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| Southeast Asia |
| How Myanmar's Buddhist-Muslim conflict has reached into Indonesia |
| 2013-04-05 |
| Don't know why they are fighting. All they've got to do is get to Australia and the "humanitarian and compassionate" country will spend at least $1 million on each one and also members of their famiies they bring out later, Australia is a wonderful country. In a severely overcrowded Indonesian detention center, a brawl broke out today between Muslims and Buddhists that left eight of the latter group dead. Indonesia, an archipelago that straddles the equator, has long been a way-station for people fleeing troubles in their homelands. For decades, boats with Afghans or Iraqis hoping to make it to Australia have washed up on its shores and their occupants have ended up spending months, and sometimes years, in detention here. In this case, there's trouble much closer to home. In Myanmar (Burma), months of mostly Buddhist-instigated violence against the Rohingya Muslim minority have left tens of thousands homeless and hundreds dead. The country is in the middle of a transition process from a long military dictatorship to something resembling civilian rule, but that has meant more trouble, not less, for the Rohingyas. Ethnic-Burmese champions of the long struggle against military rule there, chief among them Aung San Suu Kyi, have largely avoided speaking out over the targeting of the Muslim minority, creating fears that recent spasms are just the beginning. |
| Posted by:tipper |
| #2 The important point is that while Budhists are capable of horrible violence, they do it in spite of their religion and not because their "religion" demands it. A point unmentioned by the media. |
| Posted by: Sgt. D. T. 2013-04-05 23:43 |
| #1 Is there a muslim country totally at peace with their neighbors? Is there a muslim country that gives other religions reasonable freedoms? Just asking, but I suspect I see a trend. |
| Posted by: rjschwarz 2013-04-05 14:40 |