In 2013, Time magazine put extremist Buddhist monk of Myanmar Ashin Wirathu on cover and gave him its infamous ‘devil horns’. The location of a photo below ‘M’ in the name on the cover gives the appearance of horns on the head of the person in the photo. The headline summed it all up: ‘The face of Buddhist terror’.
Wirathu, who is known for inciting Buddhists against Muslims—the Rohingyas—claims he does that to protect his own people. Sample this: “You can be full of kindness and love, but you cannot sleep next to a mad dog.” His comments have got him the title of ‘Burmese Bin Laden’. In a recent interview to The Guardian, Wirathu said this about the hate speech charge against him: “I am defending my loved one like you would defend your loved one. I am only warning people about Muslims. Consider it like if you had a dog, that would bark at strangers coming to your house – it is to warn you. I am like that dog. I bark.”
Wirathu is unapologetic about his sermons that incite violence against Muslims: “It only takes one terrorist to be amongst them. Look at what has happened in the west. I do not want that to happen in my country. All I am doing is warning people to beware.”
Most of the international coverage of the recent Rohingya crisis in Myanmar—hundreds of thousands escaping military crackdown and finding shelter in the neighbouring Bangladesh—may not be comparable to Wirathu’s narrative of anti-Muslim hate but it does present a one-sided picture of the crisis, painting the Myanmarese Buddhists in colours as lurid as of Wirathu.
Most of the international coverage of the recent Rohingya crisis in Myanmar—hundreds of thousands escaping military crackdown and finding shelter in the neighbouring Bangladesh—may not be comparable to Wirathu’s narrative of anti-Muslim hate but it does present a one-sided picture of the crisis, painting the Myanmarese Buddhists in colours as lurid as of Wirathu.
Myanmar’s army has unearthed mass graves of Hindus killed by Muslim insurgents last month when the violence begun. Bodies of 45 Hindus including those of children have been found buried in mass graves so far. Family members of many of those killed have recounted how Rohingya insurgents had been killing and torturing Hindus, but the incident is still reported as suspicious. It is seen as an account by Myanmarese military despite the victims themselves speaking out.
Even when their voices are represented in media reports, the overall narrative remains intact—the genocide of innocent Rohingyas by extremist Buddhists and the Myanmarese military. It can be no one’s argument that hundreds of thousands of Rohingyas fleeing after the military crackdown are not innocent. Obviously, most of them are. What the media narrative ignores is the radicalisation of a few that has led to persecution of a large number of them.
The hostilities between the Rohingyas and the Rakhine Buddhists go back several centuries. The most recent fissure was created by the British during the Raj who armed the Rohingyas against the Japanese during the Second World War. The Buddhists supported the Japanese. When Islamist state of Pakistan was carved out of India, the Rohingyas had wanted to integrate the Arakan province, where most of them live, with the new Islamic state. When that did not work out, a Mujahid Party came up to wage jihad against the Buddhists to create a separate Muslim state out of the Arakan province. After the coup in 1962, the military began a crackdown against the radicals.
The distrust between the Rohingyas and the Buddhists is old and runs deep. Ideas of creating a separate Islamist state and jihad have been prevalent among the Rohingyas for long. The links of Rohingyas with Islamist terror groups in Pakistan have been reported several times. Ata Ullah, the leader of the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA), earlier known as Harakah al-Yaqin (movement of faith), was born in Karachi in Pakistan and grew up in Mecca, Saudi Arabia. In 2013, Muslim terrorists attacked Mahabodhi Temple—the most sacred Buddhist site in India—in revenge of the killings of Rohingyas in Myanmar. Jihadis among the Rohingyas have attacked Buddhists shrines, raped women and killed innocent people.
Blaming the Buddhists for the current crisis and giving radical Islamists a free pass is a gross misrepresentation of the issue. But if nuances are factored into any analysis, it loses the appeal the word ‘genocide’ creates.
Wirathu’s incendiary speeches incite hate against the Muslim community. But so does the anti-Buddhists one-sided narrative in the media. After the graves of Hindus were found, few would analyse why the Rohingyas killed Hindus. No fact will change the Rohingya genocide narrative. In fact, such a narrative does a great harm to innocent Rohingyas too.
If media and analysts do not call out the radicals among them, common people will most certainly won’t dare. That’s how communities are held to ransom by radical minorities. Isn’t it possible that a radical minority among the Rohingyas creates trouble for the innocent majority? Is it too hard to imagine how Buddhists in Myanmar will feel when they see Buddhism under threat in neighboring countries such as Malaysia and Indonesia which are fast turning into fanatic regimes?
If the Myanmarese military which triggered the current refugee crisis needs to be pressured by the international community, ARSA which mounted provocative attacks on military must be seen as a contributor to the crisis. If Wirathu stereotypes and maligns a particular community in his speeches, how are those different who do a similar profiling of a community in sophisticated analysis? They too have ‘devil horns’ on them.
By Gagandeep Ghuman
When even the quintessentially peaceful buddhists are having problems you know there’s a problem.
It’s almost gotten to the point where whatever mainstream media (aka Fake News) claims, you’re safe to believe the opposite is true.