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Burma Rakhine clashes

sovasova delocalized fractyllic harmonizing Veteran
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-20083287

Can someone please explain this to me?

Comments

  • vinlynvinlyn Colorado...for now Veteran
    I can only compare it to neighboring Thailand, which may or may not be appropriate.

    In Thailand, most Muslims (the total Muslim population is about 5% or less) of Thailand's population), live in the deep southern peninsula, and there are scattered neighborhoods of Muslims in other places throughout the country, especially Bangkok. There has been unrest for decades, and the reason -- as they explain it -- is rather vague...about the Thai Buddhist government not caring about them, and their religion being unappreciated when 95% of the population is Buddhist, etc. Some of their complaints, in my view, are exaggerated -- for example, in my travels I found them no poorer than many Buddhists in the Issan Plateau region. But, nevertheless they feel they are treated very poorly. And certainly the government has done their share of things to exacerbate the situation. For example, during one period of minor unrest a few years back, dozens of Muslim men were herded into tractor trailer trucks, the doors locked, as sort of temporary prisons. Guess what happened in 100 degree plus heat. Yup, many, many, many died of suffocation.

    I can only guess that there has been similar friction with the minority Muslims in Burma.
  • sovasova delocalized fractyllic harmonizing Veteran
    Aha. Thank you for your insights @vinlyn. I was unaware of the cultural clashing, although I suppose such things are sadly common in places where majority sentiment and push and pull in unexpected, less-than-tolerant ways.

    I have read and seen a few hints of this violence in Burma through the media, one of my friends linked me to an Al-Jazeera article [interestingly, in Arabic "Al-Jazeera" means "The Island"] that talked about monks holding a protest march. It's all rather strangeworld to me. But I guess it is a difficult grind, I'm sure there is much more to the struggle than the surface floam [not a real word, but along the lines of flotsam] in the media..


    @vinlyn, do you reside in Thailand now? I've always been interested in visiting there. A friend of mine sent a postcard from his one trip that paused in Thailand, and from just the image on the postcard I could tell it was a very beautiful place.
  • vinlynvinlyn Colorado...for now Veteran
    No, I traveled there extensively on long summer trips from 1985 through 2007. Then I lived there for 2 years until the riots of 2010.

    It is a charming country, but the "old Thailand" sorta died when the Red Shirts took over in 2010.
  • zenffzenff Veteran
    edited October 2012
    Explaining this kind of tension and violence between groups of people is interesting, but I don’t think it has much to do with Buddhism or Islam. The religion in this case is mostly a nameplate.

    Maybe the religion (combined with factors like language or race) is part of how groups of people distinguish themselves. Religion can even legitimize some sense of superiority and intolerance. But the way I see it is not the real cause of the violence.
    It must be something in our genes. The history of mankind is a history of bloodshed. People always found some sort of justification for it.

    Buddhism is a peaceful and tolerant religion though and we should keep it that way.
    We can express our concern and point out that Buddhism rejects the killing of innocent people and the burning of houses of other groups of people; under all circumstances.
  • sovasova delocalized fractyllic harmonizing Veteran
    @zenff - it is true that they are just distinguishing nameplates in this circumstance I think... -- you are right that one should point out that Buddhism rejects killing and harming others in other ways. Thanks for your post
  • Without being racist it always seems to be the Muslims causing trouble.
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