#BURMA #MYANMAR: Is there an #orchestrated #campaign to #grant #citizenship to #Bengalis? “Rohingya,”

 

The cover of Santa Barbara Independent newspaper titled “Burma’s Brutal Buddhists” and the article seen on the website

It has been two years since the riots in Rakhine State left more than 200 dead and hundreds of thousands homeless, but the tension still burns between ethnic Rakhines and Bengalis. Both the Rakhine and Bengali communities have suffered from the violence since a tide of migrants rushed in through the western border of Myanmar. However, international media organizations and various associations continue to portray the Bengalis as the population most antagonized by the violence in Rakhine State, and the Rakhine ethnics—and the country as a whole—as discriminating against Muslim communities in the western state.

The international media’s coverage of events has become more aggressive, to the point of insulting Buddhist Rakhines and the religion itself, which is practiced by most people in Myanmar. Religion and national identity are very delicate issues, but international observers have now altered the motive of the violence from an uncontrolled immigration problem to a religious and nationalistic cause. Moreover, Buddhism, a religion of kindness and love, is frequently depicted as violent and extreme.