We at Aljumuah Magazine decry the absence of a strong international response to the unspeakable atrocities committed daily by Myanmar’s regime and Buddhist majority against the Rohingya Muslims, the world’s most persecuted people, according to some reports by the UN and other human rights organizations.

The Rohingya are subjected to horrifying and systemic campaigns of ethnic cleansing, rapes, killings and house-burnings. The persecution of these poor and friendless people is such that some observers have described it as “South-East Asia’s Srebrenica,” in reference to the 1995 massacre of more than 8,000 Bosnian Muslims who were supposed to be under UN protection – a dark blot on Europe’s human rights record.

It is a shame that the atrocities perpetrated by the Buddhist regime of Myanmar against the Rohingya are largely ignored by Western media and Western governments! What would the position of Western media and Western governments be, one wonders, if the Rohingya were not Muslims!!!

A commission led by former UN chief Kofi Annan said the following on Thursday:

Myanmar must scrap restrictions on movement and citizenship for its persecuted Muslim Rohingya minority if it wants to avoid fueling “extremism” and bring peace to Rakhine state.

Although we appreciate the commission’s report, we think it does not rise to the gravity of the situation.

The Rohingya, who number 1.1 million, is one of Myanmar’s many ethnic minorities. Though the Rohingya roots in the country go back centuries, Myanmar’s government and Buddhist majority deny them citizenship and see them as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh.

Aljumuah also call on the authorities in Bangladesh (which does not recognize the Rohingya as refugees!!!) and the people of Bangladesh to remember and honor their Islamic duty towards their persecuted Rohingya sisters and brothers. Amnesty International says hundreds of fleeing Rohingya have been detained by the authorities of Bangladesh and forcibly returned to Myanmar to face an uncertain fate. This practice should end. It is UnIslamic.

We also appeal to Muslims all over the world to stop treating the plight of their brethren in Myanmar as if it does not exist and to do their utmost, both at the official and popular levels, to put an end to the atrocities committed daily by the staunchly Buddhist government of Myanmar against the Muslims of Myanmar.