Anti-Muslim hate letters spreading in Yangon Outskirts

October 24, 2012
M-Media
Reporting by Nattaw Thurein

Copies of anti-Muslim letters in Burmese language titled “Future Myanmar and Bengali” are spreading in Yangon’s outskirts.

The letters and copies, distributed by a group called Patriotic Youth Network, are spreading in Dala and Hlaing Thar Yar townships. The letters are now being distributed via emails, blogs and Facebook.

Since the Arakan conflict started in June this year, the majority in Myanmar has been more openly attacking Islamic faith and Muslims with offensive words and images.

Before the Arakan conflict, anti-Muslim campaigns took place only on social media websites such as blogs and Facebook where people distributed anti-Islam and hate messages.

But the anti-Muslim campaigners have now started the campaigns in many towns and cities in Myanmar including Yangon, Mandalay, Pa-an and Mawlamyein, making many Muslims worried that the conflict in Arakan state will spread to entire country.

Patriotic Youth Network’s anti-Muslim letter accuses Banglis of dominating Yangon and 70% of its economy. The letter mentions businesses and companies owned by Muslims making false accusations.

The accusations include conspiracies that the burmese young ladies’ half-naked dress during the Buddhist water festival this year was sponsored by Muslims. It also accused a Muslim company for destroying the Burmese culture by sponsoring a fashion show on a Buddhist holiday where the women wear sexy dresses.

The letter is not based on reliable studies or investigations, but makes claims without evidence.

Islamic organizations in the country have reported the government and authorities several time about the on-going anti-Muslim campaigns, but the reform government in Myanmar, led by President Thein Sein, has not taken any actions against anti-Muslim and hate campaigns that are more and more widespread and open each day.

အနာဂါတ္ျမန္မာျပည္ ႏွင့္ ဘဂၤါလီ ေခါင္းစဥ္ျဖင့္ အစၥလာမ့္ဆန္႔က်င္ေရးလႈ႔ံေဆာ္စာ