The Rohingya Massacre: A Crisis the West Rather Not Cover

The United Nations considers the Rohingya people the “most persecuted minority group in the world.” It’s time we start paying attention. 

[Silent] Genocide: The Rohingya Massacre… We originally published this article on 11 September 2017. The crisis has unfortunately worsened since then. If you haven’t heard about the Rohingya Massacre, likely due to the West and major news orgs choosing not to cover it, please read our short piece below to catch up on a story everyone should know about. 

I was scrolling through my newsfeed last week and noticed some of my friend’s updates and funny videos from Labor-Day weekend. While scrolling, I also saw that one of my friends had posted a link from The Economist talking about the Rohingya genocide that is currently taking place in Burma (Myanmar). In a short blurb above the article, she wrote in capital letters, “WHY ISN’T ANYONE TALKING ABOUT THIS!”

I’ve known about this conflict prior to seeing her post, but she made a good point – why isn’t this being discussed on major news networks? I have read time and time again about the intensity and cruelty that is taking place at this moment across the world in Burma, and it sickens me to know that just this year alone 1,000 Rohingya have been killed in a new crackdown by the Myanmar state. 

Here is a breakdown of what started this conflict and why this is happening…

The Rohingya are Muslims. They are indigenous to Burma’s Rakhine province in the North-West Region that borders the South Asian country, Bangladesh. There are approximately 2 million Rohingya, of which, 1 million are currently living in Burma today.

Despite having historic ties to the land of Burma that have lasted for centuries, the Rohingya people were rendered stateless in 1982 by a highly controversial citizenship law that deliberately excluded them as one of Burma’s natural, and thereby legitimate, ethnicities. Because of this, the Rohingya people have been falsely and cruelly classified as foreigners in their own homeland.

If this was not difficult enough the Citizenship Law of 1982 has since become the staging grounds for the rising tide of Islamophobia in Burma. Biased government led initiatives are being fueled by a strategically planted hatred for Muslims and are designed to alienate the native Rohingya from Burmese Buddhist life.

One of the main initiatives involves the denial of the title “Rohingya” from public discourse. Instead, the incorrect term “Benjali” is being pushed on the Rohingya people to make them seem like foreigners and Muslims to the Burmese people. 

Because of this, the Rohingya people have been pushed to the literal fringes of Burmese society where they are extremely vulnerable, and where human rights abuses are mounting up and becoming quite difficult to document.

Since the violence has started the Rohingya people have been forced to flee to neighboring states, such as Bangladesh, Thailand, and Malaysia. They’ve unfortunately been met with further hostility. Those governments have rejected them and relegated them to a life of complete neglect in refugee camps, which inevitably increases the very real threat of human trafficking. 

In 1967, Martin Luther King Jr said, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” These words should ring loud and true for anyone who considers themselves a citizen of the world, and they cannot be ignored just because what you see makes you uncomfortable or helpless. We all belong to this planet and when anyone tries to force one person or a group of us to disappear via genocide, we ALL need to come together and say it loud and clear – that it is NOT OK, and that IT WILL NOT BE IGNORED. I too at times feel that my voice is lost in the multitude of noise that is generated in this busy world we live in; however, that will not stop me from yelling, writing, and talking about issues like the Rohingya genocide because they deserve our attention. The people of Rohingya need and deserve justice, and they’ll never get it if the people who know about the issue refuse to discuss it and bring it to other peoples attention. 

The United Nations considers the Rohingya people the “most persecuted minority group in the world.” It’s time we start paying attention. 

Last year we shared a similar story about 8,000 Muslims who were killed in a designated U.N. “safe haven.” Read about it here: Unknown Genocide

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