In this photo taken on May 29, 2017, Muslim men crowd a mosque in Yangon
as the pray during the holy month of Ramadan. Many of the men, who
normally prayed at an Islamic school in their neighborhood, are forced
to attend a different faraway mosque after the madrassas in eastern
Yangon were closed down by a Buddhist nationalist mob, one of a growing
number of raids by resurgent hardliners intent on silencing the maligned
minority. Source: Ye Aung Thu / AFP
SEVEN Muslim men have reportedly been jailed in Burma (Myanmar) for
three months for organising Muslim prayers in the street about a year
ago, after local Islamic schools were shuttered prior to the holy month
of Ramadan.
According to the UK-based Burma Human Rights Network (BHRN)
the men were sentenced on Monday under Burma’s War and Village Tract
Administration Law which prohibits public gatherings, for organising a
public prayer on the street in Tharketa Township in the country’s
largest city of Yangon back in April 2017.
“This case and the events which led to it all demonstrate a societal and
systemic bias against Muslims and minorities inside of Burma, said the
organisation’s Executive Director, Kyaw Win in a statement.
“These men were denied a place to worship by the authorities intentionally trying to prohibit their religious freedoms.”
In April last year, mobs of far-right Buddhist nationalists swarmed two
madrassas (Islamic boarding schools) in Tharketa, demanding that the
local authorities shut them, which they subsequently did. With Ramadan
beginning a month later, the local Muslim community continued to hold
their prayers on the street – often in the pouring rain.
Authorities halted public prayers involving around 50 Muslims in late
May as “threat to stability and rule of law”, with the seven men in
question later charged.
“When some men took it upon themselves to continue practicing their
religion outside in the rain because they were not permitted a place to
worship, they were punished for this as well,” said Kyaw Win on Tuesday.
Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch (HRW)
said last year that “Burmese local officials’ craven capitulation to
mob demands to shutter two Muslim schools is the latest government
failure to protect Burma’s religious minorities.”
In this photograph taken on February 9, 2017, anti-Rohingya hardline
Buddhist monks and supporters rally outside Yangon’s Thilawa port as the
Malaysian ship carrying relief aid for Rohingya Muslim minority
arrives. A Malaysian ship carrying aid for thousands of Rohingya Muslims
who have fled a bloody army crackdown arrived in Yangon on February 9,
2017 where it was met by nationalist protesters. Source: Romeo Gacad /
AFP
Around 90 percent of Burma’s population is Buddhist, while Muslims represent an estimated 4 percent.
The country’s transition to democracy from military dictatorship has
seen ongoing legal discrimination against minorities, as well as the
emergence of vocal Buddhist ultranationalist groups who call for
violence against the Muslim population in Burma – particularly the
Rohingya.
Humanitarian agencies have said more than 671,000 Rohingya Muslim
refugees have fled the country’s northern Rakhine State into Bangladesh
in since Aug 25 last year in response to so-called “clearing operations”
by the Tatmadaw army – violence described by the United Nations as
a “textbook example” of ethnic cleansing.
Last September, BHRN released a report in
which it documented rising persecution of Muslims elsewhere in Burma
including authorities making it difficult for Muslims to obtain identity
cards and rebuild damaged mosques. Moreover, it noted the spread of
so-called “Muslim-free” villages across Burma.
The United States’ Commission on International Religious Freedom reported
in 2017 that the National League for Democracy (NLD) government of Aung
San Suu Kyi had allowed “systematic, egregious, and ongoing violations
of freedom of religion or belief to continue.”
“It has been a long time since we have been able to build new mosques in
this country,” said Kyaw Khin, head of a national Muslim group told HRW
last year. “Others are destroyed in violence, and some are closed by
the government.”
The international community should view the imprisonment of the seven
men as an “early warning” of worsening oppression against Muslims and
other minorities in Burma, BHRN said.
“It is hard to imagine any intention the authorities might have other
than to make religious freedom nearly impossible for Muslims,” Kyaw Win
added.
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