Day: October 15, 2012

Wow! Monks in Burma say no to Islamist organization in their Buddhist country

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Go monks!

The Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) is the largest Islamist political organization in the world.  This week 3000-5000 Burmese monks said, “get out OIC” and “we are not an Islamic country.”

I first saw the story here, but now I see that even the Washington Post ran the story today.  This latest protest follows an uprising of Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar (Burma) earlier this summer.   For new readers this is all very interesting to us since the US State Department and federal refugee contractors are just itching to bring more Rohingya “refugees” to the US.

(Going back almost five years we have 121 previous posts in our Rohingya category, here.)

The OIC says they want to provide aid to the Rohingya, but the monks understand that the Islamists want a foothold and to further inflame tensions between Buddhists and the Rohingya minority (the Buddhists say the Rohingya are really illegal aliens from Bangladesh).

From AP at the Washington Post:

YANGON, Myanmar — Myanmar’s government said it will not allow the Organization of Islamic Cooperation to open a liaison office after thousands of Buddhist monks and laypeople marched Monday to protest the plan.

Sectarian tensions have been running high in Myanmar’s western Rakhine state after clashes in June between Rakhine Buddhists and Bengali Rohingya Muslims which left nearly 90 people dead and displaced tens of thousands. Muslim mosques and Buddhist temples were burned down during the unrest.

Myanmar’s state press had reported that the government and the OIC had agreed last month to open an office in Yangon to provide aid for people displaced by the fighting, and the OIC sent a team to investigate the violence.

On Monday, the Information Ministry cited the President’s Office as saying that “the opening of the OIC office will not be allowed as it is contradictory to the aspirations of the people.”

The OIC has 57 member states and seeks to be the voice of the Islamic world.

The anti-OIC protests were held in four Myanmar cities, including Yangon, the country’s largest city, where about 5,000 people participated. Some said they were marching to safeguard Buddhism.

[…..]

Holding banners reading “We don’t want OIC” and “Long live Buddhism,” the protesters marched from the Shwedagon pagoda to Sule pagoda in the city center, shouting slogans against the OIC and paralyzing traffic in the area.

[…..]

Reflecting widespread public opinion, the head of an influential privately owned news magazine, Weekly Eleven, said there was no need for an OIC office because “we are not a member of the OIC and we are not an Islamic country.”

If only America’s leaders would have the same fortitude as the monks of Myanmar!

Egypt: So much for that Muslim charity fabrication

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Somalis having it rough in Egypt!

Readers, a few years ago (2009, here) I took issue with a United Nation’s report that stated that charity toward refugees/immigrants comes from the teachings of the Koran and Shariah Law (more so than Christianity!).  At the time, I pointed to the Muslim countries that were anything but charitable toward asylum seekers.  Now we have (more) news that the new government of Egypt is not only not charitable, but black Muslims seem to be a special target for their hatred.

I guess that Arab Spring thing was only for Arabs!

From Bikyamasr.com:

CAIRO: Somali refugees across the world have passed the one million person mark, said the United Nations refugee agency on Friday, highlighting the growing need for an end to conflict in the Horn of Africa.

[…..]

Here in Egypt, life for Somali refugees is not easy, especially as the government began earlier this year to deport unregistered migrants in the country. Making matters worse, the UNHCR has largely not registered new refugees in the country in recent years.

Hamdy is a 29-year-old Somali living in Egypt. He has been in the country for 6 years and barely survives on the UNHCR monthly allowance.

“I have no real job and life is hard,” he told Bikyamasr.com, sipping his tea and warming his hands as the steam billowed upward. He stares in silence.

“A few of my friends have been arrested by the government when they tried to cross the border into Israel. We don’t know where they are right now and pray they are safe,” he continued. “It is not a good life to be a refugee in Egypt.”

Earlier this year, Egypt deported 93 Ethiopians who entered Egypt with the goal of crossing the Sinai desert into Israel illegally.

For Hamdy and others, this is the only way to make a life for oneself. “What can we do but hope to be allowed to work and have a family,” he said.

In Egypt, life is a struggle, where Africans face racism, ostracism and a lack of opportunity. For children of migrants and refugees, going to school is impossible as the Egyptian government does not allow refugees to attend public schools. For the vast majority of Sudanese and Somalis in the country, this leads to a waiting game, and in recent years as foreign relocation has been all but closed, they remain patiently in their host country for a call that doesn’t come.

The Africans want to get to Israel:

Egypt’s border security has been repeatedly criticized for its “shoot first” strategy in dealing with migrants attempting to cross into the Jewish state, as they often do not issue verbal warnings first and fire at the Africans.

Israel says that approximately 10,000 Africans have entered the country illegally via Egyptian borders over the past few years.

Africans in Egypt complain of poor living conditions and bad treatment at the hands of their host nation. Many see Israel as the next best solution for their troubles and are willing to risk death to reach the Jewish state, refugees in Egypt have repeatedly said.

So, let’s see—Egypt, a Muslim country governed by Shariah law, won’t take care of Muslim refugees, but tiny Israel is pressured into taking them.