The Economist: Unlikely sanctuary; Myanmar’s Muslims
Mon 2 Jul 2007
Mon 2 Jul 2007
Myanmar’s Muslims thrive in China, Huddled masses, yearning to be free and going to China. At first glance, Yunnan would seem the sort of place a pious Muslim should avoid. AIDS is rampant in this province in south-western China and Beijing’s efforts have failed to curb the drugs and prostitution that spread the disease. Moreover China has an appalling record of suppressing religious freedom, including that of Muslims. In its western region of Xinjiang some have taken up arms.
Yet Muslims from neighbouring Myanmar flock to Yunnan. In cities such as Jinghong and Liuku, they sell Burmese gems in shops decorated with Arabic calligraphy and pictures of Mecca. A jeweller in Jinghong, who has lived here for six years, says that in Myanmar "the Buddhists fight us Muslims and don’t let us work. The government is very evil. Here in China you can work in peace."
No one knows how many Burmese live in Yunnan. Many enter illegally. Official statistics suggest that Muslims make up about 4% of Myanmar’s population of around 47m, but that is almost certainly an underestimate. The ruling junta has a history of discrimination against Muslims, particularly the Rohingya ethnic group, more than 250,000 of whom fled from Arakan province into neighbouring Bangladesh in the early 1990s.
Mosques and schools in Myanmar are shut down arbitrarily. Many Muslims find their movements restricted unless they pay hefty bribes; others languish in detention after officially instigated clashes with Buddhists. It does not help that their political sympathies often lie with the democratic opposition, whose leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, remains in detention.
In China, in contrast, the Burmese find that, as long as they make no trouble, their faith is immaterial. Compared with other countries of refuge, such as Bangladesh, China offers
Source http://www.burmanet.org/news/2007/07/02/the-economist-unlikely-sanctuary-myanmars-muslims/
