Are the Anti-Muslim Riots In Myanmar and Sri Lanka A Reaction to the Demolition of Bamiyan Buddha?
By Syed Shabbir Ahmad, New Age Islam
April 4, 2013
Last year the anti Muslim riots had caused indescribable damage to life and property of Muslims of Myanmar. Chilling stories of murder of Muslims including children had shocked the world. The riots have returned again in Myanmar killing hundreds of Muslims including students of a madrasa there.
The Muslims in Sri Lanka were also in for communal hatred as they were targets of extremist Buddhists in the Singhalese dominated country.
The anti- Muslim feeling is not new in Burma. Muslims have been targeted by the Buddhists for decades but the riots last year were the most severe in terms of intensity and enormity.
Though the Muslims in Sri Lanka too have been facing communal bias by the government and the common people in every sphere of life for decades, the recent riots demonstrate some link between the anti-Muslim riots in Myanmar and Sri Lanka as the perpetrators in both the countries are Buddhists.
The savage and brutal attacks on Muslims should be condemned as it is against the human ethos and the teachings of all religions more so against the teachings of Buddhism which is against any kind of violence.
Last year, Dalai Lama and Aung San Suu Kyi were criticised by the larger Muslim community for not condemning the anti-Muslims riots in Myanmar. The Dalai Lama had gone so far as to say that the anti-Muslim riots had their root in the demolition of Bamiyan Buddhas in Afghanistan by the Taliban. At that time, Muslims had rubbished his analysis regarding it merely his polemics to avoid directly condemning his own religious comrades. But the intensity of the anti-Muslim riots in Myanmar and now in Sri Lanka shows that what Dalai Lama had said was not unfounded but reflected the sentiments of the Buddhists.
Bamiyan Buddhas, two giant statues of Gautam Buddha in the Bamiyan Valley in central Afghanistan were one of the most revered sites for the followers of Buddhism. Bamiyan was a centre of Buddhism with hundreds of monasteries and monks living around the statues since pre Islam period. Afghanistan was a centre of Buddhist religion and philosophy before the advent of Islam. Even after the Muslims invaded Afghanistan, the statues anyhow survived the invaders and Muslim rulers. Aurangzeb is said to be one of the kings who tried to demolish them but failed. In the 13th century, Genghis Khan invaded Bamiyan but he spared them. In the 18th century Persian King Nadir Afsar also tried to demolish them.
However, in 2001, Taliban finally destroyed the two Buddhas defying all the requests of India, the Muslim countries, Pakistan, Switzerland, Japan and so on. The destruction of the Buddha statues was a huge religious blow for the followers of Buddhism. It was what the demolition of Babri Masjid in India by the Hindutva forces was to Muslims. Buddha statues were the symbols of Buddhism. This hurt the sentiments of the Buddhists and it changed their perception of Muslims overnight.
Last year, when Dalai Lama said that Myanmar's anti-Muslim riots were a reaction to the destruction of Bamiyan Buddhas, Muslim took his statement as his excuse to defend the Buddhist riots. But when we take into consideration the after effects of the demolition of Babri Masjid, we can realise that he was not wrong. Muslims have not forgotten the trauma and the pain of the demolition of Babri Masjid even after 20 years of its demolition or the Gujarat riots even after ten years. How can we expect Buddhists to forget the pain of the destruction of the statue of their deity who was like a prophet to them?
The growing intensity of the hatred of Muslims in Sri Lanka and Myanmar can rightly be attributed to the destruction of Buddha statues as one does not find any other reason for their ever growing hatred of Muslims.
It is, therefore, time for the Muslims to do introspection into the fact that they are gradually turning into a hated community across the world and a community that is devoid of tolerance and human ethos. From Pakistan to Egypt, Muslims have made life hell for the minorities in the name of establishing Islamic rule and implementing Shariah.
There is widespread condemnation of killing of Muslim men and women in Myanmar and Muslim children in a madrasa there. No doubt it is a condemnable act as no religion allows killing of innocent people without any offense. But the question is: Do Muslims have any moral right to ask the Buddhists of Myanmar and Sri Lanka to stop persecuting Muslims in their country? The answer is no.
Pakistan has been one country where the majority Muslims have been killing and victimising members of non-Muslim communities like the Ahmadiyas, Christians, Hindus, and Buddhists etc. They have declared Shias and Ahmadiyas Kafirs. Even if they are Kafirs, Islam does not approve of their killing if they live the life of law abiding citizens. But they kill them on a regular basis.
After the revolution in Egypt, since the Islamic government was established there, Christians have been the target of the extremist sections of the Muslims. Their churches have been destroyed and young girls are regularly abducted and forcibly converted to Islam. Last month, Muslims burned a Christian locality in Pakistan and forced the Christian citizens to flee to safer places. But the government and the dominant Muslim majority have maintained silence demonstrating insensitivity to the plight of non-Muslims.
In Bangladesh, the Hindus and other minority communities have been regularly persecuted by the Islamists. Recently, the Islamists attacked the houses of non-Muslims for joining the Shahbagh protests against the war criminals. There must be some Buddhists also among those attacked in Bangladesh.
Therefore, if Muslims kill non-Muslims in the Muslim countries and the larger Muslim community does not raise a voice against it and the governments remain silent spectators to the killings, Muslims do not have the moral right to condemn the killings of Muslims and cannot expect fair treatment to their brethren in non-Muslim countries. Those condemning the massacre of madrasa students in Myanmar should also recall that Muslims are regularly killed in mosques, shrines and schools in Pakistan and Egypt. What precedence have they set to demand restraint by Buddhists in killing madrasa students in Myanmar?
Recently, Maulana Asrar ul Haque Quasmi, an MP and a journalist, wrote in an article that the bomb attack in a mosque in Egypt that killed the pro-Assad cleric Al Buti might be a conspiracy of the foreign hands who want to drive a wedge between the Shias and the Sunnis there. What argument then does he have for the almost daily attacks on shrines, markets and mosques in Pakistan in which scores of Muslims are killed?
Until the Muslims do not stand up against the killings of non-Muslims in Muslim majority countries and stop the extremist forces from carrying out massacres of non-Muslims, such incidents against Muslims cannot be stopped, and worse, we will have no moral right to condemn them, except lamenting and mourning the death of the hapless innocent Muslims in those countries. One can imagine what the fate of the Muslims would be if the followers of other religions in Muslim minority countries declare Muslims atheists and eligible to be killed.
URL: https://newageislam.com/islam-terrorism-jihad/are-anti-muslim-riots-myanmar/d/10997