is driven by deep animosity and hatred.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n

RISE\nIN ISLAMIC FUNDAMANTALISM<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the last few decades, owing to the newfound wealth of oil rich Islamic\ncountries and massive immigration to the West, Islamic fundamentalism has been\non the rise and the dormant spirit of Jihadism has been rekindled.  This fervor has been translated into\nupheavals, revolutions and    terrorism ,\nand world peace has been put in jeopardy. Millions of lives are now in danger.\nIslam encourages aggressive spirit explicitly. \nMuslim believe that he can go to paradise if he kills non Muslims. The\nQuran tells Muslims to slay the unbelievers wherever they find them (2:191), do\nnot befriend them (3:28), fight them and show them harshness (9:123), and smite\ntheir heads (47:4). It prohibits Muslims to associate with their own brothers\nand fathers if they are non-believers (9:23), (3:28). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Buddhists\nhave been the most victimized and harassed religious community in the world,\nowing to actions of Muslims guided by their theistic traditions and beliefs.\nThroughout the ages the Buddhist religion experienced many calamities.  As far back as in the 10th century, as a\nresult of the Muslim invasion of what is modern day Afghanistan, Pakistan and\nIndia, the Buddhist religion which formed the basis of life of the people of\nthis part of the world, was viciously wiped out in an act of virtual genocide.\nIn some Asian countries indigenous Buddhist spiritual traditions have been\nseverely weakened by decades of persecution. Muslim terror and atrocities have\ninflicted severe damage to Buddhism in many Asian countries, some of which were\nexclusively Buddhist at one stage in their histories. The destruction of the\ncolossal Afghan Bahmian Buddha statues is not the first destruction resulting\nfrom Muslim fundamentalism. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In\nthe last three decades the exclusively Muslim Army of Bangladesh, motivated by\nreligious fanaticism have caused havoc to Buddhists of Bangladesh and destroyed\nmany Buddhist shrines and monasteries. Religious persecution and destruction of\nplaces of worship is commonplace in the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) even in present times. Religious persecution\ntakes place in the form of torture, murder, intimidation of Buddhist monks and\ndeliberate and systematic destruction of their places of worship. Fanatical\nMuslims destroyed and desecrated the renowned “Navajyoti Buddhist\nVihara” (Navajyoti Buddhist Temple) at Lalyaghona Village in Baghaichari Upazilla<\/em>ct)  breaking down many Buddha images. Muslim\nreligious fundamentalism and intolerance of Buddhists and other religious\nminorities are on the rise in Bangladesh. The country\u2019s military has become\nruthless in this regard. In 2006, a group of illicit Muslim settlers led by\nRafique Uddin destroyed the Buddhist temple of Challyatali village under\nLongadu, Rangamati and occupied the temple land. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The biggest problem\nwith Muslims is their belief that Islam is one and only \u2018chosen religion\u2019\nand  Muslims are the one and only \u2018chosen\npeople\u2019. In an Islamic state people of other faiths are not tolerated.\nNon-Muslims cannot establish their shrines or \nmonasteries in any of the Middle Eastern Muslim countries. They cannot\nhold their religious functions or prayers in public in these countries. In Sri\nLanka, Muslims insist on living an alienated and un-integrated life and are\nagitating for concessions specified by their Islamic religion and Muslim\nShariah law. The interests of the country as a whole is not their concern,\nbecause Sri Lanka is not an Islamic country. They are least interested in\njoining the national mainstream\u201d and work towards national unity and\nwell-being. No meaningful dialogue on Islam or on the divisive attitudes and\nactivities of Muslims is possible because they unnecessarily feel intimidated\nwhenever  legitimate questions on Islam\nor the Quran are posed. Those who question are immediately branded as racists\nor anti Muslim. Most Muslims lack the courage to respond to even the most\nabject injustices evident in Islamic beliefs and practices. No Muslim gives any\nother religion a status of equality with Islam. They fail to realize that true open-mindedness\nconsists of contemplating all premises and weighing the evidence. Reasoning\ninvolves deduction and induction. Why do Muslims cause disharmony and bring\nabout conflicts and confrontational situations in all societies they\ninfiltrate? Why?   Buddhists need to be vigilant and need to\ninitiate actions against the abuse of privileges, aggression and misdemeanor by\nMuslims. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr. Daya Hewapathirane     <\/strong>Daya.hewapathirane@gmail.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dr. Daya Hewapathirane The Muslim community associated with Myanmar or former Burma, known as Rohingya Muslims are not indigenous to Myanmar. They are a relatively recent migrant community of Myanmar. Most of these Muslims are illicit immigrants who migrated from Muslim neighborhood regions of Bengal India during the British colonial period and later from East […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[101],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-88967","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dr-daya-hewapathirane"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88967","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=88967"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88967\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=88967"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=88967"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=88967"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}