Update October 8th: 22 Rohingya (posing as refugees) in Bangladesh charged in massacre of Hindus, here.
This is not new news to me!
I’ve been hearing about this problem for years—the US State Department, with unwavering faith, seems to think it can place Muslims in Christian communities and the melting pot will perform its magic and presto! there will be love and acceptance all around.
Burmese Christians and other Burmese religious minorities (including the Chin) have been terrorized back home by Rohingya Muslims for decades and they fear it will begin again in Ft. Wayne, Indiana!
(Ft. Wayne first came to my attention ten years ago because of the very high TB rates there in the Burmese community. Also, many years ago I received a call about how fearful the Burmese Christians there were when resettlement contractors began placing the Rohingya in their neighborhoods.)
Please pay attention readers!
We have been admitting thousands of Rohingya to the US for the last ten years (just short of 20,000 so far)! Trump will be admitting more!
From this article we learn that the Rohingya enclaves growing in the US are in Chicago, Milwaukee and Ft. Wayne. But, don’t forget the brutal murder in Salt Lake City! And, I have some recent stories about Rohingya in Phoenix and that sexual pervert in New Hampshire in my HUGE Rohingya Reports archive, click here.
Do you know what is the most remarkable thing about this story?
It is the fact that a publication like VOA is even putting this in print! The times they are a changin’…..
From Voice of America (hat tip: Joanne):
The crisis [latest conflict began in 2012 when a gang of Rohingya men raped and murdered a Buddhist girl—ed] has increased the number of Rohingya refugees arriving in the United States, and since 2015 they outpace the number of Syrians resettling here.
But instead of landing in Chicago or Milwaukee, two cities home to a large number of Rohingya, Tahir and her family instead arrived in Fort Wayne, Indiana, and became one of the first Rohingya families in the area. [Don’t you just love it—arrived! Arrived like they picked Ft. Wayne on a map. They were placed there by the US State Department and its contractors!—-ed]
A Burmese community
Burmese community members believe there are now more than 150 Rohingya families living in Fort Wayne, and although their numbers are growing, their community remains a small fraction of the more than 6,000 Burmese of various ethnic groups now living in the city.
Can you believe it! VOA continues:
Most of the foreign-born Burmese population in Fort Wayne speak a different language and practice different religions than the Rohingya, and the ethnic tensions and religious persecution that fueled their flight from Myanmar don’t necessarily end once they arrive here.
“Why I don’t like Rohingya to come to Fort Wayne is … most of them, almost 100 percent, are Muslims,” said Burmese Chin community leader Abraham Thang, who moved to Fort Wayne in the 1990s.
“They’re blood is Muslims, not Buddhist, not Christians. They did very terrible job, like attacking the military and police post, and killing and murdering the Hindus. That is not good for Rohingyas. That is the big mistake by Rohingyas.”
Thang, a pastor at the Myanmar Indigenous Christian Church, was one of the few Burmese willing to talk to VOA about Rohingya resettlement in Fort Wayne, and while he emphasizes these views are his own opinions, they are indicative of the same resentments Rohingya face in Myanmar.
“I don’t mind they practice what they believe,” Thang explained to VOA. “What I mind is extremism. Most of the terrorists come from the Muslim community. This is what I am thinking in my mind personally. So my opinion is, rather than sending Rohingya to Fort Wayne, and not sending them here is better don’t send Rohingya to Fort Wayne.”
Mayor: All welcome here
“That’s unfortunate,” said Fort Wayne’s mayor, Tom Henry. “I want anybody from Myanmar to know they are welcome in our community.”
Henry, a Democrat, has made Burmese integration into life in this city of more than 250,000 a priority of his administration.
“We try to pride ourselves in being a welcoming community, an inclusive community, a community that allows people to assimilate throughout our community and if they want to ultimately become an American citizen, we’ve got the tools in place to help that happen. So when I hear that there is that kind of tension and anxiety behind the scenes, that disturbs me.”
But some community members, like Thang, worry that an increasing number of new arrivals will only fuel tensions.
“I foresee the Burmese people and the Rohingya people in the future, sooner or later, we will have conflict and that is not good for the Fort Wayne community.”
Much more here.
My Ft. Wayne posts are here.
Again, my Rohingya Reports category is here (209 previous posts) with enough material to write a book!
See also my post yesterday about political action that should be aimed at mayors and local elected officials.
Go here to see which contractors are working near you. Surprise! Not! Looks like Catholic Charities is the resettlement contractor in Ft. Wayne. I believe they were responsible in Salt Lake too. Memory lane: In 2013 I was there to hear a Catholic Bishops’ lobbyist tell the State Dept.—we want more Rohingya!