Thoughts after reading statement by a group of International Buddhist urging the Burmese to show mutual respect and compassion to the Rohingya Muslims in Rakhine State.
BY RICK HEIZMAN 11.12.2012
THE WRITER TRAVELED THROUGH RAKHINE STATE IN BURMA -MYANMAR
My thoughts after reading the statement by a group of International Buddhist urging the Burmese to show mutual respect and compassion to the Rohingya Muslims in Rakhine State.
This will surely upset and disappoint many many Rakhine people and monks, who feel:
THIS REINFORCES THE FALSE AND DELIBERATELY MANUFACTURED ACCUSATIONS
that the Rakhine Buddhist people and even the monks are the violent ones, and that the Rohingya are just nice and innocent victims.
The truth is quite opposite – the Rakhine Buddhist have been the victims of major (historical and documented) massacres by the Bengali Muslims (Rohingya) and a brutal and bloody campaign to kill or drive the Buddhist out of their own homeland and to establish an independent Islamic State in that corner of Burma.
IT IS LIKE TELLING TIBETAN PEOPLE AND MONKS AND ACTIVIST TO BE MORE RESPECTFUL TO THE CHINESE and at the same time not thinking to tell the Chinese to be respectful.
THIS STATEMENT SHOULD BE DIRECTED AT THE ROHINGYA (perhaps not all, but most),
who not only have no respect, nor compassion for the Buddhist and other non-muslims, but
actually have shear contempt, and a ‘holy’ goal of driving out the indigenous Rakhine Buddhist culture, and creating a pure Islamic State that would NOT be governed by the infidel government of Burma.
BANGLADESH SHOULD BE THE RECIPIENT OF THIS STATEMENT. The Rohingya came from the Bangladesh area, they speak the same Bengali language, eat the same food, share the same DNA, practice the same type of Islam, and until a few decades ago were called Bengali Muslims, or some were called Chittagong Muslims. In both cases the origin of the Muslims is clear – they weren’t called Rakhine Muslims, or Arakan Muslims.
SOME KNOWLEDGE OF THE HISTORY OF THE AREA IS VERY VERY IMPORTANT in order to really understand the situation. It is essential to know about the huge influx of Muslims into an indigenous Buddhist culture, and the intolerance, contempt and violence the Buddhist faced again and again, until they realized that THEY CANNOT TOLERATE THE INTOLERANT ANYMORE – and that they faced the loss of their homeland, their culture, their holy places, and their identity.
BANGLADESH HATES THE PEOPLE WE NOW CALL ‘ROHINGYA’ FOR THIS REASON:
When Bangladesh fought for Independence from Pakistan, in 1971, the Bengali Muslims living in Arakan or India sided with Pakistan, not Bangladesh! They favored the more strict Islam of Pakistan. Bangladesh will not forgive them to this day, and the officials (as in India) keep volumes of hand written records, which reveal – when asked for father’s and grandfather’s name, birthplace villages, etc – if their father, uncle, or grandfather supported
Pakistan then. If yes, then the whole family is ‘marked’ and is not welcome in Bangladesh.
Bangladesh will not take them, or help them, and the Rohingya identified refugees inside Bangladesh are treated terribly in retched camps that the Bangladesh government does not even allow UN or NGO’s to visit.
THIS REINFORCES THE FALSE AND DELIBERATELY MANUFACTURED ACCUSATIONS
that the Rakhine Buddhist people and even the monks are the violent ones, and that the Rohingya are just nice and innocent victims.
The truth is quite opposite – the Rakhine Buddhist have been the victims of major (historical and documented) massacres by the Bengali Muslims (Rohingya) and a brutal and bloody campaign to kill or drive the Buddhist out of their own homeland and to establish an independent Islamic State in that corner of Burma.
IT IS LIKE TELLING TIBETAN PEOPLE AND MONKS AND ACTIVIST TO BE MORE RESPECTFUL TO THE CHINESE and at the same time not thinking to tell the Chinese to be respectful.
THIS STATEMENT SHOULD BE DIRECTED AT THE ROHINGYA (perhaps not all, but most),
who not only have no respect, nor compassion for the Buddhist and other non-muslims, but
actually have shear contempt, and a ‘holy’ goal of driving out the indigenous Rakhine Buddhist culture, and creating a pure Islamic State that would NOT be governed by the infidel government of Burma.
BANGLADESH SHOULD BE THE RECIPIENT OF THIS STATEMENT. The Rohingya came from the Bangladesh area, they speak the same Bengali language, eat the same food, share the same DNA, practice the same type of Islam, and until a few decades ago were called Bengali Muslims, or some were called Chittagong Muslims. In both cases the origin of the Muslims is clear – they weren’t called Rakhine Muslims, or Arakan Muslims.
SOME KNOWLEDGE OF THE HISTORY OF THE AREA IS VERY VERY IMPORTANT in order to really understand the situation. It is essential to know about the huge influx of Muslims into an indigenous Buddhist culture, and the intolerance, contempt and violence the Buddhist faced again and again, until they realized that THEY CANNOT TOLERATE THE INTOLERANT ANYMORE – and that they faced the loss of their homeland, their culture, their holy places, and their identity.
BANGLADESH HATES THE PEOPLE WE NOW CALL ‘ROHINGYA’ FOR THIS REASON:
When Bangladesh fought for Independence from Pakistan, in 1971, the Bengali Muslims living in Arakan or India sided with Pakistan, not Bangladesh! They favored the more strict Islam of Pakistan. Bangladesh will not forgive them to this day, and the officials (as in India) keep volumes of hand written records, which reveal – when asked for father’s and grandfather’s name, birthplace villages, etc – if their father, uncle, or grandfather supported
Pakistan then. If yes, then the whole family is ‘marked’ and is not welcome in Bangladesh.
Bangladesh will not take them, or help them, and the Rohingya identified refugees inside Bangladesh are treated terribly in retched camps that the Bangladesh government does not even allow UN or NGO’s to visit.
If their own place of origin can refuse to have or care for them, then WHY IS IT ASSUMED THAT BURMA ‘MUST’ ACCOMMODATE THEM (that they mostly seized as uncontrolled large numbers of them came across the border during the last 80 years) AND THAT BURMA MUST GIVE THEM CITIZENSHIP? Citizenship usually requires one to have an allegiance with the people and system of the country, and not a contempt of the native people, their religions, their holy sites, and an agenda to break off and be independent, and cleansed of the indigenous people and culture.
There has been a continuum of Muslim conquest and annihilation of Buddhist people and culture since Islam began it’s march of conquest towards the east. Great Buddhist cultures were eliminated, often down to the last Buddhist, in what is now Afghanistan, Pakistan, Northern India, and the area now called Bangladesh – which Pali text describes as Buddhist kingdoms beginning in the 3rd century B.C. known as ancient Bengal or Vanga - is now down to less than one percent Buddhist.
THE NEXT LAND ON THIS ROUTE OF CONQUEST IS ARAKAN, and the conquest has been under way for 100 years now. The northern Arakan area of Maungdaw and Buthidaung
went from being nearly all Buddhist, to 95 percent Muslim in less than a century, and that was achieved by massive massacres of Buddhist by Muslims (example: 1942 – over 400 Buddhist villages burned down completely, 30,000 Buddhist killed in the towns, 100,000 Buddhist killed in the surrounding area, including many monks, and many Buddhist temples and monasteries burned and destroyed – often with the monks and villagers inside and
surrounded so they couldn’t escape.
THESE TWO PEOPLE ARE NOT GOING TO LIVE PEACEFULLY WITH EACH OTHER.
The truth is that the Rakhine Buddhist could respect and be compassionate to other people – they have no problem with the minority Hindu, Christian, or even the Kaman Muslim (non-Bengali/Rohingya) population. But, the Rohingya, according to their actions, their imams, their harsh interpretation of their faith, their contempt for anyone of another faith, their shameless manipulation of media with fake photos, false history, fraudulent facts,
cannot tolerate others. They should only live in a Muslim country so that they don’t harm other non-muslim people.
Attempts to help them ‘understand and learn to respect each other’ are just going to insure future massacres, and the loss of the Arakan Buddhist Culture. If anyone feels this is anti-muslim then study the issue. If it involved French Jesuit nuns I would criticize French Jesuit nuns. There are many good muslims – I know that – and most of them don’t approve of the extremist and violent muslims which are an issue in many parts of the world.
PERHAPS THIS (below) IS THE ANSWER – it’s a huge undertaking – but it has a very high chance of solving the issue:
Exchange the one million persecuted Buddhists in Bangladesh for the 800,000 Rohingya in Arakan.
There would be no more destruction of Buddhist towns, villages, temples and monasteries in Arakan. No more tension and violence. The Rohingya would be in the country of their origin - same language, same religion, same look, same DNA, same customs. No non-muslims, no holy war.
There has been a continuum of Muslim conquest and annihilation of Buddhist people and culture since Islam began it’s march of conquest towards the east. Great Buddhist cultures were eliminated, often down to the last Buddhist, in what is now Afghanistan, Pakistan, Northern India, and the area now called Bangladesh – which Pali text describes as Buddhist kingdoms beginning in the 3rd century B.C. known as ancient Bengal or Vanga - is now down to less than one percent Buddhist.
THE NEXT LAND ON THIS ROUTE OF CONQUEST IS ARAKAN, and the conquest has been under way for 100 years now. The northern Arakan area of Maungdaw and Buthidaung
went from being nearly all Buddhist, to 95 percent Muslim in less than a century, and that was achieved by massive massacres of Buddhist by Muslims (example: 1942 – over 400 Buddhist villages burned down completely, 30,000 Buddhist killed in the towns, 100,000 Buddhist killed in the surrounding area, including many monks, and many Buddhist temples and monasteries burned and destroyed – often with the monks and villagers inside and
surrounded so they couldn’t escape.
THESE TWO PEOPLE ARE NOT GOING TO LIVE PEACEFULLY WITH EACH OTHER.
The truth is that the Rakhine Buddhist could respect and be compassionate to other people – they have no problem with the minority Hindu, Christian, or even the Kaman Muslim (non-Bengali/Rohingya) population. But, the Rohingya, according to their actions, their imams, their harsh interpretation of their faith, their contempt for anyone of another faith, their shameless manipulation of media with fake photos, false history, fraudulent facts,
cannot tolerate others. They should only live in a Muslim country so that they don’t harm other non-muslim people.
Attempts to help them ‘understand and learn to respect each other’ are just going to insure future massacres, and the loss of the Arakan Buddhist Culture. If anyone feels this is anti-muslim then study the issue. If it involved French Jesuit nuns I would criticize French Jesuit nuns. There are many good muslims – I know that – and most of them don’t approve of the extremist and violent muslims which are an issue in many parts of the world.
PERHAPS THIS (below) IS THE ANSWER – it’s a huge undertaking – but it has a very high chance of solving the issue:
Exchange the one million persecuted Buddhists in Bangladesh for the 800,000 Rohingya in Arakan.
There would be no more destruction of Buddhist towns, villages, temples and monasteries in Arakan. No more tension and violence. The Rohingya would be in the country of their origin - same language, same religion, same look, same DNA, same customs. No non-muslims, no holy war.
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