Deadly anti-Muslim riots in Myanmar

-Dr. Abdul Ruff Colachal

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Whether it is in Muslim countries, or non-Muslim or anti-Muslim, unfortunately Muslims have been target of the regimes themselves for whatever reason, globally. Devilish enemies of Islam keep laughing at the pathetic looking terrorized, insulted and injured Muslims.

Myanmar and Assam in India have been in news about brutality unleashed on Muslims off and on.  However, no one cares about brutality perpetrated against Muslims anywhere in the world. While the OIC is silent, the Arab league even supports the trend. Whatever the Arabs support, the Muslim media lords world also shield with impunity.  

The victims are obviously the Muslims themselves.

In view of zero action by Islamic world  in dealing with the anti-Muslims and anti-Islam menace, the tragedy of Muslims has been almost a permanent phenomenon.  The enemies of  Islam  are at work,  operating behind the  US illegal war on Islam in Islamic world, endorsed by Arab world that now seek wealth and petrodollars in lieu of Islamic path and faith.  .

 A month ago about 300 radical Buddhists who generally hate Islam and target Muslims for economic reasons as well rode into Mandalay, Myanmar’s second-largest city, wielding swords and bricks, killing two people.

Since then Mandalay was again rocked by deadly anti-Muslim riots. Broken windows and large dents in the facades of a dozen small Muslim-run businesses are the only visible reminders of state sponsored Buddhist atrocities.

Politically charged anti-Muslim speech and widespread sectarian violence by Burmese Buddhists are threatening the livelihoods of Myanmar’s Muslim community.

The plight of common Muslims is even worse now who have no incomes for to meet the daily home expenses.  “I usually make about $300 per month, but now there are not many people to buy and  I am only making about 20 percent of what I was….We were closed for a whole week, so there was no income,” said Mama Gyi, a 56-year-old Muslim who owns a bike rental and convenience store in Mandalay.” This situation is common for all ordinary people in the locality.

Muslim traders and businessmen have been a major part of the country’s economy since colonial times and the rule of the British East India Company. Today, they make up about 5 percent of the population, with many earning their income from small, family-run businesses. A Muslim who owns a medical supplies firm in Mandalay, said fears of more flare-ups had chased away customers and businesses alike. He said many shop owners moved with their families to Shan State, in the country’s northeast, while others moved to the outskirts of Mandalay.

Larger companies have faced resistance as well. The Qatar-based telecommunications operator Ooredoo, which introduced services in Myanmar on Aug. 15, has been the subject of anti-Muslim protests and a smear campaign in social media because of the company’s roots in a Muslim country. In May, anti-Muslim nationalists led by Buddhist monks protested in Mandalay, calling for a full boycott of Ooredoo in Myanmar. Although several monasteries started their own boycotts, there has been no widespread spurning of Ooredoo, which said it had signed up more than a million customers in its first month.

Tourism can generate substantial economic gains for Myanmar, but international visitors are largely confined to the central parts of the country even now, due to security reasons. Myanmar’s $926 million tourism sector is feeling the effects, but mainly in areas hit by violence, the problem was especially prominent in Rakhine State. After as many as 6,000 tourists visited in 2011, the number traveling to the archaeologically significant town of Mrauk U, known for its historic Buddhist shrines, or stupas, has dwindled to hundreds. Underscoring the impact of the violence, Yangon, the country’s main city, which has been largely unaffected by unrest, welcomed 817,000 tourists in 2013, a 46 percent increase from the year before.

In Mandalay, where a curfew was imposed after the July riots, the locally owned Golden Myanmar Airlines said evening flights, which often departed around the curfew time of 9 p.m., were only 30 percent full before the curfew was lifted in August.

Over the last three years, Myanmar has undergone an economic transformation. The government has awarded foreign companies landmark concessions of its untapped oil reserves and telecommunications spectrum, estimated to be worth billions of dollars. As a result, foreign direct investment has risen to $4.1 billion in the latest fiscal year, up from $1.4 billion the year before, according to the Myanmar Directorate of Investment and Company Administration. The International Monetary Fund has said Myanmar’s economy is poised to grow 8.5 percent this year, a slight increase from 8.25 percent a year earlier.  

Although there has been small drop in foreign investment so far, experts say, continued sectarian violence throughout the country could change that, at a pivotal point in the country’s development.

Sectarian violence, both against Muslims and the Rohingya minority, is growing worse in other parts of Myanmar, particularly in the states of Rakhine, on the country’s west coast, and Kachin, in the northeast. Sectarian violence is affecting the Muslim Rohingya business community on every scale from small businesses to the bigger companies. There has been no resolving the problem, and the situation is getting worse and worse as Muslims are suffering every day

Since anti-Muslim violence started in 2012 hundreds of thousands of the estimated 1.2 million to 1.5 million Rohingya have fled the country, with another 150,000 winding up in camps. About 80 percent of Muslim businesses in Rakhine State were affected by the violence, particularly in the state’s capital, Sittwe. Businesses owned by Muslims were looted by Rakhine extremists, and many are now closed, especially in Sittwe.

The government believes that continued violence could threaten the country as a whole. Communal violence is a big challenge for Myanmar — not only for foreign investment — but also for the stability of the country and Myanmar society.

In Myanmar, where there is large investment need, it affects foreign investor sentiment and can limit FDI. Muslims said they were uncertain whether the situation would improve soon.  “One day, the people will understand each other and understand what it is to be Muslim,” a 43-year-old shopkeeper woman said.

Has the Islamic world, including Arab League as well as OIC, got any credible role to play in ending perpetual attacks on Muslims in non-Muslim countries, like Burma?