Aung San Suu Kyi continues to be beaten up in the western media for refusing to condemn her co-religionists in the on-going conflict between Rohingya Muslims and Buddhists in Burma (aka Myanmar).
And, why should you, living in American cities and towns, care what is going on in Burma?
Because we have been resettling tens of thousands of Burmese, largely Christian refugees for years. In FY2013 we resettled 16,299 refugees from Burma (how many were Burmese Muslims?).
Increasingly there will be Muslim Rohingya among them especially if the US Conference of Catholic Bishops has its way.
I don’t have the time or energy to go back through the controversy, but I can assure you there is blame to be shared and the Rohingya are not pure as the driven snow as this Rohingya author (at the Huffington Post) would have you believe. In my view, Aung San Suu Kyi is correct when she gave an interview to the BBC and did this:
Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s interview with the BBC during her visit to the UK, has shocked many of her admirers. Despite being repeatedly pressed to do so, she repeatedly avoided giving a clear unequivocal condemnation of the anti-Muslim violence that is engulfing Burma.
Author Tun Khin can barely contain himself. If it quacks like a duck!
Daw Aung San Suu Kyi also started talking about global Muslim power, as if this is some kind of threat to Burma? To hear a Nobel Peace Prize winner talking in the same way about Islam as bigots and racists is very disappointing. There are conspiracy theories about a global Muslim conspiracy to take over Burma, but these kind of things are spread by crazy people on Facebook. It is not what you expect from a University educated leader of a democracy movement. Instead of dismissing these claims as the dangerous nonsense they are, she gave them credibility in the eyes of many Burmese.
Count me among the crazy people!
We have 157 previous posts in our Rohingya Reports category, here, for anyone who wants to get the full picture going back 6 years on the growing conflict. You will note that we have begun resettling Rohingya to American cities despite earlier reluctance by the State Department to do so.