Jaafar1

Gadir Jaafar
IP: Ethnicity
First Draft
Wednesday, April 5, 2017
Mirror Mirror on The Wall, Whos The Victim of Them All?

Islam is one of the three known monotheistic religions around the world. In fact, when

we think of Islam, we have that tendency to think of only Arab countries. However, we forget

that this religion is open to everyone, and does not have only Arab followers. Little do we

know that Muslims do exist in countries we wouldnt think of, such as Russia, Myanmar, and

China. So, I am interested in the Muslim minority communities found in these countries,

focusing on their lives in the 21st century. Therefore, what is the contemporary common social

experience of Muslims in different geographical spaces? Thus, the discrimination against

Muslim minorities surface due to laws impacted by categorization, by looking at distinct

experiences from three geographical regions. In the following paragraphs, I will discuss

Myanmars policies and events that impacted the lives of the Muslim minority in Myanmar.

Rohingya: The Forgotten People of Myanmar

This section will be interested in the aftermath of events on the Muslim population of

Myanmar. In fact, following the 1982 Citizenship Law of Myanmar, the Rohingya community

suffered from discriminatory treatment (Brinham 2012, P.1). Even though this law occurred

and was applied a long time in history, the election of Thein Sein, previous president of

Myanmar, in 2010 and in 2015, the discrimination intensified and lead to segregation on the

Rohingyas community (Burke 2016, P.260).

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First, the aftermath of the 1982 Citizenship Law of Myanmar lead to a great

discrimination rage towards the Muslim community of Myanmar: they were denied

citizenship as Muslims and were not recognized as people from the country (Brinham 2012,

P.1). By definition, discrimination is when someone treats an individual in a different manner

because of their race or ethnicity (Evett & Hakstian 2013, P.1). Discrimination is negative,

and is present everywhere, anywhere. It simply requires people who are against or/and dont

approve of difference in people; those who discriminate treat others with disrespect and

inhumanly to feel superior. In Myanmar, the population is in majority Buddhist, and there

is decades of tension between the Muslim minority and the Rakhine Buddhist majority.

Therefore, having the Rohingya community present in their territory, is a form of threat. In

consequence, the majority took the rights of Rohingya away to prevent the Muslim minority

from having any control in the country. Discriminating laws surfaced ever since 1982, and

this impacted hugely the lives of Rohingya: discriminatory treatments leading to death,

burnings of mosques and Muslim property, torture, kidnapping, all this by the Burmese

security forces abusing human rights. In fact, the previous president of Burma Thein Sein

proposed to send Rohingya to third countries or send them to UNHCR-administered camps,

and this was, according to him, the only solution (Brinham 2012, P.1). This only makes

their lives miserable in addition to not having support from their president, they get the

opposite of what a president is supposed to do, which is protect his people, and they get bullied

by the rest of the population. But apparently, the Rohingya are stateless in the state of

Rakhine, therefore they dont matter to the country.

Secondly, as seen above, the previous president of Myanmar suggested sending the

Rohingya away, in other words, the presidential election resulted into the segregation of this
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community. According to Louf and Barthelemy, the concept of segregation is defined as a

pattern of social institutions an spatial distribution of different racial groups

(Louf& Barthelemy 2016, P.2). For instance, it is the action of separation different groups

in a country or community, for simple reasons such as they are different. Ever since 2012,

Myanmars Muslim population is being segregated: they are segregated from the rest of the

population to create Muslim-free areas; while burning their properties, many have died and

the rest has been sent to camps administered under the Burmese government (Louf &

Barthelemy 2016, P.2). In fact, Human Rights Watch describes this whole situation of

segregation and discrimination as ethnic cleansing, which is clearly mentioned previously

from the president. Plus, this only supports the idea of wanting the Rohingya to disappear

from the territory, or just take their freedom of movement away, to remain in power.

Shockingly, a political activist called Kyaw Zaw Oo has been implementing in the minds of

the rest Myanmars population that Rohingya are aliens (Louf & Barthelemy 2016, P.3). This

creates fear in the minds of the uneducated, and gives purpose to those in power to justify

their decision of segregation towards the Muslim minority, which all result into a vicious

circle of endless hatred and complications.

Hence, it all started with the citizenship law in 1982 that resulted into heavy

discrimination towards the Rohingya. This only helped the election of Myanmars president

by keeping it, and even implementing segregation policies towards this visible minority.

Therefore, the Rohingya experience in Rakhine state is not at its best, the Muslim minority

in China shares a better state of life, as seen in the followings.