Off on a tangent, today I stumbled on an official Saudi Arabian note about the “Hajj mission of Myanmar Federation led by Ali Habib Mohammed.” Anyone who has ever strolled around the average Burmese town will know that Muslims make up a fair proportion of the country’s urban population. Precisely how large that population has become is, like much else in Burma, a question of some dispute.
The same official Ministry of Hajj website has a report on the Saudi relief that was delivered to Burma in the wake of Cyclone Nargis.
If you are intrigued by any of these matters, some further information on Burmese Muslims is available here (although the website seems a bit unstable). To my mind these links are all a healthy reminder about some of the things that go on that are rarely picked up by the international media, by Southeast Asian Studies scholarship, or by websites like New Mandala.
Readers interested in dredging up relevant content from the New Mandala archive will find that these two posts from September 2006 have some reflections on the interaction of Muslims with mainland Southeast Asia that may be helpful.
7 responses so far ↓
1 Dylan Grey // Jun 1, 2009 at 1:52 pm
Thanks to Nicholas for pointing this out. A very interesting topic indeed and one that has a small core of interested watchers. Anyone hoping to read up on this subject should also check out the following sources, starting with Andrew Selth’s integral primer:
Selth, Andrew. “Burma’s Muslims: Terrorists or Terrorized.”
http://rspas.anu.edu.au/sdsc/canberra_papers.php
Sulaiman, Mohammed Mohiyuddin Mohammed. “Islamic Education in Myanmar: a case study.” In Dictarship, Disorder and Decline in Myanmar. Ed. Monique Skidmore and Trevor Wilson. ANU E-press available at http://epress.anu.edu.au/myanmar02 _citation.html
For a fantastic news source on the stateless Rohingyas, one of the four major groups of Muslims in Myanmar, and arguably the most persecuted of all ethnic minorities in Myanmar, check out http://www.kaladanpress.org/ , which is based out of Cox’s Bazaar, Bangladesh.
2 tom // Jun 1, 2009 at 3:11 pm
During last year’s Bangkok Airport closure, the Saudi government organised charter flights for some of the 4000 Myanmar Muslims stuck in either Yangon or Bangkok. They also extended the December 2 deadline for entering Saudi Arabia so the 4000 could still make it.
You can read a report .
3 Colum Graham // Jun 1, 2009 at 7:52 pm
I once came across this blog by San Oo Aung (below) looking for reports on the Saffron demonstrations in 2007 and found an article about Tattmadaw members posing as Monks trashing a mosque. Anyway, it appears the author, San Oo Aung, has a host of articles concerning Islam and Myanmar.
http://sanooaung.wordpress.com/islam-articles/
Also not that I know anything about it, but in regards to what Tom says, I wonder if any Rohingya were of those 4000?
4 Dylan Grey // Jun 1, 2009 at 9:34 pm
Fantastic blog link Colum. Thanks for that – I look forward to sifting through the immense amount of articles that U San Oo Aung has posted.
And your Rohingya question is a very interesting one – I wonder if we could find out what the process is in Myanmar for nomination to become a Hajji – I know that in many countries there is a sort of selection process – I wonder if there are quotas for each different Muslim ethnic minority in Myanmar or how it works.
On a random personal note: I actually happened to be on one of the airplanes back to Yangon from Bangkok filled with Hajjis — I’ve never seen so many greeters at the Yangon airport at one time.
5 Stephen // Jun 2, 2009 at 12:22 pm
Dylan,
I previously checked out the link to the Andrew Selth article that you’ve mentioned here, but as far as I can tell there’s no electronic version available on the site. Is this only available in print? Or is an electronic version accessible elsewhere?
6 Dylan Grey // Jun 2, 2009 at 3:09 pm
Hi Stephen,
I meant to mention that. No – I don’t think you can obtain a (free) electronic version of that paper, but you should be able to access it electronically via public or university library. It’s also available in print from ANU. Sorry I can’t send any links I don’t have proper access here in Burma. What I could find was a link (you’ll need to be going through a library system with access) to another Selth paper “Burma’s Muslims and the War on Terror” which is a work that is based on the paper I originally suggested.
Dylan
7 Dylan Grey // Jun 9, 2009 at 9:01 pm
Thanks to Kyaw Kyaw for pointing out the following article which helps illuminate some details on the Rohingya community in Saudi Arabia, which is apparently upwards of 300,000 members (!)
http://www.thenational.ae/article/20090609/FOREIGN/706089819/-1/SPORT
I don’t know much about protection/asylum/migration in Saudi Arabia, but the article makes it seem like migration policy is pretty ad hoc and informal…
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