Anti-Muslim Riots in Burma

Burma is an independent country which is also named as the sovereign state of Myanmar. The countries of South East Asian countries like China, India, Bangladesh, Laos and Thailand share their borders with Burma. Burma has a coastline of more than 1200 miles.

Anti Muslim riots have always been parts of Burmese history since the inception of the country. The Buddhist population in the country covers 89% of total population of Burma. The total population of Burma is more than 60 million people. Only 1% of the people are Muslims and their insecurity is cleared from the statistics.

The anti Muslim riots of Buddhists against the Muslims in Burma of the year 2012 have been very horrifying both in statistics and the stories of killed people. The riots have actually occurred between the ethnic groups of Rakhine and Rohingya. Rakhine people are the Buddhists who are carrying out these anti Muslim riots against the Rohingya Muslims. Rohingya are the migrated Muslims in Burma thus the government of Burma do not give them the right to get the Burmese nationality.

The riots began as a result of an allegation that was imposed from the Rakhine people. They claimed that a Rakhine woman was first robbed then raped and then killed by three people who belonged to the Rohingya Muslim group. Instead of taking the matter to court, the Rakhine people took the law in their own hands and decided to mass murder Muslims who belonged to the Rohindya group. After that a whole hell was unleashed on the Muslims of Burma by the ethnic Buddhists. The attacks of June 8 resulted in burnt houses of several Muslims and they lost all of their belongings to fire. Protestors also protested and brought harm to public and government property in various areas of Burma. The Buddhists also burnt three villages of Muslims in the Southern Maungdaw. The next day government of Burma deployed five battalions to reinforce peace in the area but in spite of increased security the riots just kept on spreading. The day of June 9^th ended with several more house burns and a murdered student.

The Rakhine terrorists kept following the Muslims wherever they tried to flee and save their lives. But none was spared. Muslims were killed, they were displaced, their houses and belongings had burnt and still no international media channel seriously covered the event. The media and human right activist institutes did not even bothered to address these anti Muslim riots in public. The Muslims who has fled to Sittwe were also followed. They tried to escape the riots and in the end found themselves again right inside the riots when buildings and houses were blazed in Sittwe by the Rakhine people.  The government figures regarding the deaths show just a two digit “80” which is not even a fraction of what is the total number of deaths that have been resulted by these riots. Thousands of Muslims have been displaced and they feel scared to go back to their homes because of the fear of life they have to face.

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