Burma again: Did he cry for Americans on 9/11?

11/17/2013 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Editors note: Pay attention! This is not some faraway problem—it will be yours in the West when they start pushing in a big way for the resettlement of Rohingya to your towns!

Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, the Turkish Secretary-General of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, who headed a delegation of Islamists to Burma (Myanmar) last week (here) reportedly cried for the Rohingya Muslims of Burma, or so he told the world media including the Associated Press (via the Washington Post).

I’m telling you I have watched this public relations campaign build over the last 6 years—they build a drumbeat of victimhood and the Muslims are NEVER anything but the victims!

It makes me want to scream! The western media NEVER reports when the Rohingya instigate violence in Burma, or India, or Bangladesh or Malaysia!

Here is the WaPo today:

YANGON, Myanmar — The secretary general of the world’s largest bloc of Islamic countries said emotional visits with members of the long-persecuted Rohingya Muslim community — chased from their homes in Myanmar by Buddhist mobs and arsonists — brought him to tears.

“I’ve never had such a feeling,” Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu said late Saturday, as he and other delegates from the Organization of Islamic Cooperation wrapped up a three-day tour to Myanmar that included talks with the president, government ministers, interfaith groups and U.N. agencies.

Never had such a feeling! Never for the thousands upon thousands of innocent people killed in the name of Islam, never for the Christians slaughtered in Africa almost every Sunday, never for the innocent victims of 9/11?

Aung San Suu Kyi gets it! (see our previous post here)

The Post (AP) ends with this:

Opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi — who has said little in defense of the religious minority — declined to meet with the OIC delegation.

A woman with such power must really p***-off the OIC!

Endnote: In 2009 we reported that the US State Department had linked Rohingya to terrorist groups operating in that part of the world, but lo-and-behold in 2012 (during Ms. Hillary’s reign) that link was no longer available at the State Department’s website.

Burma: One of the few places in the world telling the OIC to take a hike!

11/16/2013 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Protestors Nov. 15th with NO! OIC stickers and banners. Photo: AFP

The OIC, of course, is the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, and the Buddhists in Burma (Myanmar) believe they have come to their country to help facilitate the expansion of the Muslim population and Islam in the mostly Buddhist nation.

Here is the story in the Irrawaddy (one of many today) about protests that greeted OIC members from Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Malaysia, Egypt etc. My view is that if they are so concerned about the “plight” of the Rohingya, then resettle them to their Muslim countries! (emphasis below is mine)

RANGOON — A high-level delegation from the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) was greeted by an estimated 3,000 protestors Friday, when the group that includes foreign ministers from Islamic countries arrived in western Burma’s troubled Arakan State.

A group from the 57-member OIC arrived in Burma on Wednesday to meet with officials and investigate the situation of Rohingya Muslims, who make up the majority of the estimated 140,000 people displaced by two waves of violence in Arakan State last year. At least 192 people were killed in inter-communal violence between Arakanese Buddhists and Rohingya, who the government of Burma does not recognize as citizens.

Buddhists have staged demonstrations across the country this week accusing the OIC of trying to interfere in Burmese affairs.

On Friday, the delegation landed at about noon at Sittwe Airport, where angry demonstrators held aloft banners saying “Get Out OIC,” and “We Don’t Want OIC.”

“Our people arrived here at 7 am. We have over 3,000 people,” Tun Hlaing, an organizer of the protest, told The Irrawaddy. “We all shouted to them that we do not want them to come here.”

The Burmese government has approved the visit and reportedly guaranteed the security of delegates, who include OIC Secretary-general Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu and Malaysian, Saudi Arabian, Egyptian, Djiboutian and Bangladeshi officials.

Tun Hlaing said the group did not leave the airport, but was taken by Burmese military helicopters to parts of Arakan State where the population is majority Rohingya.

Having watched this situation evolve for nearly 6 years, I believe this is exactly correct:

Tun Kyi claimed the conflict between Buddhists and Muslims in Arakan State is stirred up by international involvement.

And, for the umpteenth time, Americans should be concerned because the federal refugee contractors want more Rohingya resettled in your towns and cities. Some are already here. See our Rohingya Reports category with its 158 previous posts to learn more.

Top photo is from this story (Radio Free Asia). The second photo is from the Irrawaddy.

Burmese champion of human rights doesn’t take the Muslim Rohingya side and it steams them

11/02/2013 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Hillary (and Huma!) must surely be unhappy with Aung San su Kyi on the Rohingya issue!

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.

Clamp-down on illegal boats seems to have cooled Rohingya plans to make a run on Australia

10/15/2013 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Gosh, could strict border enforcement work!

For new readers, the Rohingya are Muslims, some of whom have lived in Burma, others in Bangladesh. They are often called “stateless” by the human rights industrial complex which has made them a cause celebre in a public relations campaign we have followed for over five years. We have a category specifically for Rohingya posts, here (156 previous posts!)

Chris Lewa of the Arakan Project, second from right, is quoted often in support of Rohingya.

Australians, fed up with the thousands of mostly Muslim illegal migrants coming to their shores in recent years, has elected a government which is sending signals that it won’t be a push-over as some recent governments have been on the subject of illegal immigration.

Here is an article in The Irrawaddy which reports that Rohingya people (already in their own “cultural zones” of Indonesia, Malaysia, and Bangladesh) are now having second thoughts about trying to reach Australia. Emphasis below is mine.

KUALA LUMPUR — Australia’s clampdown on refugees and migrants trying to reach the country’s shores by boat has prompted uncertainty among Rohingya who, facing state oppression and attacks by Arakanese Buddhists, have fled Burma in the tens of thousands in recent years.

Since Australia’s now-ousted Labor government decided in July to prevent refugees traveling by sea from landing in Australia—saying that would-be arrivals would be taken to processing centers in neighboring Nauru and Papua New Guinea (PNG)—some Rohingya who had hopes of making it to Australia are now in a bind.

“We are disappointed, we feel like we are stuck,” said Zafar Ahmad Abdul Ghani, president of the Myanmar Ethnic Rohingya Human Rights Organization Malaysia (MERHOM). “Many of us do not have papers here [in Malaysia] and we have no status in Burma. It is a difficult situation for anyone who hoped to travel to Australia,” Ahmad told The Irrawaddy. [To “travel” or make an illegal run for Australian shores!—ed]

Thousands of Rohingya refugees undertake a treacherous maritime journey from western Burma to Thailand or Malaysia. From there some in turn hope to reach Australia, usually attempting another dangerous maritime crossing through the Indian Ocean.

[…..]

Rohingya arrivals to Australia are difficult to quantify, as those who do make it are listed as “stateless” by Australia, while some others who arrived in Australia over recent years claimed to be Rohingya but were assessed by Australia to be either Bangladeshi nationals or Burmese Muslims, according to Chris Lewa. [I suspect that those Rohingya getting into the US through refugee resettlement are being referred to as Burmese Muslims as well, since the word ‘Rohingya’ is associated with some pretty rough types.—ed]

Australian government statistics—covering the years from 1998 to 2012—list 2,204 stateless maritime arrivals to Australia, a cohort that includes Kurds, Palestinians and Rohingya.

The boat people issue became a major election issue as immigration restrictionist Tony Abbott was elected as the new Prime Minister last month.

A voter backlash against the arrival of over 40,000 asylum seekers since 2007, when policy was relaxed for a time, prompted both of Australia’s main parties to suggest tighter controls.

I found this bit of the story of interest too:

Indonesia is a common transit point for refugees trying to reach Australia, Rohingya included. At least 28 Middle Eastern migrants drowned when a boat, which was aiming to reach Christmas Island, an Australian territory in the Indian Ocean, sank off Indonesia in late September.

Note they are simply referred to generically as ‘Middle Eastern’ migrants with no mention that they were Lebanese pretending to be Syrian refugees as our commenter ‘pungentpeppers’ reported here.

The photo is from this story about a UNHCR meeting in June. In a cursory search I can’t find a specific website for Lewa’s Arakan Project, lots of references to Lewa and the status of the Project as an NGO, but no website. if any industrious readers find one, let us know!

This is rich! UAE calls on Buddhist Burma to treat Muslim Rohingya better

09/29/2013 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Hey here is an idea, maybe rather than shoving the minority Muslim population down the throats of the Burmese, the rich United Arab Emirates could welcome the Rohingya to the UAE—but, oops! the UAE doesn’t take refugees!

Monks protest against the Organization of Islamic Cooperation! Imagine if we had such brave people!

There would definitely be less tension in the whole world if we followed the Daniel Pipe’s plan of keeping Muslim refugees in their own “culture zones!”

From WAM.org:

WAM NEW YORK, 28th September 2013 (WAM)– The UAE has expressed concern over the acts of violence which target the Rohingya Muslim minority in Myanmar, and demanded the international community encourage the government of Myanmar to carry out its duty to put an end to these acts which contradict the basic principles of human rights, as well as to help the Rohingya restore their rights as a Muslim Minority in Myanmar.

The UAE also re-affirmed that it will continue to provide humanitarian aid to the victims of violence in Myanmar and to defend the legitimate rights of the Muslim minority in the country.

This came in the UAE’s statement at the meeting of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) Contact Group on Rohingya, held in New York, USA, under the chairmanship of Prof. Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, the Secretary General of OIC, on the margins of the 68th United Nations General Assembly.

I think the OIC is still smarting from being banned by Burma. They wanted to get into Burma (aka Myanmar) to supposedly inspect living conditions for Rohingya. I expect they wanted-in to help agitate and stir up more tension.

Let’s all encourage those rich Muslim countries to do THEIR share by welcoming their fellow Muslims to their cities!

See our entire Rohingya Reports category (155 previous posts!). US Resettlement contractors want more Rohingya to resettle in America.