Rohingya: Horrors Multiply as Tragedy Worsens

Rohingya: Horrors Multiply as Tragedy Worsens

Arson, killings and rape have become operative challenges for Myanmar’s Muslim Rohingya population as they face wave after wave of an orchestrated campaign of ethnic cleansing. Reviled as illegal migrants and rendered stateless by the Buddhist majority government, Myanmar’s 1.1 million Rohingya feel utterly powerless and abandoned by the world. Current images of women, children…

Buddhist Extremism Spreads in Myanmar Despite Clampdown

Buddhist Extremism Spreads in Myanmar Despite Clampdown

In May, Myanmar’s Sangha Maha Nayaka Committee, a state appointed organization representing over 500,000 Buddhist monks known as Ma Ha Na, issued a controversial order against the Ma Ba Tha nationalist group to remove its signboards across the country. The committee’s order came in response to Ma Ba Tha’s association with anti-Muslim activities and amid calls from…

Islamophobia Redux in Myanmar

Islamophobia Redux in Myanmar

The April 28 forced closure of two madrassas in downtown Yangon by a mob of ultra-nationalist protestors backed by Buddhist monks was the latest indication that anti-Muslim vehemence is still a virulent undercurrent of instability in Myanmar’s unconsolidated democratic transition. Two Islamic schools in the former capital’s Thaketa township were padlocked by protestors who alleged…

Is the US Positioning Itself for Military Presence in Myanmar?

Is the US Positioning Itself for Military Presence in Myanmar?

The governments of the United States and United Kingdom have spent decades and millions of dollars creating the political opposition fronts that constitute support for Myanmar’s new (and first ever) State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi. This support includes backing Suu Kyi’s saffron-clad street fronts who make up a nationwide network of “monk” alliances and associations….