Buddhist Mobs Burn Mosque and Muslim School in Burma

[cdude]

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/30/wo...nmar.html?_r=0

Shall we have a dedicated Burma thread, now it's a certified democracy.

And is it Myanmar or Burma? I will go with Burma, 2 letters shorter.

So yeah, the Buddhists have been on the beast mode for a while now.

[Double Edge]

Sad, but here is an example how things in one country can rebound in another.

There were some attacks earlier in Burma and the muslims got clobbered. These are mostly Bangla settlers. There were photos circulated about dead bodies with monks looking over them in my city and the implication was made that those in the NE (rather than in Burma) were responsible. Certain people here started to threaten the NE people and a few days later there was this massive exodus of NE students & workers from my city back to their native states.

Nothing the govt could say or do would change their mind. They just ran to the train station in the thousands to get the first train back. Things calmed down when nothing serious happened and then they returned a cpl of weeks later.

Hope it does not start up again.

Interested to know what this 'radical strains' of Buddhism is about.

[DOR]

Burma is to Myanmar as Cambodia is to Kampuchea.

“Violent Buddhists attacking Muslims.”

Not a headline I ever expected to see.

.

What’s happening is the military is standing back to remind the political leadership that they cannot be ignored. We saw it in the anti-Chinese riots in Indonesia and many other examples.

Sadly, Aung San Suu Kyi has soiled her reputation by failing to take a hard stance against these horrific “ethnic cleansing” movements. Indeed, she has not engaged on the issues between the Burmans and the minorities (Kachin, Karen, Shan and others) very much at all.

Perhaps she knows the military will use it to discredit her, or that the political leadership has lost control of the armed forces. Either way, she should speak up.

[lemontree]

The Rohingas have never been accepted in Burma as compatriots although some schools of thought claim that they are original Arakanese who had escaped to Bengal when Arakan was invaded and occupied by the Burmese in late 18th century. A sad state of affairs as they are considered one of the most prosecuted ethnic groups in the world.

[Double Edge]

Some background..

Rohingya conflict in Western Burma - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[tankie]

Fighting has been going on in Thailand for a few years now .


Racism at the Heart of Fight among Buddhists and Muslims | Scoop News

[Firestorm]

The last time the Burmese went apesh1t, there were riots all over India. Hope better sense prevails this time.

[Skywatcher]

How long will it be until AQ pokes its nose in?

And as for the Thailand business, the Pattani Malays are rather peculiar... they don't even get along with Malays south of the border.

[DOR]

The Rohingas have never been accepted in Burma as compatriots although some schools of thought claim that they are original Arakanese who had escaped to Bengal when Arakan was invaded and occupied by the Burmese in late 18th century. A sad state of affairs as they are considered one of the most prosecuted ethnic groups in the world.

True, except that they've lived on both sides of the Naga Hills for about 1,000 years.

[Bigfella]

How long will it be until AQ pokes its nose in?

Maybe not AQ, but this sort of situation is tailor made for extremist preachers. Extremist messages often get sold on a 'we are the victims' narrative (see Woolwich & much more besides). When you genuinely are a victim, and of the most horrendous & unprovoked attacks, a fair bit of the hard work is done.

My prediction is that in time we will see some sort of organised 'terrorism' or violence from within Burma's Muslim community, whereupon they will get lumped in with the 'all Muslims are extremists/terrorists' category and the origins of this flushed down the memory hole.

[cataphract]

Sad, but here is an example how things in one country can rebound in another.

There were some attacks earlier in Burma and the muslims got clobbered. These are mostly Bangla settlers. There were photos circulated about dead bodies with monks looking over them in my city and the implication was made that those in the NE (rather than in Burma) were responsible. Certain people here started to threaten the NE people and a few days later there was this massive exodus of NE students & workers from my city back to their native states.

Nothing the govt could say or do would change their mind. They just ran to the train station in the thousands to get the first train back. Things calmed down when nothing serious happened and then they returned a cpl of weeks later.

Hope it does not start up again.

Interested to know what this 'radical strains' of Buddhism is about.

That had more to do with the riots in Assam than those in Burma.