A disingenuous claim of a genocide has been made against the Buddhists of Myanmar: A critical examination of that claim
I begin this examination of a purported genocide, by looking into the religious history of the disputing parties. First the Buddhists of Myanmar.
The Pali Canon, the scriptures of the Theravada Buddhists who make up the majority of Myanmar's people, does not, in fact, command the murder and subjugation of non-believers. On the other hand, the codified text of the Sunni Muslim insurgency actually does that. (see my article on the history of jihad in Myanmar) Muslims have historically been very unkind to Buddhists. Mahmud al-Kashgari is remembered for this disturbing poem, written in the 11th century.
One of al-Kashgari's most historically significant poems, tells of the Turko-Islamic conquest of the last of the renowned Central Asian Buddhist kingdoms, the Kingdom of Khotan of the Iranian Sakas:
We came down on them like a flood!
We went out among their cities!
We tore down the idol-temples,
We shat on the Buddha's head![9][10]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahmud_al-Kashgari
I factor this unavoidable reality, into my very open cynicism regarding reports coming out of the area under dispute. I'm just funny like that.
I also, look at who is making the claim of a genocide being committed. Do they have a history of unsupported claims of Genocide? How do they view Israel's self-defense, against the jihad waged to eliminate the Jewish state? That is one of the criteria, I use to judge their overall honesty in making the accusation of a genocide. Are they themselves sharia supporting theocracies? Because if they are, I will have a distinct bias, in my own mind, as to their motivations in making that particular claim against a non-Muslim nation.
Have any of these nations, accusing Myanmar, falsely claimed any other nation of committing a genocide? Yes, Turkey suggested Israel was committing a genocide against the Palestinians. Turkey claimed China was committing a genocide in 2009 against Muslim Uighurs, in the northwest province of Xinjiang. Now Turkey is expanding trade with China. Are they forgetting their genocidal claim, now for purely economic reasons? Or was it a cynical ploy to gain sympathy for the ethnic/religious uprising in Xinjiang province?
Leaders from Malaysia, Indonesia, Bangladesh, and Pakistan have denounced the actions of the Myanmar government, and Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, and foreign minister both described the situation as a genocide aimed at Muslim communities in the region
Meanwhile, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley released a statement declaring “The United States supports democracy for the Burmese people, and we condemn attacks by militant groups in Rakhine State. However, as Burmese security forces act to prevent further violence, they have a responsibility to adhere to humanitarian law, which includes refraining from attacking innocent civilians and humanitarian workers and ensuring assistance reaches those in need. We call on all members of the Security Council to support the Burmese government in ensuring the rights and dignity of all communities in Rakhine State and throughout Burma.”
https://www.csis.org/analysis/myanmar-and-its-rohingya-muslim-insurgency
As of August of this year, no official designation of a genocide has been made by any international organization. Yet, can any of us, really be sure, that it is in fact happening? Why is Aung San Suu Kyi, a Nobel peace prize winner accused of such a horrific crime? Who is, in fact, openly opposed by an insurgency funded, and directed by state sponsors of terrorism. As well as many terrorist groups. The insurgency has confirmed ties to the Pakistani ISI Inner service intelligence, Lashkar e taiba, Jamaat e Islami, Aqa Mul Mujahidin, Al-Qaeda, and the Taliban. Killing members of these groups is an act of national self-preservation, and not an act of genocide. In other words, it's a military necessity to preserve the integrity of the Southeast Asian Buddhist state.
I'm only going by the Numbers provided in the Hill article, linked below. Now, ten thousand dead is a gross and tragic loss of human life, but is that a genocide in your eyes? This conflict has been ongoing for decades, with no end in sight.
The event was a forum and the first time Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize winner, had appeared in public since the U.N. human rights agency released a report Monday condemning Myanmar’s treatment of its ethnic-Rohingya Muslim population, calling it a genocide.
The U.N. agency estimated that Myanmar forces have killed 10,000 people, a calculation called “conservative.”
Until the report’s release, the events that caused 700,000 Rohingya to flee Myanmar to neighboring Bangladesh had not been officially ruled a genocide, a characterization that comes with specific legal connotations.
The U.N. agency recommended the matter be moved to the International Criminal Court (ICC) or a similar judicial body. However, may be difficult since Myanmar refused to cooperate with the ICC last week.
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Saturday described Myanmar’s actions as an “abhorrent ethnic cleansing” of the Rohingya and promised to hold those responsible to account.
The Trump administration leveled sanctions against four Myanmar commanders and two army units earlier this month for what it called the “ethnic cleansing” of the Rohingya.
Also, neither Israel or America would appear before that "clown court", the International Criminal Court. Do you think Myanmar should? if so why?
How can this sad situation be so misunderstood? A complicit media?
A long history of misinformation?
LEDA, Bangladesh — The four young sisters sat in a huddle, together but alone. Their accounts were dramatic: Their mother had died when their home was burned by soldiers in Rakhine State in western Myanmar. Their father was one of thousands of Rohingya Muslims who had disappeared into official custody and were feared dead.Somehow, the sisters — ages 12, 8, 5 and 2 — made their way to refuge in Bangladesh. An uncle, who had been living for years in the Rohingya refugee camps in Bangladesh, had taken them in, adding the girls to his own collection of hungry children. “My parents were killed in Myanmar,” said the eldest girl, Januka Begum. “I miss them very much.” I was reporting on children who had arrived in the camps without their families. An international charity, which had given financial support to the uncle, brought me to meet the girls. Within an hour, I had a notebook filled with the kind of quotes that pull at heartstrings. Little of it was true.
After three days of reporting, the truth began to emerge. Soyud Hossain, the supposed uncle who had taken the girls in, was actually their father. He had three wives, two in Bangladesh and one in Myanmar, he admitted. The children were from his youngest wife, the one in Myanmar.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/01/world/asia/rohingya-myanmar-camps.html
The belief in an inflated number of atrocities can come from doctored videos
Or misrepresented photographs. Israel suffers the same fate, with the Pallywood phenomenon, if I'm not mistaken. It's like an industry of misinformation aids the Jihadist cause.
https://hlaoo1980.blogspot.com/2012/08/fake-photos-lies-and--killings-in.html
Jihadists for Rohingya
As early as 10 October 2016, the New York Times reported that seven villagers were shot to death by Myanmar forces. Human Rights Watch has reported that the Tatmadaw has burned down 1,250 buildings. Reuters and Myanmar Times also reported that “Burmese soldiers” had raped Rohingya women in the affected areas. Without access given to international observers, media and humanitarian aid providers, it is impossible to corroborate these claims.
According to an article by Time on 21 November 2016, the Myanmar Government said that “Muslim terrorists burned down the buildings themselves in an attempt to frame the army for abuse and claim international assistance”. The United Nations has weighed in to call for an investigation into allegations of human rights abuses in Myanmar.
Aside from bringing the world’s attention to the alleged human rights abuses, the counter-insurgency in Arakan has attracted the attention of extremists and jihadists from South and Southeast Asia. Online extremists in Indonesia have expressed their desire to mount “jihad” on behalf of the Rohingya, with some supporters hoping that the ‘mujahidin’ will be able to smuggle into Myanmar. The Rohingya crisis has become a rallying cry for jihad and surpasses in gravity when contrasted with issues such as the alleged blasphemy by the governor of Jakarta, Basuki Tjahaja Purnama (“Ahok”). Some social media users in Indonesia have gone to the extent of declaring their readiness to be suicide bombers for the sake of the Rohingya. The Rohingya issue is fast developing into a security threat that would have an adverse impact on peace in the region.
Rohingya Crisis Triggering New Jihad
In May 2013, following the 2012 Rohingya refugee crisis, Indonesians like Chep Hermawan of Gerakan Reformis Islam (GARIS), Jakfar Shidiq of Front Pembela Islam (FPI) and Bernard Abdul Jabbar of Komite Advokasi Muslim Rohingya-Arakan (KAMRA) decided that the only solution to the alleged violence against the Rohingya is by conducting jihad. At the time, Jakfar claimed that a thousand Muslim youths were ready to enter Myanmar to defend the Rohingya. He also claimed that by Ramadhan that year, there would be enough money – 10 billion Indonesian rupiah – to purchase weapons to equip his thousand-man expeditionary force.
Chep Hermawan is also the man responsible for sending several Indonesians to Syria to join the so-called Islamic State (IS) terrorist group; they included Bahrumsyah, the leader of Katibah Nusantara in Syria. Also in 2013, two Rohingya leaders had travelled to Indonesia to meet hardline groups, apparently ‘shopping’ for “fighters, guns, cash and bomb-making instructors”, according to The Jakarta Post.
https://reliefweb.int/report/myanmar/rohingya-crisis-regional-security-implications
The tactics employed have largely remained the same for a very long time. Starting in earnest after the second world war.
Britain recruited Rohingya Muslims into its guerrilla force — the so-called “V” Force — to ambush and kill Japanese troops. When the British eventually regained control of Arakan in 1945, they rewarded Rohingya Muslims for their loyalty by appointing them to the main posts in the local government.
Emboldened by the open British support, Rohingya militants set out to settle old scores with Buddhists. And in July 1946, they formed the North Arakan Muslim League to seek the Muslim-dominated northern Arakan’s secession from Myanmar. In the religious bloodletting that preceded and followed the partition of India, Rohingya attacks sought to drive out Buddhists from northern Arakan as part of the campaign to join East Pakistan.
Failure to achieve that goal turned many Rohingyas to armed jihadism, with mujahideen forces in 1948 gaining effective control of northern Arakan. Government forces suppressed the revolt in the early 1950s, although intermittent mujahideen attacks continued until the early 1960s. From the 1970s onwards, however, Rohingya Islamist movements re-emerged, with a series of insurgent groups rising and fading away. The aim of the groups was to establish an Islamist state within a Buddhist state, principally through demographic change and jihad.
https://chellaney.net/2017/10/03/the-long-history-of-rohingya-islamist-militancy/
Hit and run attacks on Myanmar's police and military are an all too common occurrence.
On August 25, militants attacked 30 police posts and an army base in northern Rakhine State, killing ten police officers, a soldier, and an immigration official. Following this attack, the government designated the organization responsible, the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA), also known as Harakah al-Yaqin, a terrorist group.
https://www.brookings.edu/blog/order-from-chaos/2017/10/04/while-the-world-sleeps-myanmar-burns/
It is a winning tactic, repeated again and again, without much note in the western press, as it is far easier to demonize Buddhists than to report accurately on Islamic jihadists. It would conflict with the "religion of peace" narrative pushed ad nauseam by the more progressive "journalists" in the west.
Fighting in Rakhine state flared up on October 9, 2016 when suspected Islamist militants attacked three border police outposts in Maungdaw and Rathedaung localities. The subsequent violence continued for days. Media sources reported nine border policemen were killed and as many attackers died in the ensuing gun battles, with the militants stealing large numbers of arms and ammunition from the border police headquarters in Maungdaw town (Myanmar Times, October 10, 2016). Similar attacks in the same area left four more police dead on October 11 (Irrawaddy, October 11, 2016). Violence erupted again on November 12-13 when armed militants launched a surprise attack on a military convoy during a clearance operation in Ma Yinn Taung village in Maungdaw town. Two security personnel, including a senior army officer, were killed in the ambush. Several suspected militants were also killed (Frontier Myanmar, November 13, 2016).
https://jamestown.org/program/myanmars-muslim-insurgency-gaining-prominence-jihadist-groups/
So the carnage continues unabated. And those who resist the jihad waged against them are condemned, and a surreal moral equivalence is placed on the most successful resistance to the jihad. As if there was no difference between those killing in the name of their religion, and those killing murderous Jihadists.