The Stateless Rohingya Blog

By Dr. Habib Siddiqui Shenali Waduge is a die-hard apologist for Buddhist crimes against others, esp. Muslims. So it is not surprising to note Shenali's intellectual inability to discern truth objectively. Instead, what we find is an attempt to rewrite history distorting facts with fictions, myths and lies. Before Islam came to the Indian subcontinent, Buddhism has already been marginalized by powerful Hindus. Even in Bengal, which is closer to Bihar where Siddhartha Gautam Buddha was born, Hindu Brahmins/leaders/rulers were able to reclaim their control over the people. As a matter of fact, had it not been for Islam, Buddhism would have totally been wiped out by Hindus in entire India. Shenali and other Buddhist apologists for Buddhist crimes may like to read the scholarly writings of unbiased area experts on this issue rather than swallowing poisonous pills that are distributed by chauvinist monks like Wirathu to clear their indefensible ignorance and despicable hostil...

·          ADVANCE FOR USE SUNDAY, JULY 7 AND THEREAFTER - In this May 25, 2013 photo, partially burned Islamic religious books rest among the debris of Himayathul Islamic Boarding School in the Mingalar Zayone neighborhood of Meikhtila, Myanmar. On one of the country's single darkest days since its post-junta leaders promised the dawn of a new, democratic era two years ago, 36 Muslims, most of them teenagers, were slaughtered there on March 21, 2013, before the eyes of police and local officials who did almost nothing to stop it. Photo: Gemunu Amarasinghe ______________________________________________________________ Todd Pitman Associated Press July 5, 2013 MEIKHTILA, Myanmar — Their bones are scattered in blackened patches of earth across a hillside overlooking the wrecked Islamic boarding school they once called home. Among the smashed fragments of skull and jaw lie the sharpened bamboo staves attackers used to beat dozens of people to th...

Luke Hunt The Diplomat July 5, 2013 As Myanmar continues its reform process, the politics is throwing-up a bevy of contrasts – some welcomed and others not. One tour company is offering free beer while the government has banned the recent issue of TIME Magazine, featuring a cover of a Buddhist monk blamed for the recent carnage against Muslims in the country’s north. The July 1 edition of Time carried the cover photo of  Burmese monk Ashin Wirathu , a known fundamentalist and head of the 969 group, which has deployed the age-old technique of mixing rabid nationalistic and religious sentiment to stir up hatred against minorities. He would like to see a ban on the marriage of people from different faiths and remains unapologetic for the waves of anti-Muslim violence that has to date claimed more than 200 lives in the country and forced another 150,000 people from their homes. In a recent interview with the Global Post  he even added : “Muslims are like the...

The boat people being interviewed in a police jail in January Photo by phuketwan.com By Chutima Sidasathian PhuketWan July 5, 2013 PHUKET: Two Rohingya being held captive in Thailand died yesterday as a doctor warned the Governor of Songkhla that conditions in a detention centre are inhumane and likely to lead to a growing toll among the boatpeople. The two deaths while the men were being taken to hospital took the total number of deaths at the crowded Sadao Immigration Centre in Songkhla province to five fatalities since January. Volunteer doctor Anantachai Thaipratan told Phuketwan: ''I was ablle to check the condition of 80 of the people in the facility yesterday. Of those, five needed immediate hospitalisation. Two of the men died on the way to hospital.'' By the time that the men were being taken to hospital, Dr Anantachai was in the office of the Governor of Songkhla, telling him that the 302 people were being kept in impossibly crowded and unhealt...

Govt urged to extend 6-month help deadline  Bangkok Post: July 4, 2013 PHANGNGA: Humanitarian agencies are appealing for the government to extend its six-month period of protection offered to more than 2,000 displaced Rohingya. The deal is due to expire in three weeks. Muslim humanitarian groups helping to care for the Rohingya say for of the migrants have already died in the shelters. A dozen others have fled the holding areas and five have filed lawsuits for trafficking and rape charges. Most of the Muslim Rohingya sailed from Bangladesh and Myanmar where they faced persecution, arriving on Thai shores since mid-January. That pledge to provide shelter ends on July 26. During the past six months, however, the government has provided no clear legal or policy support to care for the displaced people. Immigration authorities chose to segregate the Rohingya and place the men in detention facilities scattered around the country, from southernmost one...

Rohingya subjected to abuse, forced labour, harassment, rape,& Human rights abuses against the Rohingya Community (photo thestateless.com 2011  Maungdaw, Arakan State: The systemic and discriminatory practice of forced labor against the Rohingya community has been resumed recently in Maungdaw south, Arakan State, said a local elder on condition of anonymity. “Burmese concerned authorities —army and Nasaka (Burma border security force) resume forced labor as usual, in Maungdaw Township.” According to sources, Nasaka personnel of Nasaka area No. 7 have been using forced labor from Rohingya people for repairing  roads for three days which were damaged by heavy rain recently. Nasaka personnel arrested Rohingya villagers from the road and villages where they met for forced labor, sources said. A villager said on condition of anonymity, “10 villagers including me are arrested from the Khonza Bill village and from the roadside by the Nasaka personnel on July...

An Indonesian soldier (L) joins a group of Rohingya asylum-seekers from Myanmar for prayers in a mosque at the immigration detention center in Lhokseumawe town, Aceh province, on April 11, 2013. Buddhist-majority Myanmar views its population of roughly 800,000 Rohingya as illegal Bangladeshi immigrants, and as sectarian violence has escalated in the past year they have fled in increasing numbers. Graphic on the thousands of stateless Rohingya Muslims who have fled deadly sectarian violence in Myanmar over the past year. A young Rohingya asylum-seeker from Myanmar looks through a window of the immigration detention center in Lhokseumawe town, Aceh province, on April 11, 2013. Most Rohingya do not initially view Indonesia as their final destination and hope to use it as a stopping point en route to Australia, where more than 220 have arrived on asylum seeker boats over the past year. Rohingya asylum-seeker Mohammad Zuhar bin Sayed Alam displays pictures of his wi...