Militant Islam is nothing new nor even militant Christianity but there are reports that the military junta in Burma is planning to wipe out Christianity.
Human rights groups claim that the treatment meted out to Christians, who make up six per cent of the population, is part of a wider campaign by the regime, also targeted at ethnic minority tribes, to create a uniform society in which the race and language is Burmese and the only accepted religion is Buddhism.
Various ethnic groups in Burma, such as the Karen and Chin, have been targeted already under the guise of creating a national identity. Muslims also have been targeted by the regime at various times.
The Burmese junta’s justification for changing the country’s name to Myanmar was that it was more ‘inclusive’, and reflected the fact that they ruled over a ‘federation’ of territories (in essence, whatever the British had annexed). Under Aung San, this arrangement was legitimate, but since his assassination, it has gone downhill for everyone, including Bamars, but especially other ethnic groups. All of the country’s wealth lies around its periphery, not in the central plains, which is why there is such tyranny in these parts.
I’ve been to Burma a couple of times and it is an amazingly diverse country. In Yangon there are numerous faiths represented including Buddhists, Hindus, Muslims and Christians. One town I visited in the Shan state, you could look down the road and see a church, a mosque and two temples, all in a row.
The Burmese junta have a strange association with Buddhism. On state television, there are constantly images of military men going to meet monks. Perhaps it is an attempt to atone their sins. The junta also have a strangely mystical ideology. Anyway, senior monks are often politically active, and their status means they can speak out more than secular politicians. I have however heard people blame the Buddhist outlook for people putting up with the regime for so long. Don’t know what to make of this.
But it is wrong to interpret the junta’s propaganda as ‘militant Buddhism’. If anything, Buddhism is a force of moderation on the crazy generals.
Millitant Buddhism isn’t new either, Japan had plenty of it in the 16th century eg. see here.
Thanks for the link Steve. I’ve read a bit on Japanese history but can’t recall coming across the Ikko-Ikki before.
Bilko, according to the article it is a state-sponsored Buddhist group that is advocating ridding Burma of Christians. So I don’t think this element of Buddhism is a moderating force but rather an excuse for persecution via nationalism which the junta have jumped onto.
As far as militant Buddhism is concerned these Burmese guys are rank amateurs compared to this.
More hardline Buddhists here; http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/COL68571.htm
militancy is an end in itself, religion has nothing to do with it. in burma, like cambodia, thailand and sri lanka, if you want to gain legitimacy, you’re seen with monks. that’s why they’re on tv with them all the time. don’t be confused, the SLORC junta murder, torture and rape buddhists along with every other group– be they christian karen, muslim rohingya or just some guy who believes in suu kyi and democracy.
if this “leaked memo” achieves anything, it might be to get the christians who have any kind of agitating power within the bush administration to do something, anything!
Tyro Rex, fair enough I say to that – there should be more kicking Imperialist Christians who’ve come to convert the natives out of places. The Buddhists were non-violent, they just photographed them and told them to stop spreading Christianity and left.
I suppose you could call that hardline, I’d call it bloody sensible.
oh, alitaptap, if only the US had any moral authority, then the Christian right might be able to make a difference. sadly it doesn’t, and so when Bush briefs about Myanmar, Belarus and Cuba being “outposts of tyranny”, you just have to laugh.
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/01/23/america/NA-GEN-US-State-of-Union-International.php
Anyway, it’s China not the US that calls the shots when it comes to Burma. Note how America is quite happy to use the UN process in this context and not others.
Shaun, it is the State which advocates this religious persecution, rather than Buddhists as such. Nothing new that a religion is being hijacked for political purposes. And note how the Telegraph article mentions violence agains the Karen (in the northeast of the country), and in Arakan in the West. These are disputed territories, so I just see the Buddhist angle as a distraction for the political aims.
Shaun, the junta actively uses religion to promote its own power. Buddhism is actively promoted because it is the religion of the Burman people, the group which joins and rises in the army. The Karens, the group that the junta hates the most, are largely Christian and the subtext of attacks on Christianity are usually something to do with the Karens – perhaps a new offensive or a new round of ethnic cleansing.
The attack on muslims is harder to figure out. There have been two rounds of attacks, 1999 and then again in 2001, by monks on mosques and muslim communities in Mandalay and Rangoon. In both cases, the junta stepped in very quickly to stop the riots. Attacks on “muslims” are often a code for attack on “indians,” the Burmans and the Indians have never really got along because the Indians were the primary instruments of British power in Burma, in the civil service, police, and army. (Incidentally, the Kachins, Chins, and Karen were also heavily recruited into the army of the Raj. The modern Burmese army, the one of the coup, was formed as a part of the occupying Japanese army and as always been mostly Burman, even in Aung San’s time.)
The last part did not come out right
. I should add that the junta likes to divert attention from their own nefarious activities and it is likely that the 1997 riots were orchestrated to divert attention from the upcoming student demonstration 10th anniversary in 1998, and that 2001 riots came after US sanctions were imposed on Burma and ASSK was re-imprisoned (not sure of the dates on this last one, but it was around then).
The Karen, who are much more diverse and less Christian than most international groups tout, are also sitting on the sites of several proposed hydropower dams. Many of these waves of attacks and displacements in eastern Burma, not just Karen State, can be correllated to the development of plans for these hydropower dams in cooperation with China and Thailand. They’ve already built some smaller dams, and those were accompanied by dislocation of civilians, militarization, and land-mining of the areas.
Ajanabi, I think your assessment of the attacks on “Muslims” is correct, however, those should be taken separately from the real oppression that Muslims actually face in Burma. The Muslim Rohyinga face absurd restrictions on their daily lives and religious practice – they have to ask permission from the government just to get married – they are also routinely displaced by ‘development’, land confiscations, etc. On top of which, they are denied citizenship, and are left stateless. The junta foments discord between Arakanese and Rohingya, and there have been riots and violence in Arakan. They are either attacks against Muslims, or, they are generic riots that terrorize a town and then the government claims it was Muslim thugs or some such.
Anyway, I’m drifting slightly off-topic of the original post. I think what it boils down to is the junta will use anything and everything at its disposal to destroy the people or the culture of the ethnic minorities in its attempt to create a modern Burman kingdom ruled by general-god-kings. Religion is integral to culture, so they’ll do what they can to both destroy it and use it as a tool of eradication.