The Rohingya are a Muslim minority in what is now Myanmar (although officials there call them illegal aliens) and no Muslim country will help them. In recent months the number of Muslim boatmen seeking work and flooding into neighboring countries have caused a political firestorm in Thailand, Indonesia, Bangladesh and Malaysia. See our Rohingya reports category for the background.
An Associated Press story yesterday makes the point of telling us that a rich Muslim country, Saudi Arabia, won’t help them either.
But unlike the Kurds or the Palestinians, no one has championed the cause of the Rohingya. Most countries, from Saudi Arabia to Malaysia, see them as little more than a source of cheap labor for the dirtiest and most dangerous jobs.
For years, the Rohingya traveled to the Middle East for work, with nearly a half million ending up in Saudi Arabia.
[…..]
But in recent years — partly because of bureaucratic hurdles faced by Muslims following 9/11 — many now try to go instead by boat to Thailand and then overland to Malaysia, another Islamic nation.
I don’t know what hurdles 9/11 placed on the Saudis. Most of the 9/11 hijackers were Saudi.
Zakat, giving charity, is one of the five pillars of Islam, I guess Saudi Arabia and other rich Muslim countries aren’t willing to help their Rohingya Muslim brethren. The UN won’t say a word about it. Instead western countries, Christian countries, will be called upon to do so—-what else is new?