Post by Admin on Jun 1, 2015 15:29:11 GMT
Never Forget.
Germany is extremely sensitive over the burden of Nazi history they have had to carry. After the war was over: the Nazi elite were sent to England and the scientists were sent to the CIA in the United States.
The Germans of today are not Nazis. But Germany is still blamed for the Nazis to this day: so much so that they are quick to expose the ideology as soon as they see it sprout up. We should all, as a worldwide unit, listen to their wise advice. They said “Never Again”. So should we.
They recognize the reincarnation of the idea in the form of Scientology, some see it in ISIS. Frankly; so do I.
It is the IDEA that is our enemy; not a certain group of people. As you can see; the IDEA has travelled from group to group, and nobody stopped it by discussing how wrong it is, and how badly people are treated by others believing in that IDEA. People can and do change their minds giving solid facts and hard evidence. Ideas can be re-shaped or abandoned if confronted with that truth. IDEAS cannot be killed. Only faced down and defeated by discussion.
Below is a link to an Alfred Hitchcock documentary on the Nazi Holocaust - from 70+-year-old actual historical film. Warning; some images are disturbing, as such inhumanity should be disturbing to anyone. But, it really happened and we all need to understand that to prevent it from occurring again. Before you decide to ask, yes I required my own biological children to watch the Holocaust documentary when they were much younger. They were horrified, but they lived, and know truth from fiction as I would expect them to do in order to be healthy adults.
If you pay attention to the film: the victims were all ages from babies through retirement-aged people. It didn’t matter if the life the Nazis had planned for them was “appropriate” or not, did it? They were required to live it as their version of real life.
The future victims were told they were going to a better place, which is why they packed up their best things, and paid for their own train tickets into the concentration camps (they did not know their destination). The deception made it look to be a voluntary choice.
Does that not sound like the very same thing that is happening today if you bother to investigate many of the missing persons reports nationwide, let alone worldwide?
The ideology was never extinguished.
Knowledge provides the power of prevention.
This movie accurately reports through the eyes of a combat cameraman all aspects of the consequences of the Nazi Ideology: the odd reality of normal life living alongside horrific inhumanity. It is living history, not a glossy hollywood recreation. To avoid it happening again you need to learn the reality of all that happened. Denial of reality allows repetition, and "the Master Race" as they call themselves are still denying to this day that it happened. It did, and relatively few of those involved in the genocides of World War Two ever faced justice, and are still blaming the Jews today for persecuting themselves.
I won’t go into the psychiatrics of that denial, I will leave it to the professionals if they care to unravel that, because I do not.
I found that historical video reviewed here (along with various others):
qz.com/411444/the-most-powerful-holocaust-film-youve-never-seen-is-this-lost-hitchcock-documentary/
The exact reason that we have all forgotten about the holocaust and history is currently repeating itself, is because people complain at having to be faced with the REALITY of our shared past instead of gazing at pretty hollywood glitter. Reality is NOT hollywood.
Why have you been allowing history to be re-written? History not remembered is human history repeated.
Some things, many past mistakes, are not worth repeating.
It's not just one group that needs to smarten up, it is the entire world that we all share. So too is the exact same thing happening to Muslims in Rohingya; as it did to Jews in Hitler's Nazi Genocide agenda.
The following excerpts are from the article:
qz.com/416101/islamophobia-is-killing-myanmars-rohingya-but-the-muslim-world-can-help/
Perhaps the plight of the Rohingya will stir the Muslim world to more sophisticated cooperation. The most trite and common arguments deployed by anti-Muslim bigots are used in Myanmar to encourage ethnic cleansing.
Radical Buddhists? Violent monks? Ethnic cleansing? Concentration camps? And now, mass graves? What’s happening in Myanmar is terrible, but it should be impossible. At least, so far as Islamophobes would have it.
The genocidal campaign for the elimination of a people, the Rohingya, has been gathering steam in Myanmar since 2011, but counter to common stereotype, the victims are Muslims, and their attackers include Buddhist monks.
The extremist movement behind some of the worst violence, “969,” claims the Rohingya are outbreeding the majority, attempting to conquer and subjugate Myanmar’s Buddhists. If that language sounds familiar, it should.
While Bill Maher and friends insist Islamophobia is just made up—even as they are guilty of it—969’s words and deeds are not idle exercises in televised talking points, jokes at the expense of Muslims, merely designed to earn laughs.
Many of the most trite and common arguments deployed by anti-Muslim bigots are used in Myanmar to encourage, justify, and accelerate ethnic cleansing. The Intercept found that recently some Rohingya have been arrested for membership in a terrorist movement, the “Myanmar Muslim Army,” which doesn’t even exist. Last year, the New York Times revealed Muslim concentration camps, the intention of which should be obvious.
As the violence escalates, Rohingya have begun to flee, paying thousands of dollars to flee on leaky boats. Of the country’s approximately 1 million Rohingya (numbers vary, in part because the government’s censuses permit no such identification), some 100,000 have already fled, and nearly 140,000 are displaced.
The unluckiest are sold to human traffickers, who extort their families back home for more money. They seem to be the source of mass graves found near the Thai border. Thousands more are stranded at sea. David Pilling called the Rohingya the “Jews of Asia”. The Economist said the Rohingya may be “the most persecuted people in the world.”
They are painful evidence Islamophobia is real, and can be lethal. But it’s also a means to understand just how sloppy, inaccurate and dangerous Islamophobia can be. Just try turning things around.
Is it Buddhophobia, or the ugly truth?
What would happen if people started using Myanmar as a jumping off point for discussing Buddhists and Buddhism, just as anti-Muslim bigots like Bill Maher use instances of extremism to indict an entire religion and civilization?
You could do the same to Buddhism, which we often consider a far more pacific religion, which suggests just how contrived and artificial many Islamophobic arguments really are.
After all, many Buddhist-majority countries have long refused democracy (Vietnam, Myanmar), been plagued by genocidal violence (Laos, Cambodia), or brutalized by discrimination against religious minorities (Sri Lanka against Hindus, Myanmar against Muslims and Christians). This pattern extends to countries influenced by Buddhism, which have been at war with the West (Japan, Vietnam, North Korea, China) and suffered harsh authoritarian rule, including China, Vietnam and North Korea, sometimes considered the world’s most tyrannical regime.
With generous amounts of selectivity, ahistoricity and blindness to what’s happening elsewhere in the world, not involving Buddhists, a bigot would conclude it’s all Buddhism’s fault, and suggest any evidence of pacific Buddhism is merely a lie, some kind of nefarious dissimulation by which to hide the nasty truth.
We could have a whole industry devoted to everything that was wrong with Buddhism. Based merely on where Buddhism flourishes, one might conclude that Buddhism appears to be a profoundly undemocratic and despotic religion.
This is of course the kind of reductionist rhetoric all extremists use. And it’s exactly the kind of rhetoric that Islamophobes use to describe Islam (as well as Islamic extremists use to describe other groups.) Good reason to avoid it.
The plight of the Rohingya illustrates how Islamophobia works. But it also illuminates how extremism—including Islamic extremism—functions, and what we can do about it.
Islamophobia is real. So is Islamic extremism.
As I see it, Islamic extremism is not the real cause of many of the Muslim world’s problems, so much as it is an effect of it.
People, especially youth, become disillusioned, especially when they see conflicts in which it appears Muslims are exclusively or primarily the victims, and that not only can they do nothing about it, but their leaders and institutions refuse to do anything about it, too.
Tired of seeing Muslims only as victims, some turn to violence. (Remember, extremists view the world selectively, and don’t see their own aggression as violence—they believe they’re acting in self-defense.)
The Rohingya seem to be the same old story all over again. A Muslim people are persecuted, marginalized, or attacked. The international community can’t or won’t help them, and neither does the Muslim community offer much assistance. Radicalism takes root, and sells itself as the only route to real change. Will the same thing happen here? Will Islamophobia lead to Islamic extremism?
So far, there are reasons to believe this time might be different. On May 27 and 28, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) convened Foreign Ministers from across the Muslim world in Kuwait—some 57 countries were represented—and the Rohingya were at the top of the agenda. The OIC’s Secretary-General, Iyad Ameen Madani, has said “the plight of the Rohingyas” cannot be addressed without “international cooperation.” The meeting concluded with a vow to work with the Arakan Rohingya Union, which represents the world’s Rohingya.
Indonesia and Malaysia have changed their initial stance towards Rohingya refugees, offering temporary asylum for 7,000, while Turkey has donated $1 million in relief assistance. One OIC member state, Gambia, has announced that, should transportation for the Rohingya be provided, it is a “sacred duty” to resettle all Rohingya refugees in its territory. But because Gambia lacks the money and resources to transport them, it would require partners, which one hopes the OIC is able to provide. Hopefully the OIC can bring resources together, and provide options.
It may well be that the Rohingya will be driven out of Myanmar. But that does not mean they will have nowhere to go.
Perhaps the plight of the Rohingya will stir the Muslim world, as well as Muslim communities, to more sophisticated cooperation and action. Muslim countries and communities could leverage their resources to assist a population in need, showing young Muslims they can effect change by working with existing institutions, and not outside or against them. They could show that radicals are the ones harming Muslims, and that the mainstream can provide real assistance and rescue.
Out of this persecution, then, we might not only begin to see how dangerous Islamophobia is, how its language is fundamentally the same kind of language all extremists use—speaking in broad generalizations, lumping in very different kinds of people, and assuming the worst in order to justify the worst. But we might also have a chance for Muslims themselves to show their own institutions, organizations and nation-states can work together to provide peaceful assistance on a truly dramatic scale, which is not only good for Rohingya, or for Muslims, but for the world.
Follow Haroon on Twitter at @hsmoghul. We welcome your comments at ideas@qz.com.
‘969’: The three digits that are terrifying Muslims in Burma
observers.france24.com/en/20130503-‘969’-digits-terrifying-muslims-burma
This photo shows the cover of two CDs with the '969' logo at the top. On the far right is the monk Wirathu, the leader of the '969' campaign. The CD is titled "Monks' teachings: How to protect our religion and nation." Photo courtesy of MMedia.
Brightly-coloured posters and stickers bearing the number "969" are popping up in cities all over Burma. These look innocuous enough at first glance. However, “969” actually denotes an anti-Islam campaign led by hardliner Buddhist monks. Burmese Muslims say it has stirred up hatred and paranoia, resulting in a string of bloody anti-Muslim riots across the country over the past weeks.
The three digits ‘969’ originally refer to the Buddha’s “three jewels” , but they are now being used as a brand name for a nationalist, anti-Muslim campaign led by a prominent monk based in Mandalay. Wirathu, who likes to refer to himself as the “Burmese Bin Laden”, was jailed in 2003 for inciting riots against Muslims, but was released as part of a general amnesty in 2012. Since then, he’s spearheaded the fast-growing ‘969’ movement, making numerous speeches calling on Buddhists to “buy 969” and boycott Muslim-owned stores.
Anti-Muslim sentiment has boiled over repeatedly since the ‘969’ campaign first emerged several months ago. In late March, rioters went on a three-day rampage in the central town of Meikhtila, burning down Muslims’ homes, businesses, and mosques. About 40 people were killed. The remnants of Muslim-owned stores were spray-painted with the digits ‘969’. Many witnesses said that during all this, the police stood by and watched. Shortly afterwards, more riots erupted in the Bago region after travelling monks preached the ‘969’ ideology. And early this week, fresh clashes broke out in Oakkan, a town north of Rangoon, where at least one person was killed.
With no end to these tensions in sight, thousands of Muslims displaced by these recent riots are staying shut up in refugee camps. According to the latest census, Muslims make up about 4 percent of Burma’s total population.
An activist placing a pamphlet calling for peace between religions on the windshield of a taxi bearing ‘969’ stickers (circled in red). Photo published on Facebook by CJMyanmar. Photos of the ‘969’ campaign are rather difficult to obtain, due to the sensitive nature of the subject. However, one Malaysian journalist was able to film ‘969’ propaganda in a Rangoon market.
“My sister, who owns a store, has lost nearly all of her customers since the start of the ‘969’ campaign”
Aung (not her real name) lives in Rangoon. She is Muslim.
" I started seeing ‘969’ stickers and signs in Rangoon just a couple months ago. Some shopkeepers put them on their storefronts, and taxi drivers stick them to their windshields. It’s a minority, but it belies a wider boycott of Muslim stores. Supporters of ‘969’ have been passing out pamphlets telling people not to shop at Muslim-owned stores.
My sister owns a store, and has lost nearly all her customers since the start of this campaign. They know she’s Muslim – she looks Muslim, and wears a scarf. Like many other Muslim business owners, she is facing serious financial troubles because of this boycott. "
“All of my closest friends are Buddhists, and all of them avoid me these days”
I recently visited one of my oldest friends’ stores, and noticed she had put up a ‘969’ sign. She’s Buddhist and has recently started treating me like a stranger, so I didn’t dare ask her why she did this. All of my closest friends are Buddhists, and all of them avoid me these days.
I don’t feel safe in Rangoon anymore. I don’t think Muslims are safe anywhere in this country right now. I would like to go live abroad, but my parents are too old to move, and I can’t leave them alone.
“The more we see the ‘969’ signs, the more we feel unsafe”
Ko Moe Myint (not his real name) is a technician who lives in Naypyidaw, Burma’s capital. He is Muslim. He says:
" In Naypyidaw, the ‘969’ campaign has really kicked off in the past few days. Unknown people in vans are now going around house-to-house, shop-by-shop to distribute ‘969’ stickers and DVDs. They’re also putting stickers up in public areas, like at bus stops. It’s like they’re carrying out a marketing campaign! They’re doing this mainly along Yaza Hta Nay Road, which is a major business area but is also home to a mixed community of Buddhists, Muslims and some Chinese business people.
Recently, I’ve also seen lots of DVDs of Wirathu’s speeches being sold in town. One store I went to had about 100 copies. Newspaper vendors sell it out on the street, too. Lots of copies are spreading hand-to-hand. Others spread his speeches online, mainly through Facebook. "
“Some ‘969’ campaigners told people that meat and vegetables sold at Muslim-owned stores were poisonous”
" This campaign is clearly influencing Buddhists quite a lot. For example, I’m currently building a house, and some of my employees are Buddhists. They’ve just quit. They either don’t want or don’t dare to talk to me anymore. I saw ‘969’ stickers on their motorbikes.
Buddhists now go only to shops owned by Buddhists. Some ‘969’ campaigners warned people not to eat meat and vegetables bought at Muslim-owned stores. They told them that it was poisonous! They said that it was not poisonous immediately, but in six months…
Some Buddhists say that the ‘969’ campaign doesn’t attack other religions, that it is just expressing pride in Buddhism. However, since it’s emerged, Muslim communities across the country have been targeted! For us Muslims, ‘969’ is a sign of violence, a threat. The more we see the signs, the more we feel unsafe. Buddhist and Muslim communities that had lived together peacefully in the past are now torn apart because of ‘969’. As long as this campaign exists, I don’t think there will be any stability in Burma. " "
This flyer reads: "Protect your race and religion. Avoid to buy anything with the label of 786, meaning 'halal'. Don't deal with Muslim 'Kalar' for friendship, marriage, or business. Myanmar girls must avoid falling in love with Muslim 'Kalar'. Everyone must be responsible for preventing Myanmar from becoming an Islamic country." Photo courtesy of MMedia.
Germany is extremely sensitive over the burden of Nazi history they have had to carry. After the war was over: the Nazi elite were sent to England and the scientists were sent to the CIA in the United States.
The Germans of today are not Nazis. But Germany is still blamed for the Nazis to this day: so much so that they are quick to expose the ideology as soon as they see it sprout up. We should all, as a worldwide unit, listen to their wise advice. They said “Never Again”. So should we.
They recognize the reincarnation of the idea in the form of Scientology, some see it in ISIS. Frankly; so do I.
It is the IDEA that is our enemy; not a certain group of people. As you can see; the IDEA has travelled from group to group, and nobody stopped it by discussing how wrong it is, and how badly people are treated by others believing in that IDEA. People can and do change their minds giving solid facts and hard evidence. Ideas can be re-shaped or abandoned if confronted with that truth. IDEAS cannot be killed. Only faced down and defeated by discussion.
Below is a link to an Alfred Hitchcock documentary on the Nazi Holocaust - from 70+-year-old actual historical film. Warning; some images are disturbing, as such inhumanity should be disturbing to anyone. But, it really happened and we all need to understand that to prevent it from occurring again. Before you decide to ask, yes I required my own biological children to watch the Holocaust documentary when they were much younger. They were horrified, but they lived, and know truth from fiction as I would expect them to do in order to be healthy adults.
If you pay attention to the film: the victims were all ages from babies through retirement-aged people. It didn’t matter if the life the Nazis had planned for them was “appropriate” or not, did it? They were required to live it as their version of real life.
The future victims were told they were going to a better place, which is why they packed up their best things, and paid for their own train tickets into the concentration camps (they did not know their destination). The deception made it look to be a voluntary choice.
Does that not sound like the very same thing that is happening today if you bother to investigate many of the missing persons reports nationwide, let alone worldwide?
The ideology was never extinguished.
Knowledge provides the power of prevention.
This movie accurately reports through the eyes of a combat cameraman all aspects of the consequences of the Nazi Ideology: the odd reality of normal life living alongside horrific inhumanity. It is living history, not a glossy hollywood recreation. To avoid it happening again you need to learn the reality of all that happened. Denial of reality allows repetition, and "the Master Race" as they call themselves are still denying to this day that it happened. It did, and relatively few of those involved in the genocides of World War Two ever faced justice, and are still blaming the Jews today for persecuting themselves.
I won’t go into the psychiatrics of that denial, I will leave it to the professionals if they care to unravel that, because I do not.
I found that historical video reviewed here (along with various others):
qz.com/411444/the-most-powerful-holocaust-film-youve-never-seen-is-this-lost-hitchcock-documentary/
The exact reason that we have all forgotten about the holocaust and history is currently repeating itself, is because people complain at having to be faced with the REALITY of our shared past instead of gazing at pretty hollywood glitter. Reality is NOT hollywood.
Why have you been allowing history to be re-written? History not remembered is human history repeated.
Some things, many past mistakes, are not worth repeating.
It's not just one group that needs to smarten up, it is the entire world that we all share. So too is the exact same thing happening to Muslims in Rohingya; as it did to Jews in Hitler's Nazi Genocide agenda.
The following excerpts are from the article:
qz.com/416101/islamophobia-is-killing-myanmars-rohingya-but-the-muslim-world-can-help/
Perhaps the plight of the Rohingya will stir the Muslim world to more sophisticated cooperation. The most trite and common arguments deployed by anti-Muslim bigots are used in Myanmar to encourage ethnic cleansing.
Radical Buddhists? Violent monks? Ethnic cleansing? Concentration camps? And now, mass graves? What’s happening in Myanmar is terrible, but it should be impossible. At least, so far as Islamophobes would have it.
The genocidal campaign for the elimination of a people, the Rohingya, has been gathering steam in Myanmar since 2011, but counter to common stereotype, the victims are Muslims, and their attackers include Buddhist monks.
The extremist movement behind some of the worst violence, “969,” claims the Rohingya are outbreeding the majority, attempting to conquer and subjugate Myanmar’s Buddhists. If that language sounds familiar, it should.
While Bill Maher and friends insist Islamophobia is just made up—even as they are guilty of it—969’s words and deeds are not idle exercises in televised talking points, jokes at the expense of Muslims, merely designed to earn laughs.
Many of the most trite and common arguments deployed by anti-Muslim bigots are used in Myanmar to encourage, justify, and accelerate ethnic cleansing. The Intercept found that recently some Rohingya have been arrested for membership in a terrorist movement, the “Myanmar Muslim Army,” which doesn’t even exist. Last year, the New York Times revealed Muslim concentration camps, the intention of which should be obvious.
As the violence escalates, Rohingya have begun to flee, paying thousands of dollars to flee on leaky boats. Of the country’s approximately 1 million Rohingya (numbers vary, in part because the government’s censuses permit no such identification), some 100,000 have already fled, and nearly 140,000 are displaced.
The unluckiest are sold to human traffickers, who extort their families back home for more money. They seem to be the source of mass graves found near the Thai border. Thousands more are stranded at sea. David Pilling called the Rohingya the “Jews of Asia”. The Economist said the Rohingya may be “the most persecuted people in the world.”
They are painful evidence Islamophobia is real, and can be lethal. But it’s also a means to understand just how sloppy, inaccurate and dangerous Islamophobia can be. Just try turning things around.
Is it Buddhophobia, or the ugly truth?
What would happen if people started using Myanmar as a jumping off point for discussing Buddhists and Buddhism, just as anti-Muslim bigots like Bill Maher use instances of extremism to indict an entire religion and civilization?
You could do the same to Buddhism, which we often consider a far more pacific religion, which suggests just how contrived and artificial many Islamophobic arguments really are.
After all, many Buddhist-majority countries have long refused democracy (Vietnam, Myanmar), been plagued by genocidal violence (Laos, Cambodia), or brutalized by discrimination against religious minorities (Sri Lanka against Hindus, Myanmar against Muslims and Christians). This pattern extends to countries influenced by Buddhism, which have been at war with the West (Japan, Vietnam, North Korea, China) and suffered harsh authoritarian rule, including China, Vietnam and North Korea, sometimes considered the world’s most tyrannical regime.
With generous amounts of selectivity, ahistoricity and blindness to what’s happening elsewhere in the world, not involving Buddhists, a bigot would conclude it’s all Buddhism’s fault, and suggest any evidence of pacific Buddhism is merely a lie, some kind of nefarious dissimulation by which to hide the nasty truth.
We could have a whole industry devoted to everything that was wrong with Buddhism. Based merely on where Buddhism flourishes, one might conclude that Buddhism appears to be a profoundly undemocratic and despotic religion.
This is of course the kind of reductionist rhetoric all extremists use. And it’s exactly the kind of rhetoric that Islamophobes use to describe Islam (as well as Islamic extremists use to describe other groups.) Good reason to avoid it.
The plight of the Rohingya illustrates how Islamophobia works. But it also illuminates how extremism—including Islamic extremism—functions, and what we can do about it.
Islamophobia is real. So is Islamic extremism.
As I see it, Islamic extremism is not the real cause of many of the Muslim world’s problems, so much as it is an effect of it.
People, especially youth, become disillusioned, especially when they see conflicts in which it appears Muslims are exclusively or primarily the victims, and that not only can they do nothing about it, but their leaders and institutions refuse to do anything about it, too.
Tired of seeing Muslims only as victims, some turn to violence. (Remember, extremists view the world selectively, and don’t see their own aggression as violence—they believe they’re acting in self-defense.)
The Rohingya seem to be the same old story all over again. A Muslim people are persecuted, marginalized, or attacked. The international community can’t or won’t help them, and neither does the Muslim community offer much assistance. Radicalism takes root, and sells itself as the only route to real change. Will the same thing happen here? Will Islamophobia lead to Islamic extremism?
So far, there are reasons to believe this time might be different. On May 27 and 28, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) convened Foreign Ministers from across the Muslim world in Kuwait—some 57 countries were represented—and the Rohingya were at the top of the agenda. The OIC’s Secretary-General, Iyad Ameen Madani, has said “the plight of the Rohingyas” cannot be addressed without “international cooperation.” The meeting concluded with a vow to work with the Arakan Rohingya Union, which represents the world’s Rohingya.
Indonesia and Malaysia have changed their initial stance towards Rohingya refugees, offering temporary asylum for 7,000, while Turkey has donated $1 million in relief assistance. One OIC member state, Gambia, has announced that, should transportation for the Rohingya be provided, it is a “sacred duty” to resettle all Rohingya refugees in its territory. But because Gambia lacks the money and resources to transport them, it would require partners, which one hopes the OIC is able to provide. Hopefully the OIC can bring resources together, and provide options.
It may well be that the Rohingya will be driven out of Myanmar. But that does not mean they will have nowhere to go.
Perhaps the plight of the Rohingya will stir the Muslim world, as well as Muslim communities, to more sophisticated cooperation and action. Muslim countries and communities could leverage their resources to assist a population in need, showing young Muslims they can effect change by working with existing institutions, and not outside or against them. They could show that radicals are the ones harming Muslims, and that the mainstream can provide real assistance and rescue.
Out of this persecution, then, we might not only begin to see how dangerous Islamophobia is, how its language is fundamentally the same kind of language all extremists use—speaking in broad generalizations, lumping in very different kinds of people, and assuming the worst in order to justify the worst. But we might also have a chance for Muslims themselves to show their own institutions, organizations and nation-states can work together to provide peaceful assistance on a truly dramatic scale, which is not only good for Rohingya, or for Muslims, but for the world.
Follow Haroon on Twitter at @hsmoghul. We welcome your comments at ideas@qz.com.
‘969’: The three digits that are terrifying Muslims in Burma
observers.france24.com/en/20130503-‘969’-digits-terrifying-muslims-burma
This photo shows the cover of two CDs with the '969' logo at the top. On the far right is the monk Wirathu, the leader of the '969' campaign. The CD is titled "Monks' teachings: How to protect our religion and nation." Photo courtesy of MMedia.
Brightly-coloured posters and stickers bearing the number "969" are popping up in cities all over Burma. These look innocuous enough at first glance. However, “969” actually denotes an anti-Islam campaign led by hardliner Buddhist monks. Burmese Muslims say it has stirred up hatred and paranoia, resulting in a string of bloody anti-Muslim riots across the country over the past weeks.
The three digits ‘969’ originally refer to the Buddha’s “three jewels” , but they are now being used as a brand name for a nationalist, anti-Muslim campaign led by a prominent monk based in Mandalay. Wirathu, who likes to refer to himself as the “Burmese Bin Laden”, was jailed in 2003 for inciting riots against Muslims, but was released as part of a general amnesty in 2012. Since then, he’s spearheaded the fast-growing ‘969’ movement, making numerous speeches calling on Buddhists to “buy 969” and boycott Muslim-owned stores.
Anti-Muslim sentiment has boiled over repeatedly since the ‘969’ campaign first emerged several months ago. In late March, rioters went on a three-day rampage in the central town of Meikhtila, burning down Muslims’ homes, businesses, and mosques. About 40 people were killed. The remnants of Muslim-owned stores were spray-painted with the digits ‘969’. Many witnesses said that during all this, the police stood by and watched. Shortly afterwards, more riots erupted in the Bago region after travelling monks preached the ‘969’ ideology. And early this week, fresh clashes broke out in Oakkan, a town north of Rangoon, where at least one person was killed.
With no end to these tensions in sight, thousands of Muslims displaced by these recent riots are staying shut up in refugee camps. According to the latest census, Muslims make up about 4 percent of Burma’s total population.
An activist placing a pamphlet calling for peace between religions on the windshield of a taxi bearing ‘969’ stickers (circled in red). Photo published on Facebook by CJMyanmar. Photos of the ‘969’ campaign are rather difficult to obtain, due to the sensitive nature of the subject. However, one Malaysian journalist was able to film ‘969’ propaganda in a Rangoon market.
“My sister, who owns a store, has lost nearly all of her customers since the start of the ‘969’ campaign”
Aung (not her real name) lives in Rangoon. She is Muslim.
" I started seeing ‘969’ stickers and signs in Rangoon just a couple months ago. Some shopkeepers put them on their storefronts, and taxi drivers stick them to their windshields. It’s a minority, but it belies a wider boycott of Muslim stores. Supporters of ‘969’ have been passing out pamphlets telling people not to shop at Muslim-owned stores.
My sister owns a store, and has lost nearly all her customers since the start of this campaign. They know she’s Muslim – she looks Muslim, and wears a scarf. Like many other Muslim business owners, she is facing serious financial troubles because of this boycott. "
“All of my closest friends are Buddhists, and all of them avoid me these days”
I recently visited one of my oldest friends’ stores, and noticed she had put up a ‘969’ sign. She’s Buddhist and has recently started treating me like a stranger, so I didn’t dare ask her why she did this. All of my closest friends are Buddhists, and all of them avoid me these days.
I don’t feel safe in Rangoon anymore. I don’t think Muslims are safe anywhere in this country right now. I would like to go live abroad, but my parents are too old to move, and I can’t leave them alone.
“The more we see the ‘969’ signs, the more we feel unsafe”
Ko Moe Myint (not his real name) is a technician who lives in Naypyidaw, Burma’s capital. He is Muslim. He says:
" In Naypyidaw, the ‘969’ campaign has really kicked off in the past few days. Unknown people in vans are now going around house-to-house, shop-by-shop to distribute ‘969’ stickers and DVDs. They’re also putting stickers up in public areas, like at bus stops. It’s like they’re carrying out a marketing campaign! They’re doing this mainly along Yaza Hta Nay Road, which is a major business area but is also home to a mixed community of Buddhists, Muslims and some Chinese business people.
Recently, I’ve also seen lots of DVDs of Wirathu’s speeches being sold in town. One store I went to had about 100 copies. Newspaper vendors sell it out on the street, too. Lots of copies are spreading hand-to-hand. Others spread his speeches online, mainly through Facebook. "
“Some ‘969’ campaigners told people that meat and vegetables sold at Muslim-owned stores were poisonous”
" This campaign is clearly influencing Buddhists quite a lot. For example, I’m currently building a house, and some of my employees are Buddhists. They’ve just quit. They either don’t want or don’t dare to talk to me anymore. I saw ‘969’ stickers on their motorbikes.
Buddhists now go only to shops owned by Buddhists. Some ‘969’ campaigners warned people not to eat meat and vegetables bought at Muslim-owned stores. They told them that it was poisonous! They said that it was not poisonous immediately, but in six months…
Some Buddhists say that the ‘969’ campaign doesn’t attack other religions, that it is just expressing pride in Buddhism. However, since it’s emerged, Muslim communities across the country have been targeted! For us Muslims, ‘969’ is a sign of violence, a threat. The more we see the signs, the more we feel unsafe. Buddhist and Muslim communities that had lived together peacefully in the past are now torn apart because of ‘969’. As long as this campaign exists, I don’t think there will be any stability in Burma. " "
This flyer reads: "Protect your race and religion. Avoid to buy anything with the label of 786, meaning 'halal'. Don't deal with Muslim 'Kalar' for friendship, marriage, or business. Myanmar girls must avoid falling in love with Muslim 'Kalar'. Everyone must be responsible for preventing Myanmar from becoming an Islamic country." Photo courtesy of MMedia.