By RFA
The committee has a growing list of more than
40 mosques shut down in 10 of the country’s states and regions, said committee
representative Maung Maung Myint.
Muslim leaders from all states and regions of
Myanmar are forming a temporary committee to press the civilian-led government
to reopen shuttered mosques across the country, most of which were closed down
in the wake of 2012 communal violence between Buddhist and Muslim communities
in Rakhine state, a spokesman for the body said Monday.
“We are making a list of mosques that were
shut down across the country,” he told RFA’s Myanmar Service. “Next, we will
form a committee. This committee will make an appeal to state leaders to reopen
these mosques.”
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Most of the structures were shut down
following riots in western Myanmar’s multicultural Rakhine state more than
seven years ago, he said.
The violence left more than 200 people dead
and tens of thousands of Rohingya Muslims were displaced and eventually moved
into permanent camps where they still live and are deprived of citizenship,
basic rights, and access to services.
Other factors caused the shutdown of mosques
in Mandalay region, especially in Meiktila and Yamethin townships, Maung Maung
Myint said. While most mosques were closed due to inter-ethnic and religious
conflicts, others were destroyed during social clashes in neighborhoods, he
said.
“These mosques were shut down unnecessarily
in the first place,” said Wunna Shwe, joint-secretary of the Islamic Religious
Affairs Council Myanmar. “Now that there is stability in the country, they need
to be reopened as soon as possible.”
“As a religious organization, we have sent
written appeals repeatedly,” he said. “The local Muslims in these regions face
lots of challenges for their daily prayers. This is an urgent issue.”
Kyaw Hla Aung, a resident of Rakhine state’s
capital Sittwe, said the list could grow to more than 100 mosques across the
country but does not include structures shuttered in areas where most of the
inter-ethnic and religious conflicts occurred.
More than 20 mosques were closed in Sittwe
alone following the 2012 riots, he added.
A list from the General Administration
Department indicates that there are over 800 mosques in northern Rakhine’s
Maungdaw township, more than 400 in Buthidaung township, and 10 in Rathedaung
township of northern Rakhine state. It is unknown how many of them had been
shut down or destroyed.
Myo Nyunt, spokesman of the ruling National
League for Democracy (NLD) government, said that the administration would make
the most suitable decision considering everyone’s concern when deciding whether
to reopen mosques nationwide in the Buddhist-majority country.
“We don’t want to blame anybody or any
organization,” he said.
‘Still happening under the NLD’
Some individual townships have undertaken
efforts to reopen their mosques, but the move to create the commission is the
first attempt to address shuttered religious buildings nationwide.
Muslims, who comprise four percent of
Myanmar’s estimated population of 54 million people have not had proper places
to pray with the closures of their community mosques, Maung Maung Myint said.
When this type of discrimination against
Muslims occurred during the former military-backed government in the
Buddhist-majority country, authorities failed to protect Muslim communities and
prevent the destruction of their places of worship, said committee member Kyaw
Nay Min.
Since 2016, riots and other violence
targeting Muslims have occurred each year during which the current civilian-led
National League for Democracy (NLD) government has been in power, Kyaw Nay Min
said.
“The attacks on mosques and inter-ethnic and
religious conflicts have erupted since the previous government of [former
president] Thein Sein,” he said.
“It has been known that there were some
perpetrators pulling the strings from behind and that they have never been
exposed,” he said. “I will say, frankly, that it is still happening under the
NLD government.”
The worst of the attacks occurred during a
brutal military-led crackdown on Rohingya communities in northern Rakhine state
that began in August 2017, which left thousands dead and forced more than
740,000 others to flee to safety in neighboring Bangladesh.
Also during that year, authorities in Yangon
closed down two madrassas in Thaketa township under pressure from Buddhist
nationalists who accused Muslims of using the schools for prayer services, and
one in Taikkyi Township that had been rebuilt without permission years after
the original structure was torched during communal violence.
Then in 2018, some township offices the
General Administration Department ordered that mosques and madrassas use only
the Burmese language and that religious services and classes be held only in
permitted places.
“In fact, it was crucial that authorities
effectively prevent these riots, but they didn’t,” Kyaw Nay Myint. “I should
say the NLD government is not capable of protecting minorities.”
He also noted that the government’s lack of
regard for Muslims might not bode well for any hope of reelection in the next
general election in late 2020 if it doesn’t reverse course.
“The ruling party would surely want to garner
votes from minority groups,” Kyaw Nay Min said. “And we, the minority, also
must reconsider our position and whether the ruling government is capable of
protecting us or not.”
‘No religious freedom’
Ethnic Kachin community leader Tan Guan said
the formation of the committee was a result of an informal meeting between
Reverend Hkalam Samson, president of the Kachin Baptist Convention (KBC) and
U.S. President Donald Trump in July to briefly discuss religious persecution.
“I think this is the result of Dr. Hkalam
Samson's statement [during the meeting] that there is no religious freedom in
the country,” he said.
The Myanmar military filed a defamation
lawsuit against him for comments he made to Trump about human rights violations
by soldiers in the Southeast Asian, but dropped it in early September.
The KBC is an evangelical Christian
organization that operates in northern Myanmar’s Kachin state and helps
civilians displaced by fighting between the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) and
Myanmar forces.
NLD spokesman Myo Nyunt said the government
has largely failed to protect religious minorities.
“It’s true that we haven’t done the job well by democratic standards,” he said.
“As you know, there have also been attacks
[on us] led by religious extremists, but we have done our very best within the
limitations of our authority,” he added, referring to deadly armed assaults on
police outposts in northern Rakhine state by a Rohingya militant group which
sparked the 2017 military-led crackdown.
Aung San Win, director of Myanmar’s Ministry
of Religious Affairs and Culture, refused to comment.
Though the reopening of the mosques is the
concern of the Ministry of Religious Affairs, it largely depends on the
decision of Myanmar military commander-in-chief Senior General Min Aung Hlaing
and the ruling government.
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Don’t forget to read more below:
39 Rohingya Killed in `Gunfights’ With Bangladeshi
Authorities in 2019 https://t.co/eB6VsVCSZl
UN FFM Report: 600,000 Rohingya still in
Myanmar at 'serious risk of genocide': https://lnkd.in/grp4Gvg