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.
Monks: Get out OIC!
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.
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!”
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!
This just showed up in my alerts, but since it’s well into Sept. 19th in India, I don’t know if anything happened on the anniversary of the Batla House attack.
Imagine if Christians and Jews had the nerve to protest like this!
From the TheTimes of India (be sure to see the article itself for the many links included in it):
NEW DELHI: On the eve of the Batla House encounter anniversary, Delhi Police told all police stations to step up security in the wake of terror threats. Intelligence agencies have warned of possible bomb blasts by Indian Mujahideen and Lashkar-e-Toiba to avenge the arrest of Yasin Bhatkal and Asadullah Akhtar.
Delhi Police and the Intelligence Bureau have been asked to keep a close watch on movements of Rohingya and Lashkar operatives as they might strike at Buddhist structures in the capital. A meeting between senior Delhi Police officers and the ministry of home affairs was also held in this connection.
Indian Mujahideen, in 2010, carried out an attack near Jama Masjid on the anniversary of the encounter.
Sources say that Tehsin alias Monu, Bhatkal’s deputy is still at large and capable of making bombs. “It is possible that IM and Lashkar operatives may plan an attack on Thursday to show that the organization is still strong,” said an officer.
Intelligence agencies have informed the government that Lashkar-e-Toiba is using Rohingya Muslims to carry out activities in India.This claim was supported by LeT operative Abdul Karim Tunda who, during interrogation, said Rohingyas were being trained in Pakistan. He also named leaders of the Rohingya Solidarity Organization working in association with Lashkar bosses Hafiz Saeed, Zaki-Ur-Rehman-Lakhvi and Muzammil.
In his interrogation report, accessed by TOI, Tunda said, “Rohingya Solidarity Organization or the Arakan Rohingya Islamic Front (ARIF) was constituted in Burma.Dr Yunus, the President (Amir) of this Tanzeem, came to Pakistan in 1994 and joined a conference organized by LeT”.
Delhi Police has been asked to keep a watch on the 200-300 Rohingya families living in and around Delhi.
Why should we care?
We care because US refugee contractors, including the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, are promoting the resettlement of Rohingya “refugees” (as a persecuted group meaning they wouldn’t have to prove that they personally are persecuted) to the US. Some have already been resettled in your “welcoming” towns and cities and referred to as “Burmese” with no mention of their religion.
For more on the Rohingya resettlement drumbeat, see our entire category here with 154 previous posts!
The Washington Postcalls the Buddhists trying to keep Islamic supremacism from washing over Burma “radicals.” But, of course the Rohingya Muslims are “long-suffering” and play no role (according to the media meme) in the bouts of violence springing up in Burma/Myanmar.
Westerners need to take a free-speech lesson from the monks!
Thanks toTheMuslim Issue for directing us to the latest whitewash of the controversy spreading throughout Southeast Asia as Rohingya Muslims from Burma arrive by the boatload and expect asylum especially in places like Australia.
Having followed the issue for almost 6 years (148 previous posts here at RRW), I find this one-sided reporting maddening. The latest flare-up of violence began last year when a Buddhist girl was raped and murdered by Muslim men, yet that is long-forgotten in the latest telling.
From the Washington Post(is this a news story, or an opinion piece—it is hard to tell!):
Members of Burma’s Buddhist majority, including some of its much-respected monks, are increasingly persecuting the country’s long-suffering Muslim minority and adopting an ideology that encourages religious violence. It seems a far way from the Buddhism typically associated with stoic monks and the Lama – who has condemned the violence – and more akin to the sectarian extremism prevalent in troubled corners of the Middle East. The violence has already left nearly 250 Burmese Muslim civilians dead, forced 150,000 from their homes and is getting worse. [It is infuriating because scores of Buddhist villagers were killed and made homeless by Muslims as well. Where is the balanced reporting?—ed]
“You can be full of kindness and love, but you cannot sleep next to a mad dog,” Ashin Wirathu, a spiritual leader of the movement and very popular figure in Burma, said of the country’s Muslims, whom he called “the enemy.” He told the New York Times, “I am proud to be called a radical Buddhist.”
[….]
Already, the movement has expanded beyond this one self-styled radical Buddhist monk. It’s now expanding across Burma (also known as Myanmar) according to the Times article. The anti-Muslim sentiment has spread with alarming speed over just the last year, as Burma – which is finally opening up after years of military dictatorship – loosened its strict speech laws.It has prompted boycotts and sermons that can sound an awful lot like calls for violence against Muslims. Monasteries associated with the movement have enrolled 60,000 Burmese children into Sunday school programs.
The article goes on to criticize Aung San Suu Kyi who has largely remained silent on the Muslim Issue.
Just a reminder to American readers, the US Conference of Catholic Bishops testified at the State Department last month that they wanted more Burmese Muslims resettled in America!
Before I get to today’s news, please please pay attention! I’ve been writing about the Rohingya Muslims of Burma for more than five years. We have (to date)145 posts in a special category we set up just to chronicle the recent history of the Rohingya in Burma (Myanmar), Bangladesh and elsewhere because we could see that one day there would be a push to bring them to America.
***Update and an afterthought!*** If you are from somewhere other than the US and think this story doesn’t apply to you, think again! Just search “Rohingya and your _____country” and see if they are already arriving where you live. We know Rohingya have gone to Ireland, Canada, Australia and India among others.
It is your classic case of the media in cahoots with NGOs developing a false victim’s status for the troublesome Islamists as a drumbeat is built to demand that the West take them as “refugees” to your towns and cities.
USCCB: Bring them to America!
Below is what the US Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) spokeswoman told the US State Department at the hearings we attended on May 15th. The USCCB is the largest of the nine major federal refugee contractors. This is directly from the official testimony of the USCCB as presented by Anastasia Brown:
The most important hope for the Rohingya in Bangladesh and other places is that they achieve a status that will allow them to live normal lives. Given the limited options for this population, we strongly believe that the Rohingya in Bangladesh should receive a Priority Two designation from the U.S. government, allowing them to be resettled as members of a persecuted group. [Meaning that someone need only say, I am Rohingya so therefore I am persecuted.—ed] While the Rohingya have not received this designation, other refugee minorities of Burma have….[Here she is referring to Christian Burmese we have been resettling by the thousands. Brown is essentially saying, we Catholics gotta be fair to the Muslims!—ed]
We applaud the U.S. government’s resettlement of a small number of Rohingyas out of Malaysia and Bangladesh.However, the need is much greater than this. We encourage the US government to continue to work for a solution with the government of Bangladesh which would allow resettlement to start, and we believe that a P-2 designation for those in the camps would facilitate this. We also encourage the U.S. government to look at expansion of resettlement for Rohingya and other refugees that have reached Indonesia, to avoid onward movements by boat towards Australia.
Why is Burma’s ethnic violence a problem that the US must attempt to solve by bringing refugees to America? Indeed, as much as we feel sorry for Australia, why is Australia’s boat people problem ours to solve?
If Brown and others get their way, the next huge Muslim wave (after Somalis) to America will be Rohingya! And, remember that the contractors are paid by the head to resettle refugees—the more they bring, the more they get of your tax dollars.
Readers must contact your elected officials in Washington and tell them Burma’s ethnic conflicts are not our problem and do not allow Rohingya migration to the US!
The Muslim Issue has this photo, but I can’t find it anywhere else at the moment. I’m wondering if it appeared in early versions of the story and has since been removed and replaced with photos of burning mosques!
So here is the latest from Burma. Hat tip: The Muslim Issuevia twitter.
YANGON—Houses and mosques were set ablaze by mobs in a town in eastern Myanmar after a Buddhist woman was allegedly “torched” by a Muslim man, authorities said Tuesday, in a fresh bout of religious violence.
An ethnic Shan-Muslim man was arrested after he “torched” a woman selling petrol, a police officer in the Shan State capital of Lashio told AFP under the condition of anonymity.
A town official confirmed the arrest of the Muslim man who he said had “torched a woman with petrol,”
A curfew was imposed late Tuesday to disperse angry mobs of local people—including Buddhist monks—who had “destroyed some houses and mosques,” the official added, also declining to be named.
“Fires have been put out at some places in the town… the situation is under control now,” the official said, adding soldiers have been deployed to enforce the curfew.
The woman, an ethnic Shan-Buddhist, was taken to hospital, but neither official could give details of her condition.
The article goes on to list the Rohingya grievances as is the usual case in any media story coming out of this ethnic conflict.
Human Rights Watch has accused Myanmar’s authorities of being a party to ethnic cleansing over the violence, which killed some 200 people and saw mobs set fire to whole villages.
Myanmar’s reformist President Thein Sein this month vowed to uphold Rohingya rights, while opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi on Monday made a rare intervention in the incendiary issue to condemn a ban on Rohingya having more than two children in strife-torn Rakhine.
On this last point, we have written many times that Aung San Suu Kyi has previously remained silent angering the pro-Rohingya ‘rights’ agitators. There are many stories in the last few days that she has spoken out on the two-child policy for Burmese Muslims. But, truth be told, just as anywhere in the West, Muslim Rohingya are producing more children then Westerners and everyone knows it’s just a matter of numbers and time.
By the way, China’s one-child policy is a reason Chinese migrants (even men!) use to ask for a grant of asylum in the US.
