July 27, 2025

News @ RB

Announcement of New Website: Rohingya Today (RohingyaToday.Com) Dear Readers, From 1st January 2019 onward, the Rohingya News Portal 'Rohingya Blogger' will be renamed and upgraded as 'Rohingya Today'. Due to this transition to a new name, our website will be available at www.rohing...

Rohingya News @ Int'l Media

Maung Zarni, leader of the Free Rohingya Coalition, speaks at a news conference at the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Japan in Tokyo on Thursday. | CHISATO TANAKA By Chisato Tanaka, Published by The Japan Times on October 25, 2018 A leader of a global network of activists for Rohingya Mu...

Myanmar News

By Sena Güler | Published by Anadolu Agency on December 1, 2018 Maung Zarni says he will boycott Beijing-sponsored events until the country reverses its 'troubling path' ANKARA -- A human rights activist and intellectual said he withdrew from a Beijing-sponsored forum in London to pro...

Video News

...

Article @ RB

Oskar Butcher RB Article October 6, 2018 Every night in an unassuming shop space located in Mandalay’s 39thStreet, Lu Maw and Lu Zaw – the remaining members of the Burma’s most famous comedy trio, the Moustache Brothers – present their show: a curious combination of comedy, political sa...

Article @ Int'l Media

A demonstration over identity cards at a Rohingya refugee camp in Bangladesh in April, 2018. Image: NurPhoto/SIPA USA/PA Images. By Natalie Brinham | Published by Open Democracy on October 21, 2018 Wary of the past, Rohingya have frustrated the UN’s attempts to provide them with documenta...

Analysis @ RB

By M.S. Anwar | Opinion & Analysis The Burmese (Myanmar) quasi-civilian government unleashed a large-scale violence against the minority Rohingya in the western Myanmar state of Arakan in 2012. The violence, which some wrongly frame as ‘Communal’, was carried out by the Burmese armed forces...

Analysis @ Int'l Media

By Maung Zarni, Natalie Brinham | Published by Middle East Institute on November 20, 2018 “It is an ongoing genocide (in Myanmar),” said Mr. Marzuki Darusman, the head of the UN Human Rights Council-mandated Independent International Fact-Finding Mission at the official briefing at ...

Opinion @ RB

Rohingya refugees who fled from Myanmar wait to be let through by Bangladeshi border guards after crossing the border in Palang Khali, Bangladesh October 9, 2017. REUTERS/Damir Sagolj MS Anwar RB Opinion November 12, 2018 Some may differ. But I believe the government of Bangladesh is ...

Opinion @ Int'l Media

By Maung Zarni | Published by Anadolu Agency on December 15, 2018 US will not intercede, and Myanmar's neighbors see it through economic lens, so international coalition for Rohingya needed LONDON -- The U.S. House of Representatives Thursday overwhelmingly passed a resolution ca...

History @ RB

Aman Ullah  RB History August 25, 2016 The ethnic Rohingya is one of the many nationalities of the union of Burma. And they are one of the two major communities of Arakan; the other is Rakhine and Buddhist. The Muslims (Rohingyas) and Buddhists (Rakhines) peacefully co-existed in the A...

Rohingya History by Scholars

Dr. Maung Zarni's Remark: The best research on Rohingya history: British Orientalism which created the pseudo-scientific biological notion of "Taiyinthar" or "real natives" of #Myanmar caused that country's post-colonial cancer of official & popular genocidal Racism.  This co...

Report @ RB

(Photo: Soe Zeya Tun, Reuters) RB News  October 5, 2013  Thandwe, Arakan – Rakhinese mob in Thandwe started attacking Kaman Muslims on September 28, 2013. As a result, 5 Kaman Muslims were mercilessly killed and 1 was died in heart attack while escaping the attack. 781 Kaman Mus...

Report by Media/Org

Rohingya families arrive at a UNHCR transit centre near the village of Anjuman Para, Cox’s Bazar, south-east Bangladesh after spending four days stranded at the Myanmar border with some 6,800 refugees. (Photo: UNHCR/Roger Arnold) By UN News May 11, 2018 Late last year, as violent repressi...

Press Release

(Photo: Reuters) Joint Statement: Rohingya Groups Call on U.S. Government to Ensure International Accountability for Myanmar Military-Planned Genocide December 17, 2018  We, the undersigned Rohingya organizations worldwide, call for accountability for genocide and crimes against...

Rohingya Orgs Activities

RB News December 6, 2017 Tokyo, Japan -- Legislators from all parties, along with Human Rights Now, Human Rights Watch, and Save the Children, came together to host the emergency parliament in-house event “The Rohingya Human Rights Crisis and Japanese Diplomacy” on December 4th. The eve...

Petition

By Wyston Lawrence RB Petition October 15, 2017 There is one petition has been going on Change.org to remove Ven. Wira Thu from Facebook. He has been known as Buddhist Bin Laden. Time magazine published his image on their cover with the title of The Face of Buddhist Terror. The petitio...

Campaign

A human rights activist and genocide scholar from Burma Dr. Maung Zarni visits Auschwitz-Birkenau Nazi Extermination Camp and calls on European governments - Britain, France, Sweden, Norway, Italy, Denmark, Hungary and Germany not to collaborate with the Evil - like they did with Hitler 75 ye...

Event

...

Editorial by Int'l Media

Interview

Open Letter

RB Poem

Book Shelf

Monk Conference Backs Bills to Restrict Interfaith Marriage, Rohingya Voting

A banner promoting the new Upper Burma chapter of the Group to Protect Nationality, Religion and the Buddhist Mission is seen at a monastery in Mandalay. (Photo: Teza Hlaing / The Irrawaddy)

By Zarni Mann
January 16, 2014

MANDALAY — Thousands of Buddhist monks who gathered at a conference in Mandalay will continue to submit signatures to Parliament in support of a proposed law that would restrict interfaith marriages between Buddhist women and men of other faiths.

The monks also said they supported proposed legislation that would restrict the rights of ethnic Rohingya Muslims in west Burma to form political parties or vote.

More than 10,000 monks attended the conference at A Tu Ma Shi monastery on Wednesday. They said the draft interfaith marriage law, which emerged after a monks’ conference in Rangoon last year, would be sent to Parliament with help from the National Democratic Front (NDF). If passed, the law would force Buddhist women to get permission from their parents and local government officials before marrying a man of any other faith. A non-Buddhist man wishing to marry a Buddhist woman would be required to convert to Buddhism.

“Daw Khin Wine Kyi from the NDF party promised to help with the law,” said U Yattha, a leading monk. “We are not actually involved in drafting this law, although some people have accused us of getting involved in politics as monks. We are just helping because it is very important for this law to be enacted, as the marriage law of 1954 is not enough to protect women and children from being converted to other religions or nationalities.”

After Buddhist monks first proposed the idea for the draft law last year, they hired lawyers to take care of writing it. At the time, the bill was promoted as a way to protect Buddhist women from marrying Muslim men and potentially being forced to convert to Islam.

The proposal came amid heightened religious tensions in Buddhist-majority Burma, following a number of anti-Muslim riots across the country that left hundreds dead and nearly 2,000 people displaced. The majority of victims were Muslims, especially Rohingyas in the western state of Arakan.

A nationalist anti-Muslim group known as 969 also collected signatures last year to support the draft interfaith marriage law. The group calls on Buddhists to shun Muslim-run businesses and is led by nationalist monk Wirathu, who resides at a monastery in Mandalay and also attended the conference on Wednesday.

At the conference, leading monks said about 3 million signatures from across the country had been given to NDF lawmakers, for submission together with the draft law, while another 1 million signatures would be sent to the party soon.

“We believe more signatures will come, and of course we will submit them to Parliament,” U Yattha said. “We will continue pushing for the passage of the interfaith marriage draft law—we will not stop until the law is enacted.”

U Eainda Sakka Biwuntha said the goal was not to single out any particular faith.

“The marriage law is not only to protect Buddhists. Other religions will also have legal protections from this law as well,” he said.

“We do not know why only Muslims have raised concerns and taken this proposal as a threat, while others, the Hindus and Christians, are silent. This is a question we want to have answered.”

In a statement released at the conference, the monks said they also supported a separate bill to restrict the rights of temporary ID holders to forming political parties or voting. The bill, expected to be put forward in Parliament in the coming weeks, is seen as targeting Muslims because thousands of Rohingyas were given temporary IDs, or “white cards,” before the 2010 elections, enabling them to vote.

The statement also encouraged media to report impartially on religious conflicts.

“Some of the reporting about the clashes between Buddhists and Muslims has been biased, creating more tension between the two groups,” U Eainda Sakka Biwuntha said. “For this conference, too, if the media reports in a biased way, or if they quote monks who are not spokespersons, we will sue them.”

The monks urged reporters to use the term “Bengali” when referring to the 800,000 or so people in Arakan State known internationally as Rohingyas. Many Buddhists in the state accuse the Rohingyas of being illegal immigrants from neighboring Bangladesh, and the government also calls them as Bengalis while largely denying them citizenship.

The monks at the conference formed an Upper Burma chapter of the Group to Protect Nationality, Religion and the Buddhist Mission, a nationwide non-government organization that was established last year.

The group says it seeks to support the draft interfaith marriage law, to prevent religious conversions, and to dispel rumors that can enflame religious tensions. “For example, the recent incident in Meikhtila was based on rumors about the fighting between Buddhists and Muslims,” U Eainda Sakka Biwuntha said, referring to anti-Muslim riots that left over 40 people dead last year in March. “The situation was eased because our group members rushed to the area, investigated the reality and spread the truth to the public. …That’s one activity our group will continue to do in the future, for the stability of the country.”

The Upper Burma chapter said it would educate children about Buddhism, encouraging them to respect and maintain their own religion and nationalism.

Other well-known senior monks at the conference included Sayadaw Insein Ywama, Sayadaw Sitagu, Sayadaw Shwe Nya War, Sayadaw Galone Ni, and abbots from Shwe Kyin monastery.

Some monks emphasized the need for peace in efforts to protect Buddhism.

“It is important to be patient and work with forgiveness in order to maintain the Sasana [Buddhist mission],” said Sayadaw Sitagu, also known as U Nyar Neitthara.

Write A Comment

Rohingya Exodus