In Dhaka, the recent spate of bloggers questioning the existence of God and criticizing religion have touched a nerve among Bangladeshis who are predominantly Muslim and identify Islam as their creed. But before I cry 'intolerance' I cry 'hypocrisy' that is summed up in two words: Rohingya Muslims.
Rohingya Muslims are an ethnic minority group in Myanmar. And according to Amnesty International the Rohingya Muslims are the most persecuted ethnic and religious group in the world. Even before Myanmar gained statehood after WWII, there was and still is an active campaign to decimate the Rohingya Muslims and this group is fleeing to the country where they originally migrated from.
Before India gained its independence in 1947, the British Raj encouraged the exploration and settlement of current day Myanmar. The majority of the settlers migrated from the Bengal region of which Bangladesh is a part. So, apart from being Muslims, Rohingyas share ethnic and lingual roots with Bangladeshis. Rohingya Muslims also live in and around the border towns of Bangladesh and Myanmar. It's understandable that many Rohingyans would flee to Bangladesh. What's baffling is that they would face an unwelcome and hostile environment there.
Bangladeshis do not want anything to do with the Rohingya Muslims. In 2009 the government started a program to repatriate Rohingya Muslim refugees to Myanmar, effectively sending these people to their deaths. To ensure the certainty of death, Bangladesh ordered three international aid groups to stop working in the two refugee camps on the border. What are the three aid groups? Doctors Without Borders, Action Against Hunger and Muslim Aid. To flee death in Myanmar and Bangladesh, Rohingyans sail on dinghy boats to Indonesia where there is a growing settlement of Rohingya Muslims.
Rohingya Muslims are an ethnic minority group in Myanmar. And according to Amnesty International the Rohingya Muslims are the most persecuted ethnic and religious group in the world. Even before Myanmar gained statehood after WWII, there was and still is an active campaign to decimate the Rohingya Muslims and this group is fleeing to the country where they originally migrated from.
Before India gained its independence in 1947, the British Raj encouraged the exploration and settlement of current day Myanmar. The majority of the settlers migrated from the Bengal region of which Bangladesh is a part. So, apart from being Muslims, Rohingyas share ethnic and lingual roots with Bangladeshis. Rohingya Muslims also live in and around the border towns of Bangladesh and Myanmar. It's understandable that many Rohingyans would flee to Bangladesh. What's baffling is that they would face an unwelcome and hostile environment there.
Bangladeshis do not want anything to do with the Rohingya Muslims. In 2009 the government started a program to repatriate Rohingya Muslim refugees to Myanmar, effectively sending these people to their deaths. To ensure the certainty of death, Bangladesh ordered three international aid groups to stop working in the two refugee camps on the border. What are the three aid groups? Doctors Without Borders, Action Against Hunger and Muslim Aid. To flee death in Myanmar and Bangladesh, Rohingyans sail on dinghy boats to Indonesia where there is a growing settlement of Rohingya Muslims.
In case the irony is lost, here is a bit of trivia. Bangladeshis actively seek to ensure that their children become doctors and/or marry doctors. Hunger is rampant in the metropolises across the country. If anyone knows what it is like to be hungry, it is a Bangladeshi. The last but not least, the country is densely populated with 97% of Bangladeshi's being Muslim. This is the country that is telling a group of people that is closely related to them in religion, language and ethnic background to literally die. This is the country that cannot stand disbelief of Islam and can condone the murder of people who think differently, but they have no problem in not supporting fellow Muslims.
Bangladesh's socio-econmic reasons to not adopt Rohingyans fall flat. Bangladesh's economy is supported by foreign aid, and the political system is the most corrupt ones in the world. Adopting Rohingyans isn't going to drain the country's economy, infrastructure or resources. Whatever of these Bangladesh has, the government is squandering it anyway.
Indonesia on the other hand is a densely populated archipelago that lost out to a deadly tsunami in 2004. Indonesia has a stronger basis to deny the migration of Rohingya Muslims but the government has welcomed these refugees.
So while Bangladeshis may quake with rage at the mere thought of the possibility of God not existing, they have yet to look at their practice of Islam in their political lives, if not their personal lives.
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