"Do Men think that they will be left alone on saying, "We believe" & that they
will not be tested? We did test those before them, & Allah will certainly know
those who are True from those who are false.
(Al-Quran 29:2-3 - Ankabut [The Spider])
Myanmar's Muslims - Unlikely Sanctuary
Jun 28th 2007 | JINGHONG
>From The Economist print edition
http://www.economist.com/world/asia/displaystory.cfm?story_id=9409267
Huddled masses, yearning to be free and going to China AT FIRST glance,
Yunnan would seem the sort of place a pious Muslim should avoid. AIDS is
rampant in this province in south-western China and Beijing's efforts have
failed to curb the drugs and prostitution that spread the disease. Moreover
China has an appalling record of suppressing religious freedom, including that
of Muslims. In its western region of Xinjiang some have taken up arms.
Yet Muslims from neighbouring Myanmar flock to Yunnan. In cities such as
Jinghong and Liuku, they sell Burmese gems in shops decorated with Arabic
calligraphy and pictures of Mecca. A jeweller in Jinghong, who has lived here
for six years, says that in Myanmar the Buddhists fight us Muslims and don't
let us work. The government is very evil. Here in China you can work in peace.
No one knows how many Burmese live in Yunnan. Many enter illegally. Official
statistics suggest that Muslims make up about 4% of Myanmar's population of
around 47m, but that is almost certainly an underestimate. The ruling junta has
a history of discrimination against Muslims, particularly the Rohingya ethnic
group, more than 250,000 of whom fled from Arakan province into neighbouring
Bangladesh in the early 1990s.
Mosques and schools in Myanmar are shut down arbitrarily. Many Muslims find
their movements restricted unless they pay hefty bribes; others languish in
detention after officially instigated clashes with Buddhists. It does not help
that their political sympathies often lie with the democratic opposition, whose
leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, remains in detention.
In China, in contrast, the Burmese find that, as long as they make no
trouble, their faith is immaterial. Compared with other countries of refuge,
such as Bangladesh, China offers relative stability. Even America is not as
enticing a prospect. The jeweller frets that, as a Muslim, he would risk jail
there. Business in China is booming, too; jewellers can make as much as 30,000
yuan ($3,900) per month.
The local population gives them a mixed reception. The Huiethnic-Chinese
Muslims many of whom have family in Myanmarare friendly to their
co-religionists. Burmese men here boast of taking Hui mistresses and wives. But
Yunnan, like much of China, remains plagued by vast income inequality; the
wealthy jewellers live beside subsistence farmers. Some resent the
better-educated, wealthier Burmese immigrants. Undercurrents of racism do
exist, as do reports of Burmese trafficking guns and drugs.
If the resentment flares into violence, many Chinese Hui might side with the
Burmese. As heroin and AIDS have already shown, Myanmar's internal affairs are
not just internal. Despite this, China helps prop up its repellent regime even
as it offers some of its victims sanctuary.
AB
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
"For to us
will be their return; then it will be for us to call them to account." (Holy
Quran 88:25-26)
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