Ariel Moser

Wijitha Bandara

Rels 2300

December 13th, 2018

ePortfolio Essay

The term Muslim has many different meanings and many different religious groups

identify as being Muslim with sub-definitions and many generations of descendents. There is an

ethnic group by the name of Rohingya who lived in Myanmar, a Buddhist-majority country in

southeast Asia. Over the last few decades, Rohingya people have fled to surrounding countries

like Bangladesh due to violence and persecution. Refugees talked of Burmese militants attacking

villages and mobs of Buddhists in Rakhine, where the Rohingya people are from and journalists

that visited the state found entire villages that had been abandoned and entirely burnt down.

The Myanmar government has refused to grant the Rohingya people citizenship since

Myanmar gained independence from the British in 1948 and the Rohingya people were not

included in the Union Citizenship Act which stated which ethnicities were allowed citizenship.1

In 1962, the Myanmar Government was overthrown and all citizens had to obtain national

registration cards, the Rohingya only getting foreign identity cards which denied them better jobs

and educational opportunities. In 1982, a new citizen law was passed and the Rohingya people

were once again stateless without recognition as an ethnic group. In 2016, nine border police

officers were killed and the Myanmar Government claimed there had been an armed group of

Rohingya people and Government troops were sent to Rakhine villages where they killed, raped

1
​Al
Jazeera. (2018, April 18). Who are the Rohingya? Retrieved from
https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2017/08/rohingya-muslims-170831065142812.html
and burned down everything they came across with the Myanmar Government denying the

violence. The Human Rights Watch has become involved, stating that Myanmar was carrying

out “ethnic cleansing” against the Rohingya which the government has also denied.

Due to heavy discrimination and violence, the Rohingya are viewed as the world’s most

persecuted minorities, with around 87,000 people fleeing to Bangladesh as recently as October of

last year.2 Rohingya are attempting to find shelter in Muslim-majority countries such as

Malaysia, Thailand, and Indonesia.3 Siegfried O. Wolf, a director of research at the South Asia

Democratic Forum detailed that the tensions between Buddhist and Rohingya people stems from

more than just religion, but political issues and economic opportunities as well.4 When Nobel

Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi rose to power, many were hopeful that she could help in

bringing the tensions between the religious groups down but she hasn’t seemed to pay any

attention to the violence against the people or the number of people fleeing the state.

2
​Deutsche Welle. (n.d.). Rohingya people in Myanmar: What you need to know | DW |
12.09.2017. Retrieved from
https://www.dw.com/en/rohingya-people-in-myanmar-what-you-need-to-know/a-40340067
3
​Explainer: What's Happening to Myanmar's Rohingya Muslims. (n.d.). Retrieved from
https://asiasociety.org/blog/asia/explainer-whats-happening-myanmars-rohingya-muslims
4
​Deutsche Welle. (n.d.). Rohingya people in Myanmar: What you need to know | DW |
12.09.2017. Retrieved from
https://www.dw.com/en/rohingya-people-in-myanmar-what-you-need-to-know/a-40340067