MY THOUGHTS AFTER READING THE STATEMENT BY A GROUP OF INTERNATIONAL BUDDHISTS urging the Burmese to show mutual respect and compassion to the Royingya Muslims in Rakhine State, Burma. by Rick Heizman, San Francisco, December 9, 2012 more papers here: issuu.com/rickheizman
My thoughts after reading the statement by a group of International Buddhist urging the Burmese to show mutual respect and compassion to the Royingya Muslims in Rakhine State, Burma / Myanmar. This will surely upset and disappoint many many Rakhine people and monks, who feel: • THIS REINFORCES THE FALSE AND DELIBERATELY MANUFACTURED ACCUSATIONS that the Rakhine Buddhist people and even the monks are the violent ones, and that the Rohingya are just nice and innocent victims. The truth is quite opposite - the Rakhine Buddhist have been the victims of major (historical and documented) massacres by the Bengali Muslims (Rohingya) and a brutal and bloody campaign to kill or drive the Buddhist out of their own homeland and to establish an independent Islamic State in that corner of Burma. • IT IS LIKE TELLING TIBETAN PEOPLE, MONKS AND ACTIVIST TO BE MORE RESPECTFUL TO THE CHINESE, and at the same time not thinking to tell the Chinese to be respectful. • THIS STATEMENT SHOULD BE DIRECTED AT THE ROHINGYA (perhaps not all, but most), who not only have no respect, nor compassion for the Buddhist and other non-muslims, but actually have shear contempt, and a 'holy' goal of driving out the indigenous Rakhine Buddhist culture, and creating a pure Islamic State that would NOT be governed by the infidel government of Burma. • BANGLADESH SHOULD BE THE RECIPIENT OF THIS STATEMENT. The Rohingya came from the Bangladesh area, they speak the same Bengali language, eat the same food, share the same DNA, practice the same type of Islam, and until a few decades ago were called Bengali Muslims, or some were called Chittagong Muslims. In both cases the origin of the Muslims is clear - they weren't called Rakhine Muslims, or Arakan Muslims. • SOME KNOWLEDGE OF THE HISTORY OF THE AREA IS VERY VERY IMPORTANT in order to really understand the situation. It is essential to know about the huge influx of Muslims into an indigenous Buddhist culture, and the intolerance, contempt and violence the Buddhist faced again and again, until they realized that THEY CANNOT TOLERATE THE INTOLERANT ANYMORE - and that they faced the loss of their homeland, their culture, their holy places, and their identity. • BANGLADESH HATES THE PEOPLE WE NOW CALL 'ROHINGYA' FOR THIS REASON: When Bangladesh fought for Independence from Pakistan, in 1971, the Bengali Muslims living in Arakan or India sided with Pakistan, not Bangladesh! They favored the more strict Islam of Pakistan. Bangladesh will not forgive them to this day, and the officials (as in India) keep volumes of hand written records, which reveal - when asked for father's and grandfather's name, birthplace villages, etc - if their father, uncle, or grandfather supported Pakistan at that time. If yes, then the whole family is 'marked' and is not welcome in Bangladesh.
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