'No Muslims allowed': how nationalism is rising in Aung San Suu Kyi's Myanmar

The Guardian ^ | 23 May 2016 | Poppy McPherson

[Cronos]

At the entrance to Thaungtan village there’s a brand new sign, bright yellow, and bearing a message: “No Muslims allowed to stay overnight. No Muslims allowed to rent houses. No marriage with Muslims.”

The post was erected in late March by Buddhist residents of the village in Myanmar’s lush Irrawaddy Delta region who signed, or were strong-armed into signing, a document asserting that they wanted to live separately.

Since then a couple of other villages across the country have followed suit. Small but viciously insular, these “Buddhist-only” outposts serve as microcosms of the festering religious tensions that threaten Myanmar’s nascent experiment with democracy.

....Nanda Kyaw, a Muslim taxi driver who was beaten outside Shwedagon Pagoda, from which Islamic vendors were evicted a few weeks earlier, says he is still getting headaches.

“I have to drive every day for my survival,” says the slight 31-year-old.

At least once a day, he says, a passenger waves him on when they see his goatee. But the attack in April came as a surprise.

A group of young people wound down their windows and shouted racially charged insults. Then, he said, they swerved in front of his car and beat him with iron rods. They left him bleeding from his mouth and head.

“Some people stopped their cars and watched a little bit. It’s because it was a problem between a Muslim guy and a Buddhist guy, they are afraid.”

[maine-iac7]

Small but viciously insular,..."

"viciously?

No prejudice there!

[odds]

“but the decolonization process probably diverted a lot of would-be Islamic militants toward nationalism and then Communism during the Cold War.”

I tend to agree, but am not 100% convinced it was about ‘decolonization’ or post-decolonization. If it was, then, they managed the process very badly.

Funny thing is, Islam is against both Nationalism and Communism. At least that’s the traditional Islamic stance. Islam is, actually, very ‘international’ (imperialist, if you will) in its true belief system.

“When neither of those delivered any improvement in their general status, Islam became “the answer” and the rest as they say, “was history”.”

I’d define Islam as a ‘unifying element’. It was actually set up to bring down the Soviet influence, globally - 1979 was the start of a prelude to it with the Ayatollahs gaining power in Iran.

Perhaps, those, who (internationally) participated in it didn’t know they were feeding and raising a more potent, out of control monster (vis a vis communism). Though history and actions since then point to the fact that it was done deliberately.