Death toll rises to 20 in Myanmar religious riotsMEIKHTILA, Myanmar: A lawmaker says at least 20 people have died in two days of rioting between Buddhists and Muslims in a central Myanmar town where residents remained locked in their homes, too afraid to walk the streets.
Opposition National League for Democracy lawmaker Win Htein told The Associated Press by telephone on Friday that at least five mosques were burned down since the violence started on Wednesday in the town of Meikhtila.
He said there was no immediate sign of fresh violence but the situation remained tense.
He said fires continued to burn but angry Buddhist residents and monks prevented authorities from putting out fires set to Muslim homes.
The violence is the latest sectarian unrest after clashes in western Rakhine state last year left more than 200 dead.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/south-asia/Death-toll-rises-to-20-in-Myanmar-religious-riots/articleshow/19122527.cmsSri Lankan Buddhist Chauvinists Provoke Violence against MuslimsAn organisation called Bodu Bala Sena, or the Buddhist Power Force, is in the forefront of organising violence against Muslims in various parts of the country. Like Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU), a partner in the ruling coalition, Bodu Bala Sena claims that Muslims are a threat to Buddhism. Its declared purpose is to “strengthen and defend the Buddhist religion” and its heritage.
This organisation recently launched a provocation against Muslims at Buwelikada, a small town 15 kilometres from Kandy in the Central Province. The town’s predominantly Muslim population includes small shop owners and vendors.
A group of Sinhala youth travelling in a bus began a quarrel with Muslims, claiming that a van had obstructed the road. Several Muslims injured in the clash were hospitalised. The government immediately deployed units of the notorious police special task force (STF), whose members did not arrest the culprits, but instead were sympathetic toward the thugs.
When WSWS reporters visited the area, the police had allowed Buddhist flags to be forcibly placed atop Muslim houses and businesses. Residents said loudspeakers had also been installed on a Muslim business building, with Buddhist religious preaching continuously disturbing people.
One resident commented: “We have lived in harmony with the Sinhalese. But I can’t understand what is going to happen now.” A disgusted Muslim youth said: “These people have never acted this way. Yesterday we were inconvenienced in our religious activities because of the noise of loudspeakers.”
In an attempt to defuse the situation, Muslim organisations had helped erect a Buddha statue in Buwelikada. But extremist monks continued their communal agitation, accusing Muslims of “plundering” lands belonging to Sinhalese. Anti-Muslim posters had been pasted in the town, before people removed them. Tensions were so high that another attack and clash could take place at any time.
In November, after an unidentified group destroyed a Buddhist place of worship in eastern Ampara, a Bodu Bala Sena leader, Galaboda Aththe Gnanasara, declared that Muslim extremists were seeking to create a separate state in the east. He provided no evidence for his claims, which were calculated to provoke reprisals against Muslims. He claimed that Bodu Bala Sena was an “unofficial police force,” demonstrating the organisation’s readiness to resort to violence, taking the law into its own hands.
On January 2, Gnanasara urged people to boycott goods with a Halal label. His group demanded that the government investigate whether Islamic religious funds amounting to 80 billion rupees were being used to finance “Islamic terrorist groups” in other countries. This charge was also made without any evidence. On January 4, the Islamic Ulema organisation rejected the allegation and asked the national intelligence unit and defence ministry to probe its accounts.
Muslim religious leaders had met Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapakse on December 25 seeking a solution. He “assured” them that the government did not support “incidents of extremism” and promised to look into the situation. Muslim Council chairman M. N. Ameen said it had identified 19 web sites instigating anti-Muslim sentiment.
Despite the efforts of the Muslim leaders to accommodate to the government, Rajapakse’s assurances are worthless. It is clear that the Buddhist group is planning more provocations. It has started demonstrations, led by monks, in various towns across the country to whip up anti-Muslim sentiment.
According Bodu Bala Sena’s web site, one of its aims is to “build Buddhist businesses and investors and defend them.” It is catering to business, big and small, while pitting poor people against each other along ethnic and religious lines.
Gnasara was a leader of the ruling coalition partner, the JHU. Along with another monk, Kirama Vimalajothi, he broke from it to form Bodu Bala Sena, declaring that the JHU was not militant enough to protect Buddhism. His organisation’s provocations seek to recruit disoriented poor and young people as shock troops, as part of a systematic campaign against Muslims.
It is no accident that President Rajapakse and his government are giving a free hand to this organisation and other Buddhist and Sinhala extremist groups. Successive Sri Lankan governments have repeatedly used communal discrimination and provocations to divide the working class along ethnic lines.
Decades of official anti-Tamil discrimination led to the bloody protracted war against the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). Now, nearly four years after the LTTE’s defeat, the government and the military have launched a propaganda campaign aimed at stirring up anti-Tamil sentiment by alleging that the LTTE is reviving.
With the economic situation worsening, the government has again turned to the International Monetary Fund, seeking a loan of $US1 billion. Any such loan will require even more draconian austerity measures than those already being imposed by the government under the terms of the last IMF bailout.
The government is conscious that rising working class unrest, long suppressed with the help of the trade unions, could erupt. Fomenting communalism is part of the government’s preparations for police state repression against the working people.
Workers must reject all forms of nationalism and racism. Only on the basis of a unified political fight for a workers’ and peasants’ government to reorganise society on a socialist basis can the working class defend basic democratic rights and living standards.
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2013/01/09/sril-j09.html
Thailand Buddhists Protest And Stop Mosque ConstructionAn ongoing protest against the construction of a mosque in the midst of a Buddhist community looks set to succeed in aborting the project.
Attempts to settle the dispute between local Buddhists and Muslims in Ban Pong Namron of tambon Mae Jedi Mai in Wiang Pa Pao district have had little impact amid accusations that officials are wilting under pressure from the area's Buddhist majority.
Local Buddhists turned out in a mass protest against the mosque project on April 24 at the district office.
Since then Chiang Rai Governor Thanin Supasaen has ordered officials from the Public Works and Town and Country Planning office to inspect the project, raising allegations that local authorities have decided to seek "flaws" as an excuse to scrap the project instead of attempting to resolve the conflict.
"From land acquisition to the [mosque] design and asking for a construction permit, we've followed every legal step," said Kamon Thomyawit, senior adviser to the coordinating committee for non-governmental organisations for the southern border provinces.
"But because people protest against it, state agencies are trying to persuade us to stop building," he claimed.
The construction of the mosque was initiated by Muslims who raised the funds to build a religious venue in Wiang Pa Pao district.
The site is expected to serve many of the 200,000 Muslims who pass through the area while travelling between Chiang Rai and Chiang Mai.
There are about 20 Muslims in Ban Pong Namron, but protesters are worried about the 200,000 who are expected to travel along the route every year. Many Muslims from the South have invested in rubber plantations in the upper North, particularly Chiang Rai, they said.
The project's supporters have so far listened to protesters but, Mr Kamon said, "their reasons are not sound".
He said the group cites worries over divisions in the local community and a threat to security if the mosque is built.
"So where do we find social justice?" He believes the problem exists because "the other side is greater in numbers".
Many villagers in the neighbourhood are worried by the violence in the Muslim-dominated provinces of Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat in the far South, and wonder about how an influx of Muslims might affect their lives, said protest leader Bunnak Chomtham, chairman of the Noi-Nan Wiang Pa Pao group.
The protesters distributed leaflets opposing the project to residents in Wiang Pa Pao district and asked Buddhists to support their movement.
Ban Pong Namron villager Khemaphat Saengmani insisted the villagers do not oppose other religions, including Islam.
He only wants the construction site to be relocated because it is adjacent to a Buddhist temple.
The role of authorities in dealing with the issue has come under criticism so far. They are suspected of bowing to the pressure of the Buddhist protesters.
Protesters have vowed to expel all provincial officials who are found to support the mosque's construction.
District chief Choetchai Phibunwutthikun attempted but failed to help the two sides settle differences, and referred the problem to the Chiang Rai governor.
However, Chiang Rai Islamic Committee chairman Rachan Ruchiphan is still optimistic about the issue.
He believes the quarrel between the local Buddhists and Muslims can be solved through sensible dialogue.
Buddhists and Muslims in the North have been living together so far without any signs of religious conflict, he noted.
Authorities need to look into the problem more thoroughly in order to find any "hidden causes" that have led to fierce protests, Mr Rachan added.
http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/local/293310/locals-fear-impact-of-new-mosque
Topic: Buddhist uprising against Muslims (Read 2588 times)