M-Media
February 17, 2013
By Aye Maung
A crowd of about 300 Buddhists attacked a Muslim Religious school in Yangon this morning. The crowd also attacked Muslims who tried to stop the violence.
The school is located between 18th and 19th street in Thar Ka Ta township. As permitted by the Ministry of Religious Affairs, the school has existed since 2001 and it now requires fixing the roof.
After receiving necessary permission from the municipal authority, the school administrators started repairing the roofs. But the Section In-charge or Sae Ein Mu (literal meaning: the person who is in-charge of 10 houses) was upset about it, and some extremists started the attack, followed by other residents.
A Buddhist eyewitness said, “The crowd attacked the school by saying ‘Kalar are perky. They are trying to make the small one into a big one. They can’t do like that. Kalars have to be kicked out from the land of Myanmar’”.
During the attack, there were two police. They told the crowd that the school would be demolished after two weeks, but the crowd did not listen.
M-Media learns that the mob also attacked a Muslim man who was then saved by the police.
Tin Maung Than, secretary general of Islamic Affairs Council who was also a member of the Arakan conflict investigation commission, arrived in the area and asked Sae Ein Mu about the event.
Being upset, Sae Ein Mu said ‘attack, attack’ and some members of the crowd punched and attacked Tin Maung Than and his colleague, Zaw Min Latt.
According to a representative from a Muslim organization, five major Muslim organizations in Myanmar are holding a meeting about the violence today. They will address the case and also report it to Nay Pyi Daw.
The organizations are also discussing about The Voice Weekly Journal’s erratic reporting. Instead of saying the roof repair, The Voice reported as ‘building a new mosque’, leading to public anger.
The Buddhist majority in Myanmar are against the existence of mosques, leave alone building new ones. The Voice’s false report frustrated the public.
Nyi Win, a Yangon resident, told M-Media, “The Voice posted photos about today case on its Facebook network, captioning it to be about the construction of a new mosque”.
He added that public swearing and anti-Muslim comments are appearing again on The Voice’s Facebook Page. Nyi Win is worried that anti-Muslim mobilization will spread across the country via the internet.
He added that public swearing and anti-Muslim comments are appearing again on The Voice’s Facebook Page. Nyi Win is worried that anti-Muslim mobilization will spread across the country via the internet.
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