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The Truth Behind the Rohingya’s Lost Identity - Cynthia




The modern humanitarian crisis, as shaped by power dynamics of its acting forces in the past.

By: Cynthia Zhang

February 19, 2021



1. Introduction


As “the world’s fastest developing refugee emergency,”[1] the Rohingya are among the most persecuted minorities in contemporary society. They are an ethnic group who practice Sufism, a variation of Sunni Islam.[2] Of the 55.6 million people living in Myanmar, 88 percent are Buddhist, while Muslims account for merely 4.3 percent.[3] The predominant Buddhist population has always seen the Rohingya as outsiders intruding on their land. Deprived of citizenship, they are not protected by any form of law and face institutionalized discrimination. Amidst exclusion from education, military, and public service, the Rohingya are also regularly placed in detention camps, and targeted for physical abuse, human trafficking, child labor, and other forms of exploitation.[4] Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh described to investigative reporters instances of ethnic cleansing in which “government security forces had carried out armed attacks on villagers, inflicting bullet and shrapnel injuries, and burned down their homes.”[5] The Myanmar government and its predominant Buddhist population justify their ethnic cleansing by asserting the Rohingya are illegal foreigners who immigrated after British colonial rule, 1948 Burmese independence, or the Bangladesh Liberation War.[6]


However, there has been little discussion about the validity of their claim or their intention to perpetuate this anti-immigrant rhetoric. In fact, the country’s stance toward the Rohingya is antithetical to the peaceful dictates of the predominant religion, Buddhism. Thus, it is essential to contextualize Myanmar’s current attitude within its historical roots by examining geopolitical shifts, colonial oppression, and religious views of the ones in power. The origins of the power dynamic at play between Myanmar and the Rohingya traces back to the integration of Arakan into Burma, British colonial rule, and the Japanese invasion in 1942-45. These events disrupted the embedded relationship between religion and state, instigated socioeconomic inequality between the Buddhists and the Muslims, and provided room for the anti-British, and, by extension, the anti-Muslim sentiment to grow.


2. Pre-Colonial Arakan


The current anti-immigrant rhetoric is flawed for its failure to acknowledge that Arakan (renamed Rakhine state in 1990) had been geopolitically separate from Burma until the integration in 1785. Archeological evidence suggests that the earliest inhabitants of Arakan were Hindus who came from India.[7] Muslim faith appeared after Arab traders settled in Arakan during the eighth to tenth centuries.[8] The Hindus welcomed the Muslims, and the region remained a pluralistic environment, with more Muslims arriving during the twelfth to thirteenth centuries.[9] In 1406, Arakanese king Min Saw Mon was overthrown by the Burmese Prince. His exile to Bengal provided him an opportunity to immerse himself in Arabic culture.[10] After 25 years, Min Saw Mon regained his power and, with assistance from the Sultan of Bengal, ruled the Kingdom of Mrauk-U from 1429 to 1785 in Arakan under a hybrid Hindu-Islamic milieu.[11] During his reign, he brought back Muslims from Bengal and appointed them in chief positions in his administration[12] while establishing mosques, libraries, and Persian as the court language.[13]



3. Pre-Colonial Burma


The earliest documented inhabitants of Burma were ethnically divided between the Mon and the Pyu, who lived in the south and north, respectively. Connecting with Sri Lanka through trade, the Mon subscribed to Theravada Buddhism,[14] a branch of Buddhism that believes individuals must escape their cycle of samsara by acquiring good karma to achieve enlightenment. The first Burmese empire was established in the twelfth century and Buddhism was ruled as the state religion to unite the Mon and Pyu. Buddhism scriptures were used as purification and unification[15] to “consolidate the national identity”[16] in Burma. Many Theravada Buddhist monks, called bhikkhus, became kings who ruled with Buddhist teachings. They upheld the Dhammaraja model of a “benevolent universal ruler who would follow the prescriptions of the Buddha” to ensure the welfare of the kingdom.[17] The authoritative kings would punish renegades who renounced Buddhism,[18] further imposing religious restrictions. These laws were justified as necessary for protecting the teachings of the Buddha and spreading the universal truth, dharma throughout the kingdom. Because the monks provided them with patronage and legitimacy, secular kings still abided by their instruction.[19] Monasteries were crucial to life in the kingdom, as lay people would regularly seek moral authority from monks to build their karma.[20] The functioning of the Burmese monarchies are predecessors of Buddhism domestication and incorporated into political structures today. Henceforth, the ones who held power in political and religious spheres would be inextricably linked. The inhabitants of Burma negan to develop a mindset that “all Burmese are Buddhists,” which would invoke controversy when a foreign region, populated by Muslims, was integrated.


4. A Geopolitical Disruption


1785 was a milestone when the Burmese king, Bodawpaya, took the chance when Arakan experienced factional conflict at the border between Arakan and the Bengal Sultanate to annex it as a Burmese province.[21] Bodawpaya believed that the Muslim religion was perilous, and this conquest was imperative to restore order and purify the sasana, the teaching of the Buddha. He attempted to “centralize Buddhist Arakanese religion under their authority… by burmanizing Arakanese Buddhism through Burman monks, texts, and a sangha organization that reached from Arakanese villages to the Burman court.”[22] To avoid execution and deportation by the Burmese Buddhists, more than 35,000 Arakanese Muslims escaped to Bengal.[23] This was the first case of sectarianism that would later intensify under a third party who enacted regulations that inadvertently oppressed the Burmese by large.


5. Demographic Complications During British Colonial Rule


The Burmese conquest of Arakan stirred the interest of the British as it was seeking to expand its vast colonial empire. Britain usurped the ruling power and introduced a large influx of Indian migrants. The Muslim population growth would provide a catalyst for local Muslims to bolster their religion on a communal scale. The British were in need of cheap coolie labor as part of their colonial administration practice; however, sparsely-populated Burma could not meet their labor needs. Realizing that India was “its closest, cheapest and most convenient source of needed manpower,”[24] the British dissolved the borders and relocated a Muslim-dominated group of immigrants from India to Arakan. Because Britain had administered Burma as a province of India until 1937,[25] this relocation was an instance of “residents changing their place of residence.”[26] However, the Burmese government later redefined their internal movement as illegal immigration and used it as a pretext to detain and ostracize Muslims.


Problems arose when the British administrators collected the census of the Burmese population by religion. The British were only interested in separating Muslims, who they considered to be loyal and industrious, from the Buddhists, who they viewed as uncooperative and stubborn.[27] Ethnicity was of no use if religion could serve their purpose; thus, Britain made no further distinction between the Arakanese Muslims (the Rohingya) and the Indian or Bengali Muslims. As a result, there is little historical evidence that validates the presence of Arakan natives in Burma before the colonial period. The censuses that framed the Burmese population in an artificially rigid, inaccurate picture would be another leveraging tool for the country’s military junta to justify their exclusion of the Rohingya in their 1982 citizenship law by asserting that all Muslims arrived after the British occupation in 1824. As demography was sorted by religion, Buddhits clinged to the axiom that “to be Burmese is to be Buddhist.”[28] It was these ideals that were passed on through time, ingrained in the minds of the Burmese today.


6. A Vanishing Relationship Between Buddhism and Burma


British colonizers maintained a non-interference policy of secular governance and avoided arbitrating in religious disputes.[29] Revoking the positions of Buddhist monarchs who ruled in line with Buddhist ethical principles caused social turbulence within the Buddhist community. For instance, without any supervision from the monks, bhikkhus went unpunished after committing crimes.[30] The British also refused to appoint a sangha leader who would oversee monasteries,[31] thus the historical tie between the Burmese monarchy and the monks, which had protected its members from violence and guaranteed them good karma, was lost. Some Buddhists referred back to the Theravada Buddhist theory that claims “the strength of the religion is reliant on a state that is committed to its protection”[32] to resist the British. Hence, the British created new practices to ensure allegiance of the Burmese. The Village Act required all Burmese to gadaw (kneeling with joined hands and bowing) to British officers. Paying homage and demonstrating obeisance to British officers was considered irreverent to the Buddha.[33] The dominating power of Buddhist hierarchical structures that had been indispensable in a Buddhist-functioning society had been significantly reduced under British rule. This weakened the trust between the British authorities and the Buddhism majority of Burma. Eventually, they would harness Britain's failure to act according to Buddhist traditions as a way to defy colonial rule and unify nationalist movements.


7. Social Exclusion of Buddhists


The British administration was oriented in profit maximization to reap economic benefits of its colonies. British authorities noted that the Indian migrants and Arakanese Muslims were “‘much more hard-working and prolific [than the Burmese].’”[34] Consequently, the British replaced Burmese working in civil and military services with Muslims. The majority of Burmese moved to rural areas to work in agriculture after competing with adept Muslims and Indians.[35] By the time the Global Economic Crisis hit Burma in 1930, the contraction of credit had caused a stagnation of the price of rice, Burma’s main export. On top of struggling to yield for surplus rice, Buddhist farmers were heavily indebted due to colonial land taxes. They were left with no choice but to borrow money from Muslim traders. However, most farmers struggled to repay their debts, and ended up handing over land to their moneylenders.[36] Deprived of their own land after facing forced eviction, the Buddhists were treated like foreigners in their home country.


British colonial rule reformed Burma’s social class that completely reversed the traditional ethnic hierarchy. With more economic power, Muslims could allocate capital towards religious and communal activities, which they valued as part of preserving their identity while surrounded by a Buddhist majority. Schools and mosques were constructed, Imams (clerics) were trained, and social welfare associations for the Muslims were established.[37] Meanwhile, the Buddhists were alarmed by their second-class status, one they had never experienced before. As disparities between the urbanized districts populated by the Muslims and the rural areas occupied by Buddhists grew starker, the Burmese felt compelled to congregate with the motive to prevent the extinction of Burmese Buddhism. Village associations were founded as backlash against Muslim moneylenders and colonial rule.[38] Protesters rose to boycott British taxation and its textile products, encouraging home production. Meat, alcohol, and opium intake were also forbidden to emphasize the importance of acting according to their faith. Those who supported the government and opposed Buddhist teachings faced social exclusion to all extents: “the stoning of their homes, denial of help in planting, being banned from employment, the maiming of their cattle, destruction of their crops, and even death.”[39] The British officers used “all available powers to suppress them,”[40] because they were considered as committing offenses of disturbance of public order. By then, Britain’s colonial strategies transformed the rural, subsistent lifestyle in traditional Burma into an export-based economy. Burma adopted taxation systems, land titles, registration, and legal procedures of previous customary practices.[41]


8. Birth of Burmese Nationalism


As Buddhists were not benefited in Britain’s economic framework, anti-colonial sentiment and nationalist movements appeared simultaneously as a symbiotic relationship. Both strengthened the idea that Buddhism and Buddhist-populated Burma were in danger. Buddhist lay organizations emerged with the purpose to popularize Buddhism and quench Westernization. These organizations merged to form a larger entity called the Young Men’s Buddhist Association. Observing the “ceaseless, ebbless tide of foreign civilization and learning steadily creeping over the land,” the members believed it was critical to confront and resist the changes, otherwise “[their] national character, [their] institutions, [their] very existence as a distinct nationality will be swept away, submerged, irretrievably lost.”[42] Britain’s imperialistic practices that were intended to extract maximum profit were interpreted by Buddhists as opening up opportunities for Muslims to prevail in society.


Vissapannda meditation was a movement that facilitated the anti-British sentiment, led by the monk Ledi Sayadaw. Previously, only a few monastics bothered to practice meditation; now, he told every Buddhist that it was their duty to protect Buddhism from Western influence by meditating and studying Buddhist scripture.[43] Although Vipassana was relatively pacific, some Buddhists were incentivized to launch armed rebellions against British authorities.[44] The degree of rationality and radicalness of Buddhism adherents formulated the internal diversity present in Buddhism. Nevertheless, the emphasis on Buddhist adherence in the name of protecting the nation helped create the perpetual interdependence of religion and state that remains today.


As the English replaced Burmese as the language of trade and governance, Burmese evolved into a symbol of ethnicity; likewise, as Buddhism was no longer the authorized state religion, it evolved into a Burmese identifier. The belief that the Burmese had to protect their faith and country from the British intruders continued; however, the antagonization of the Rohingya replaced the British. The narrative existed throughout popular culture, permeating in everyday life. A Burmese song from the 1930s described in its lyrics that Indians were “exploiting [their] economic resources and seizing [their] women.”[45] As a result, Buddhists started referring to the Indian and Arakan people as the “kulas,” a racially degrading term translating to “Negros.”[46]In 1938, some Buddhists started accusing Muslim intellectuals of desecrating Buddhism in their writing, which amounted to attacks in Muslim villages.[47] One particular rallying chant was “Amyo, Batha, Thathana!” meaning race, language, and religion.[48] Undoubtedly, the Rohingya were denied race, language, and religion hereafter. The ongoing hostility and shift of power dynamics between the Buddhists and the Muslims backed up by the British would later be exacerbated by the Japanese invasion in World War II between 1942-45.


9. Japanese Invasion


During World War II, the Japanese pledged to restore independence to Burma, imbuing the Burmese Buddhists with more determination to defeat Britain and remove the Muslims. The Burmese instantly became allies with the Japanese. In contrast, with the sheer amount of privileges they had received during colonial rule and a vow that Arakan would break away as an independent nation,[49] the Arakanese Muslims willingly sided with the British.[50] The British launched a Muslim guerrilla army used to fight the Burmese National Army.[51] In retaliation, the Buddhists attacked the Rohingya,[52] while Japanese forces also helped perform massacres.[53] Ethnic hatred towards each other elevated, and rendered striking geographical segregation as the Muslims fled to the north and Buddhists fled to the south to escape from mass violence and destruction.[54] After the Japanese surrendered in 1945, intercommunal violence persisted between the Rohingya and the Burmese Buddhists.[55] Their warfare was a corollary of their mutual animosity accumulated during colonial rule and fighting as proxies, but also of Britain's failure to grant Muslims their autonomous region. This decision, in turn, led some Rohingya to demand the merging of Arakan into Pakistan, however rejected by the Burmese government.[56] Alarmed by this separtist narrative, the government defeated the Rohingya insurgencies.[57] Moving forward, the turmoil between the Rohingya Muslims and the Burmese Buddhists would continue to be strengthened by the government’s endorsement of violence. The seeds for profound partitions in Burma’s ethnic grounds had been planted.


10. Consequences in Post-Colonial Burma


After the Burma Independence Army secured an agreement with Britain in 1948, Burma gained independence.[58] That meant that there was no one to oppress the Burmese majority or provide patronage to the Muslim minority anymore. However, the founder of the Army, General Aung San, made efforts to maintain a secular government and legalize all ethnic groups.[59] He allowed the Rohingya to work in civic service and issued National Registration cards that recognized them as legal residents.[60] However, still shaken by the traumatic experience that colonialism brought them, the Buddhism majority largely resented figures that advocated for peace and equality with other ethnic groups. This fueled the assassination of Aung San in 1947. Many subsequent Burmese politicians were able to gain mass approval through tweaking the connotation of nationalism to “liberation from colonial oppression.”[61]


With power within their reach, the Burmese nationalists established dominance again. Their anti-Muslim narrative could complement their nationalistic ideology of Burmanisation for all. Seeing themselves as “‘the victims of Muslimisation’”[62] of the past allowed Burmese nationalists to justify their chauvinistic attempts to purify the region through active segregation, persecution, and detainment of Muslims.[63] They reciprocated the marginal access of civil service, disregard of religion, and lack of autonomy they had received from the British on the Muslims. As Muslim faced increasing attacks on their rights from the government, many separatist movements arose in the Rohingya community to reverse the Buddhists’ power in society.[64] Burmese authorities perceived them as threats to political stability and destroyed their homes and mosques.[65] The Burmese Buddhists reaffirmed their mission of building a unitary country when they marginalized the Muslims for their historical dominance.


A coup d'état led by General U Ne Win in 1962 transformed Burma’s democratic republic to a militaristic regime grounded in isolationism.[66] For him, deterrence against western assimilation and cultural incorporation was a method of preventing foreign parties from controlling their country. However, by suspending international partnerships and nationalizing Muslim-owned enterprises,[67] Burma would experience an economic downfall from a flourishing colony to one of the poorest countries in the world. But the political institution did not stop its segregationist approach. During election campaigns, politicians still used their hawkish stance on the Rohingya to win support. Ma Ba Tha, a patriotic organization founded in 2014, called for citizens to vote for nationalist monks who would not “let [their] race and religion disappear.”[68] These methods served all but one purpose of politicizing ethnic identities even further.


Over the 1970s, the military junta replaced Rohingya civil servants with the Buddhists,[69] took over their businesses, prohibited the use of the Rohingya language,[70] and evicted them from their local villages.[71] Many refugees sought permanent refuge in India and Pakistan, yet the ones who did return were referred to as illegal immigrants once again.[72] It did not take long for the Burmese government to realize that it was effortless to weaken and eliminate the group through violence-based persecution. Later instances of systematic expulsion would be found in the 1978 Operation Dragon King that ostracized “illegal foreigners” by local forces,[73] and 1991 Operation Pyi Thaya that misplaced 200,000 Rohingya.[74]


The 1982 Citizenship Law rendered the “illegal immigrant” myth a reality by depriving the Rohingya of their citizenship. The law separated Burma’s inhabitants into three categories; associate citizens who were Burmese Buddhists, naturalized citizens who were from recognized ethnic groups, and resident foreigners made up of the Rohingya.[75] The resident foreigners were confined in their assigned residences, impeded from accessing education, and debarred from employment.[76] The law reinforced the underlying social hierarchy between the predominant Buddhists and the other ethnic groups, as well as created a legal grey area for the government to mistreat the Rohingya. As resident foreigners, they did not possess a legal status eligible for protection from any means of restriction, discrimination, or abuse. For the Rohingya who were theoretically qualified to be classified as naturalized citizens, it was nearly impossible to provide enough genealogical evidence to prove that they were Arakanese natives.[77] This law laid the groundwork for present-day Myanmar to perpetuate institutionalized discrimination, which includes the approbation of 135 ethnic groups except for the Rohingya.


Today, many nationalistic organizations still misuse religion to defend their lawless actions. The Arakan National Party affirmed in a 2012 editorial that “in order for a country’s survival, the survival of a race, or in defense of national sovereignty… in-human acts may justifiably be committed.”[78] This statement is seemingly endorsed by Theravada Buddhist doctrine, which claims that only one’s intention affects karma, hence if ethnic cleansing is not the intention, any outcomes categorized as so should not be blamed on them.[79] Using this rhetoric, they are morally justified if they claim that inhumane acts are committed to protect their religion and state. Tibet’s Dalai Lama has come to defend his religion, believing that “Buddha would have helped the Rohingya Muslims who are fleeing from violence in Buddhist-majority Burma.”[80] But one Buddhist objector is not enough. To reconnect with Buddhist humanitarianism beliefs and bring back justice to the Rohingya, unified support to disband intolerant religious views and reshape Myanmar into an inclusive and equitable country is necessary.


11. Conclusion


The efforts of the Myanmar government to actively marginalize and dehumanize the Rohingya are not merely political propaganda; they are a by-product of Britain’s capitalist strategies such as secular governance, profit maximization, and establishing political dominance to maintain stable imperial governance, which jeopardized Buddhists’ doctrine, social status, and country. All of the xenophobic attempts that vilify Muslims as intruders to justify their genocidal acts are the result of the British-backed Muslims having suppressed them in colonial times. Buddhists believe that reversing this power dynamic is the only solvency to restore their country. However, as outsiders of this crisis, many still fall into the mindset that Buddhism is a pacifist religion that preaches morality, and that Muslims will propagate its religion through mass immigration, thereby exterminating Buddhism. Buddhist extremism continues to be tolerated and justified as an inevitable means to counteract the Muslim “terrorists,” whereas Muslims are stigmatized as sinful immigrants, but truth unfolds that it is the British who are responsible. Only when the true story of the Muslim “foreigners” is uncovered, when stereotypes about Muslims are contested, when religion and politics are delinked, and when the international community holds Myanmar accountable for its discriminatory policies and genocidal violence, will this anti-Muslim myth be brought to an end and the rights of the Rohingya restored.

[1]UNHCR/Vivian Tan, "Rohingya refugee crisis a 'human rights nightmare,'" September 28, 2017, https://news.un.org/en/story/2017/09/567402-rohingya-refugee-crisis-human-rights-nightmare-un-chief-tells-security-council.

[2]Eleanor Albert and Lindsay Maizland, "The Rohingya Crisis," in Council on Foreign Relations, ed. Andrew Chatzky, last modified January 23, 2020, https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/rohingya-crisis.

[3]Central Intelligence Agency, "Burma," The World Factbook, last modified February 16, 2021, https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/burma/.

[4]Penny Green, Thomas MacManus, and Alicia de la Cour Venning, Countdown to Annihilation: Genocide in Myanmar, 2015, http://statecrime.org/data/2015/10/ISCI-Rohingya-Report-PUBLISHED-VERSION.pdf.

[5]Human Rights Watch, "Burma: Ensure Aid Reaches Rohingya," Human Rights Watch, last modified September 11, 2017, https://www.hrw.org/news/2017/09/11/burma-ensure-aid-reaches-rohingya.

[6] Rohingya Culture Center, "History of the Rohingya," Rohingya Culture Center, accessed January 21, 2021, https://rccchicago.org/history/.

[7]Azeem Ibrahim, The Rohingyas: Inside Myanmar's Hidden Genocide (Hurst, 2016), 38, digital file.

[8]Muhammad Abdul Bari, The Rohingya Crisis : a People Facing Extinction (La Vergne: Kube Publishing, 2018), 31, http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=nlebk&AN=1925457&site=ehost-live.

[9]Human Rights Watch, "Living in Limbo: Burmese Rohingyas in Malaysia," Human Rights Watch, last modified 2000, https://www.hrw.org/reports/2000/malaysia/maybr008-01.htm.

[10]Bari, The Rohingya, 32.

[11]Burma's Brutal Campaign Against the Rohingya (2017), 4, https://docs.house.gov/meetings/FA/FA05/20170927/106434/HHRG-115-FA05-Wstate-MartinM-20170927.pdf.

[12]Rohingya Culture Center, "History of the Rohingya," Rohingya Culture Center.

[13]Bari, The Rohingya, 32.

[14]Ibrahim, The Rohingyas, 36.

[15]Carlos Sardina Galache, The Burmese Labyrinth: A History of the Rohingya Tragedy (Verso, 2020), 121.

[16]Randy Rosenthal, "What's the Connection between Buddhism and Ethnic Cleansing in Myanmar?," Lion's Roar, last modified November 13, 2018, https://www.lionsroar.com/what-does-buddhism-have-to-do-with-the-ethnic-cleansing-in-myanmar/.

[17]Galache, The Burmese, 121-122.

[18]Moshe Yegar, The Muslims of Burma (1972).

[19]Rosenthal, "What's the Connection," Lion's Roar.

[20]Galache, The Burmese, 120.

[21]Bari, The Rohingya, 37.

[22]Michael W. Charney, "Where Jambudipa and Islamdom Converged: Religious Change and the Emergence of Buddhist Communalism in Early Modern Arakan" (PhD diss., University of Michigan, 1999), 260, https://www.burmalibrary.org/docs21/Charney-1999_thesis-Where_Jambudipa&Islamdom_Converged-red-tu.pdf.

[23]Rohingya Culture Center, "History of the Rohingya," Rohingya Culture Center.

[24] Yegar, The Muslims, 4.

[25]Jayita Sarkar, "How WWII Shaped the Crisis in Myanmar," ProQuest Central Student, last modified 2019 Mar 10, https://libproxy.nmhschool.org:2153/blogs,-podcasts,-websites/how-wwii-shaped-crisis-myanmar/docview/2189356553/se-2?accountid=5771.

[26]Yegar, The Muslims, 4.

[27]Ibrahim, The Rohingyas, 48.

[28]Harvard Divinity School, "Buddhism in Myanmar," Religion and Public Life, accessed January 23, 2021, https://rpl.hds.harvard.edu/faq/buddhism-myanmar.

[29]Ibrahim, The Rohingyas, 40.

[30]Roger Bischoff, Buddhism in Myanmar: A Short History (1996), https://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/authors/bischoff/wheel399.html.

[31]Ibrahim, The Rohingyas, 40.

[32]Ibrahim, The Rohingyas, 41.

[33]Charney, A History, 19.

[34]Sarkar, "How WWII," ProQuest Central Student.

[35]Yegar, The Muslims, 4.

[36]Charney, A History, 23-24.

[37]Yegar, The Muslims, 4.

[38]Charney, A History, 24.

[39]Michael W. Charney, A History of Modern Burma (Cambridge University Press, 2009), 25.

[40]Charney, A History, 26.

[41]Charney, A History, 20.

[42]Charney, A History, 46.

[43]Dan Arnold and Alicia Turner, "Why Are We Surprised When Buddhists Are Violent?," New York Times, last modified 2018 Mar 05, https://libproxy.nmhschool.org:2153/blogs,-podcasts,-websites/why-are-we-surprised-when-buddhists-violent/docview/2010292663/se-2?accountid=5771.

[44] Rosenthal, "What's the Connection," Lion's Roar.

[45]International Crisis Group, "Identity Crisis: Ethnicity and Conflict in Myanmar," International Crisis Group, last modified August 28, 2020, https://www.crisisgroup.org/asia/south-east-asia/myanmar/312-identity-crisis-ethnicity-and-conflict-myanmar.

[46]Arakan Rohingya National Organisation, last modified May 16, 2007, https://www.rohingya.org/the-significance-of-the-term-qkulaq-for-the-rohingyas-and-the-burmese-muslims/.

[47] Rosenthal, "What's the Connection," Lion's Roar.

[48] Rosenthal, "What's the Connection," Lion's Roar.

[49]Yegar, The Muslims, 6.

[50]Rohingya Culture Center, "History of the Rohingya," Rohingya Culture Center.

[51]Bari, The Rohingya, 40.

[52]Yousuf Storai, "Systematic Ethnic Cleansing: The Case Study of Rohingya," Arts and Social Sciences Journal, 2018, 2, http://doi.org/10.4172/2151-6200.1000357.

[53]Ibrahim, The Rohingyas, 45.

[54]Human Rights Watch, "Burma: Ensure," Human Rights Watch.

[55]Sarkar, "How WWII," ProQuest Central Student.

[56]Human Rights Watch, "Living in Limbo," Human Rights Watch.

[57]Bari, The Rohingya, 41.

[58]FindingDulcinea Staff, "On This Day: Burma Declares Independence from Britain," findingDulcinea, last modified January 4, 11, http://www.findingdulcinea.com/news/on-this-day/On-this-Day--Burma-Declares-Independence-from-Britain.html.

[59]Bari, The Rohingya, 41.

[60]Storai, "Systematic Ethnic," 3.

[61]Cresa L. Pugh, "Is Citizenship the Answer?," International Migration Institute, last modified October 29, 2013, 2, https://www.migrationinstitute.org/publications/wp-76-13.

[62]"The Most Persecuted People on Earth?," The Economist, last modified June 13, 2015, https://www.economist.com/asia/2015/06/13/the-most-persecuted-people-on-earth.

[63]"The Most," The Economist.

[64]Bari, The Rohingya, 41.

[65]Harvard Divinity School, "The Rohingya," Religion and Public Life, accessed January 22, 2021, https://rpl.hds.harvard.edu/faq/rohingya.

[66] Sarah Gibbens, "Myanmar's Rohingya Are in Crisis—What You Need to Know," National Geographic, last modified September 30, 2017, https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2017/09/rohingya-refugee-crisis-myanmar-burma-spd.

[67]Harvard Divinity School, "The Rohingya," Religion and Public Life.

[68]Green, MacManus, and Venning, Countdown to Annihilation, 63.

[69]Human Rights Watch, "Living in Limbo," Human Rights Watch.

[70]Bari, The Rohingya, 42.

[71]Yegar, The Muslims, 6.

[72] Human Rights Watch, "Living in Limbo," Human Rights Watch.

[73]Human Rights Watch, "Living in Limbo," Human Rights Watch.

[74]"Rohingya Crisis in Myanmar," in Gale Global Issues Online Collection (Farmington Hills, MI: Gale, 2020), https://libproxy.nmhschool.org:2408/apps/doc/BOMRAZ966182308/GIC?u=mlin_w_nthfield&sid=GIC&xid=4a866977.

[75] Navine Murshid, "Why Is Burma Driving out the Rohingya — and Not Its Other Despised Minorities?," ProQuest Central Student (blog), entry posted 2017 Nov 09, https://libproxy.nmhschool.org:2153/blogs,-podcasts,-websites/why-is-burma-driving-out-rohingya-not-other/docview/1962102855/se-2?accountid=5771.

[76]Human Rights Watch, "Living in Limbo," Human Rights Watch.

[77]Human Rights Watch, "Living in Limbo," Human Rights Watch.

[78]Green, MacManus, and Venning, Countdown to Annihilation, 48.

[79]Kristofer Rhude, "Conflict in Myanmar," Religion and Public Life at Harvard Divinity School, last modified 2018, https://rpl.hds.harvard.edu/religion-context/case-studies/violence-peace/conflict-myanmar.

[80]Will Worley, "Dalai Lama: Buddha Would Have Helped Burma's Rohingya Muslims," The Independent, last modified September 11, 2017, https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/dalai-lama-rohingya-muslims-buddha-burma-help-myanmar-buddhist-india-tibet-a7941101.html.


Bibliography

Albert, Eleanor, and Lindsay Maizland. "The Rohingya Crisis." Council on Foreign Relations. Last modified January 23, 2020. https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/rohingya-crisis.

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