Buddhist monks at Rangoon’s Shwedagon Pagoda protest in November against
an Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) delegation that is currently
visiting Burma’s troubled Arakan State. (Photo: Steve Tickner / The Irrawaddy)
By Lawi Weng
December 2, 2013
RANGOON — Burma’s
government says it will take action against Buddhist protesters who allegedly
carried a banner insulting Islam during a demonstration against a visiting
delegation of global Islamic leaders last month.
The state-run New Light of Myanmar newspaper
reported that protesters in Rangoon’s Bahan Township received permission to
demonstrate against the delegation from the Organization of Islamic Cooperation
(OIC), but not to hold the banner, which the newspaper described as “assaulting
faith.”
Buddhists in mid-November staged protests
across the country, accusing the OIC of trying to interfere in Burmese affairs.
The OIC, the world’s largest bloc of Islamic countries, sent its delegates to
assess the situation in parts of western Burma where Muslim communities were
devastated by religious unrest last year.
The biggest anti-OIC demonstrations were in
west Burma, but in Rangoon about 1,000 protesters, mostly Buddhist monks, also
marched from Shwedagon Pagoda to Sule Pagoda. In Bahan Township, some Buddhists
monks allegedly held a banner saying, “Oppose Islam, as it is similar to
animalism, with uncontrollable birth rates.”
The banner used a derogatory Burmese word, ta
yeik san warda, which is used to describe animals.
“During the protest against the OIC and its
delegation members on 15 November, protesters held the banner without obtaining
prior approval from the local authorities, although they were allowed to stage
the protest peacefully,” The New Light of Myanmar reported Sunday.
“Action will be taken against those
protesters who were using [the] banner assaulting faith.”
The OIC delegation visited Arakan State for
three days in November. Arakan State was the site of two major bouts of
communal violence between Buddhists and Muslims in June and October last year,
during which at least 192 people were killed and an estimated 140,000 were
displaced. The majority of victims were Rohingya Muslims, an ethnic minority
group that is largely denied citizenship in Burma and has been confined to
isolated villages or displacement camps without adequate access to services
such as health care.
Phoe Thar, a leader from the Rangoon-based
Arakan Youth Organization who applied for permission to protest in Bahan
Township, said the government was within its rights to take action against
those responsible for the banner.
“They are doing their duty,” he said. “From
our side, we will respond how we can. We will fight within the rule of law.”
He said he had not approved the banner before
the protest.
“We condemn the use of this word,” he said.
“There were people who wanted to make us look bad by using this poster. We
found other posters, but we seized them at the event. We tried out best to stop
it. This was our mistake—we could not check all of them. I had a duty to check
them.”
He said the government also had a
responsibility to prohibit defamatory banners.
“But I do not feel that the word was very
insulting to Islam,” he added. “And I want to ask one question to Muslims: How
can we solve the problem of Muslims raping our Arakanese [Buddhist] women and
burning the houses of our people?”
Ethnic Arakanese Buddhists also lost homes in
the violence last year, and monks around the country campaigned earlier this
year to restrict interfaith marriage, claiming that Buddhist women are
vulnerable to rape or forced religious conversions. Rights activists called
this campaign inappropriate and discriminatory.
U Pamaukkha, a senior Buddhist monk who led
anti-OIC protests in Rangoon last month, said the intention was not to insult
Islam.
“We are doing this to protect our religion
and race. I do not want the OIC to have an office anywhere in our country, and
we do not want interference from other countries,” he told The Irrawaddy. “We
do not see another way, except to solve this case within the rule of law. I do
not feel guilty for using this word, because we are doing it for our people.
“The government should think carefully about
whether to take action with this case. They should consider whether taking
action against us will result in peace or not. …From our side, we are ready to
face trial.”
Chris Lewa, director of the Arakan Project, a
humanitarian group that works for Rohingya rights, said the defamatory banner
went too far.
“If the translation of the banner is correct,
this goes far beyond anti-OIC protests,” she told The Irrawaddy. “This is
defamation of religion.”
She said that while the government allowed
the anti-OIC protests last month, it has violently suppressed other
anti-government or anti-industry demonstrations—including around the Letpadaung
copper mine in northwest Burma.
“Not only has the government easily given
them permission to demonstrate while cracking down on Letpadaung protesters,
but letting such insult to whatever religion unchallenged and unpunished would
be clear evidence of the government’s involvement,” she said. “This will not go
unnoticed in the Muslim world.
The Burma government has been accused by
rights organizations of being complicit in anti-Muslim violence, amid
allegations that state security forces have moved slowly to stop bloodshed in
several riots.
The Malaysian Consultative Council of Islamic
Organization (MAPIM) condemned the extent of protests against the OIC in Burma.
“We are outraged and we register our strong
condemnation against the denigration of Islam by monks in major cities of
Myanmar under the pretext of resenting the visit of OIC foreign ministers to
Myanmar [Burma] a few days ago,” Mohd Azmi Abdul Hamid, president of the
council, said in a statement last month.
He said that equating Islam to animal
ideology was not only insulting, but also “tantamount to declaring war on
Islam.”
“We see this deep hatred toward Muslims and
Islam as intentionally orchestrated by officials of the Myanmar government
themselves,” he added.
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