Buddhist mobs attack Muslim homes for second day in Myanmar; one dead


Recommended Posts

http://www.reuters.c...r&dlvrit=992637

Buddhist mobs attack Muslim homes for second day in Myanmar; one dead

?m=02&d=20130529&t=2&i=736238092&w=&fh=&fw=&ll=700&pl=300&r=CBRE94S0XDD00

By Jared Ferrie

LASHIO, Myanmar | Wed May 29, 2013 10:40am EDT

(Reuters) - Buddhist mobs armed with sticks and machetes burned Muslim homes on Wednesday for a second day in the northern Myanmar city of Lashio, contradicting claims in state media that soldiers and police had restored calm.

A Reuters reporter saw scores of young men and boys on motorbikes and on foot marauding through the city of 130,000 people in a mountainous region about 700 km (430 miles) from the commercial capital Yangon.

One person was killed and four were wounded in fighting that began at about 2 p.m., Ye Htut, spokesman for President Thein Sein, said in a Facebook post. Police fired their guns to disperse the crowd, he said.

By early evening, Muslims shops and homes were still burning in one quarter, underlining the difficulty the president faces in containing mounting religious violence in an era of historic reforms since military rule ended in March 2011.

"I don't know where the Muslims are. They all ran away," said Kyaw Soe Win, a Buddhist resident of a mixed neighborhood where motorbikes and household possessions lay burning in the streets. Nearby, a man with a sword and a stick combed through the remains of one burned-out shop.

State television said a mosque, a Muslim religious school and a number of shops were gutted by fires started on Tuesday by Buddhists who rampaged after hearing reports of a Muslim man setting a Buddhist woman on fire and badly wounding her. State media said calm had returned by Wednesday.

Myanmar has struggled with religious unrest since June last year when fighting between ethnic Rakhine Buddhists and Muslim Rohingya erupted in western Rakhine State.

That was followed by organized Rakhine attacks on Rohingya communities in October that New York-based Human Rights Watch said amounted to ethnic cleansing. The government calls the stateless Rohingya illegal "Bengali" immigrants from neighboring Bangladesh.

"KILL ALL BENGALIS"

British tourist Stephen Barker, 46, told Reuters he saw a group of about 100 machete and stick-carrying youths rallying around his hotel in the early afternoon, including four or five monks. Police and military moved them on and arrested half a dozen people.

"I got a light for my cigarette from one and he told me to kill all Bengalis while waving this 18-inch blade around."

Muslims appeared to have fled a mixed Lashio neighborhood known as Quarter Number 17.

Tuesday's unrest in Lashio was sparked by a quarrel between two people, named by state media as Aye Aye Win, 24, a Buddhist woman who sold petrol, and Ne Win, a Muslim man aged 48.

MRTV television said Ne Win poured petrol over Aye Aye Win and set her on fire. She was in hospital, it said.

After police detained Ne Win, Buddhists surrounded the police station and demanded he be handed over. When they refused, the crowd went on the rampage, attacking Myoma Mosque near Lashio market, residents said.

The authorities attempted to restore order late on Tuesday by banning unlawful assembly under a state of emergency in the city, which is about 190 km (120 miles) from the Chinese border.

In March, at least 44 people, most of them Muslims, died in the central city of Meikhtila after a rampage by Buddhist mobs incensed by the killing of a monk by Muslims, shortly after a violent row between a Buddhist couple and Muslim shop owners.

Muslims make up about 5 percent of Myanmar's 60 million people.

(Additional reporting by Aung Hla Tun in Yangon; Writing by Andrew R.C. Marshall; Editing by Jason Szep, Robert Birsel and Ron Popeski)

http://www.reuters.c...r&dlvrit=992637
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Muslims... the scourge of the earth are finally getting a taste of their own actions.....

Wish this didn't happen but when you mix violent religion with fire, what do you think you will get? People should lay down their weapons (religion) and call a cease fire and leave barbarism behind us.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I always thought Buddhism was a peaceful religion.

Peaceful religion is an oxymoron.

  • Like 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

no buddhist .vs. western values in the europe, yet.

Steve Jobs also a buddhist convert, wasn't he?

Yes Steve was a Buddhist

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm sure a Muslim man setting fire to a local Buddhist woman set them off. Not an excuse, but certainly a reason.

Any time a member of Group A sets fire to a member of Group B this could happen, religion or not. Biker gangs, political parties, whatever - revenge seeking is the consummate cause.

State television said a mosque, a Muslim religious school and a number of shops were gutted by fires started on Tuesday by Buddhists who rampaged after hearing reports of a Muslim man setting a Buddhist woman on fire and badly wounding her. State media said calm had returned by Wednesday.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm sure a Muslim man setting fire to a local Buddhist woman set them off. Not an excuse, but certainly a reason.

Any time a member of Group A sets fire to a member of Group B this could happen, religion or not. Biker gangs, political parties, whatever - revenge seeking is the consummate cause.

True, and completely contradictory to the tenets of Buddhism. They're pacifists; they're not even meant to defend themselves from attack, let alone seek revenge for others.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

We don't know if other atrocities have befell them at the hands of local Muslim extremeists. That can get old fast and bring out the worst in anyone. Sometimes your cup runneth over and snap.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

True, and completely contradictory to the tenets of Buddhism. They're pacifists; they're not even meant to defend themselves from attack, let alone seek revenge for others.

Correct but I suppose the violence against the muslims in Burma is probably stemming from their perception of the religion based on the issues they see in other countries involving extremist muslims. Plus burning a woman does not really help that image now does it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Oh, I'm not defending what the Muslims are doing down there. Just pointing out at the end of the day, it doesn't actually matter what religious claim they are. What they really are, is what their followers DO.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Wow, Buddhists? I'm still waiting for the Jedis to start slapping Muslims with plastic light sabers at a Star Wars convention.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Man it is not a good year to be a Muslim. The problem isn't that they have extremist its that they have so many extremist and it makes the other look really bad. Starting to think non crazy Muslim extremist are the minority.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Muslims immigrants from neighboring bangladesh bred themselves from nowhere to being 95 % population in 2 district chasing out the indigenous Buddhists..

Funny thing is Muslim take over of an area is never reported.. But slight blowback from locals is treated as the end of the world.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

You guys are gonna think badly of me but I was on 4chan a few days ago and it was about Muslims. The thing is most were the same along the lines of what happened to this city it's full of Muslims now. Does that happen really?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

This topic is now closed to further replies.
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.