The genocide that has long been the reality of the Muslims of Myanmar (Burma) at the hands of Burmese Buddhists harks back to the heart-wrenching ethnic cleansing of Muslims in Srebrenica on European soil in the mid-1990s. Never again, the world proclaimed in unison, would this be allowed to take place – the wilful mass slaughter of people – the inevitable and evil end result of unchecked racism, ethnic-ism, and religious intolerance. We hear this time and time again – post Holocaust, post Srebrenica. Sadly, we now hope for a time to come to be known as “post Rohingya”.
We call on world leaders to open their eyes and hearts to the real and ongoing plight of yet another persecuted Muslim ethnic minority, and the state apartheid that denies them basic rights afforded other Burmese, but rather tacitly permits their indiscriminate killing, rape, expulsion, and destruction of their homes in an attempt to erase any Burmese Muslim heritage. We ask why the world continues to turn a blind eye to these atrocities, allowing them to take place with such impunity, despite Myanmar boasting a Nobel Peace Laureate as incumbent leader?
We urge Muslims around the world to supplicate to Allah (God) Almighty for help in these trying times to ease the suffering of our Brothers and Sisters in Myanmar, and of all those innocent people suffering oppression around the world. Please remember to make Qunoot (a special supplication within the Salah/Prayer) for them.
“The only real prison is fear, and the only real freedom is freedom from fear”
Aung San Suu Kyi, Nobel Peace Prize Winner 1991