The Burmese Government is infamous for its human rights violations, and according to a recent report they have not just been targeting Muslims, but also in the name of Buddhism have been persecuting and murdering Christians according to a recent report:
The humanitarian crisis that touches Rohingya Muslims in Rakhine State is not the only of its kind in Myanmar. Religious freedom and human rights violations by the military, Buddhist nationalist movements and ethnic Burmese affect also other ethnic minorities in other parts of the country.
All these groups share the same suffering, but have not received the same media coverage or attention by the international community as the Rohingya struggling along the Myanmar-Bangladesh border.
This is the case of the Kachin (north), Chin (west) and Naga (north-west), ethnic groups with large Christian communities that have been persecuted for decades.
By exploiting the Buddhist roots of the country’s culture, Myanmar’s military regime has for years discriminated against Christians, seen as the expression of a foreign religion contrary to its “one nation, one race, and one religion” policy.
Many of these measures are still in force and anti-Church bias is strong even though the latter has been present in the country for more than 500 years.
In Myanmar all Christian communities are subject to restrictions on land acquisition for religious purposes. Military bureaucratic procedures prevent the release of permits to communities. Just to have a place to worship, some Christians are forced to use private properties or homes.
In predominantly Buddhist areas, especially in the strongholds of Ma Ba Tha’s ultra-nationalist monks, it is almost impossible for Christians to gather together. At the same time, the government spends public money to build pagodas and monasteries, part of its policy of promoting and spreading Buddhism.
In December 2016, a report by the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom of the (USCIRF) highlighted some of the worst episodes of intimidation and violence against Christians in the Asian country.
These violations include forced transfers, destruction of cemeteries, attacks on places of worship, and the ongoing campaign of forced conversions and brainwashing, which takes place in schools funded by the government in border regions, particularly in areas inhabited by ethnic Chin and Naga. Another common practice is the unjustified grab by local authorities of resource-rich land.
In Kachin areas, violations of religious freedom are intertwined with the ongoing conflict between armed groups and government forces. The military routinely occupies churches and summons entire congregations for mass interrogations and indiscriminate arrests. Very often the faithful and clergymen are considered allies of the rebels and therefore punished.
Myanmar’s powerful Armed Forces (Tatmadaw) have devastated, damaged, and destroyed many places of worship. With almost total impunity, the former continue to commit serious human rights abuses such as sexual violence inside church compounds and the torture of clergymen, believers and ordinary citizens.
In Kachin, after more than five years of conflict, more than 120,000 people have been forced to flee and live in desperate conditions, waiting to return. As long as the conflict endures, there is no real prospect for internally displaced Kachin to return to a situation of security and dignity.
Religious discrimination is in some cases institutionalised. Kachin, Naga, and Chin Christian public servants and others employed by the government are usually overlooked for promotion in favour of Buddhists.
When Christians hold government positions, they face sanctions if they do not support Buddhist initiatives. In some cases, the authorities take contributions from Christian civil servants’ salaries for Buddhist activities. In the Chin State, government employees are also forced to work on Sundays, without compensation.
Buddhism, though not officially, is considered Myanmar’s state religion. The military, whose power is not subject to the control of civil authority, has stressed the religion’s “special position” and stands as the defender of Burmese culture and tradition.
Over the years, this has led to deep rifts between the country’s various ethno-religious groups. This, in turn, has allowed the Armed Forces to reiterate their power.
With her victory in the November 2015 elections, Myanmar’s Democratic leader Aung San Suu Kyi began a difficult process of pacification and national reconciliation. (source)
There has been much spoken about the Rohingya, which are a large group of mostly Muslims of Bengali descent living in Myanmar whose state in society is unclear per the government. The Rohingya have caused many problems, and the crimes coming out of this community has been well documented which include extortion, drug trafficking, and the usual violence found in Muslim majority groups.
However, at the same time, this article notes that the Burmese government is not exempt from blame. Myanmar is officially a “Buddhist” nation, and the hatred of Christians and Muslims runs deep. The persecution of Christian has been going on for at least six decades, and it is so heinous that it was the subject of the last movie in the Rambo series, in which Rambo rescues a group of Christian missionaries kidnapped by the Burmese military and tortured in heinous ways, including being fed alive to pigs. In the final scene of the movie, Rambo goes on a one-man killing rampage against the army as he is joined by Christian Karen rebels to help him.
The final scene, and probably the best in the entire Rambo series. In the final part, Rambo meets with the pagan military leader and splits his entrails open with his knife.
Make no mistake, the situation if Burma is far more than the BAD MUSLIMS HURT NICE POOR BUDDHISTS that the Counter Jihad movement would want the public to think. The reality is that while the Rohingyas have many problems and been involved in many evil activities, much more so has the Burmese military done evil than these people have in the name of Buddhism because as we have discussed before, they are merely reflecting what Buddhism already teaches. As we have discussed many times, the Buddhists are not allies of the Christians, but pagan enemies who are as bad as or worse than the Muslims:
Now, I know that there will be people who will be praising the Buddhists in Myanmar for killing Muslims. The sad thing is that for one, it is easy to fall into the trap of supporting anyone who is killing Muslims, and secondly, by this, so many fall into the trap of supporting genocide. If you are going to support the Buddhists in Myanmar for their slaughter of the Rohingya Muslims, then you should also start hailing the Japanese imperial forces who slaughtered Muslims in their occupation of East Asia. For example, the Japanese slaughtered the Hui Muslims in China, and there is one horrific recording of this in which the Japanese slaughtered a Muslim landlord named Ha, and his wife, before raping and butchering the tenants:
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These Japanese were Buddhist pagans, and they did such horrific atrocities. Are we going to praise the Japanese for this? Muslims have also been slaughtering Buddhists, and this too is evil. There must be balance in our approach. One of the greatest enemies of civilization is imbalance between charity and justice. We must have justice, yes, but we must also have charity. If we just have “charity,” then there will be no charity, because we would have the evil mercy that gives license to the wicked. If we have solely justice, then we will have no justice, because we would then shed innocent blood. Charity and justice, one cannot live without the other. (source)
Islam is evil, but it cannot be fought by allying with pagans.
Two wrongs do not make a right no matter what the situation is.