Our hearts bleed for the innocent Muslims killed in Myanmar. It is so strange that the international community and organizations particularly the United Nations is doing nothing to address the issue. According to various reports available on the Internet, a slow-burning genocide of Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar is under way. Buddhist terrorists are on the prowl, hunting Muslims and destroying their villages and whatever little properties they own. As a matter of fact, Muslims in Myanmar are forced to live in dilapidated conditions without any rights.
Although comparing the situation in Syria would not be such a nice thing to do, but one has to admit there is not much difference. Both the regimes are brutal and killing their own people. One may argue that Myanmar does not recognize Rohingya as its citizens. These poor Muslims had been living in this area for generations. Stripping them of their nationalities does not mean they do not belong there. If, for argument’s sake, we accept the claim that they are not “original” Burmese, this does not validate the brutality of the Buddhist terrorists who are acting in connivance with the authorities.
If the Myanmar government claims not to support these terrorists in the garb of monks, then what has it done so far to check the situation. The answer is, nothing. Had it been serious about doing something for the Rohingya Muslims, it would have had allowed the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) to open its offices in Myanmar. Foreign independent media is not allowed to report about the issue. All this means that something really fishy is going on in Myanmar against the Rohingya Muslims.
One more thing about the whole issue is that: Had this been happening in a Muslim country, it would have been branded as Islamic terrorism. But in this case nobody is calling it Buddhist terrorism.
However, I strongly believe that linking terrorism to any religion is a stupid thing to do. But if there is Islamic terrorism because a group of Muslims are up in arms against some group etc., then it would not be wrong to coin the terms: Christian terrorism, Hindu terrorism or Buddhist terrorism.
Anyway, I urge the United Nations to look into the matter and do something urgently before the Rohingya Muslims become extinct. — George Fernandez, Riyadh
