World People to Stage Rallies in Support of Myanmar Muslims

TEHRAN (FNA)- A large number of people around the globe have voiced their readiness to stage rallies in their countries in support of the Muslim minority in Myanmar as the oppressed community is experiencing daily massacre and attacks by the majority in the Southeast Asian nation.

The rallies, some of them organized by the International Union of Unified Ummah (a Muslim NGO), are due to be held in front of the UN offices or Myanmar's embassies in Iran, Indonesia, India, Britain, Turkey and Malaysia on Tuesday on the occasion of the 'Day of Solidarity with Myanmar People'.

Similar protest rallies were earlier staged in Japan, Egypt, Punjab of India and Gaza, reports said.

On Saturday, Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei strongly condemned the massacre of Muslims in Myanmar, and lashed out at the US and the western states for ignoring ethnic cleansing of the Muslim minority.

"The obvious manifestation of the false assertions of the West on ethics and human rights is its silence over killing of thousands of people in Myanmar," Ayatollah Khamenei said on Saturday.

The government of Myanmar refuses to recognize Rohingyas, who it claims are not natives and classifies as illegal migrants, although the Rohingya are said to be Muslim descendants of Persian, Turkish, Bengali, and Pathan origin, who migrated to Burma as early as the 8th century.

Even Myanmar's so-called democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi has kept quiet on the atrocities committed against the Rohingya Muslims.

Myanmar's President Thein Sein said Rohingya Muslims must be expelled from the country and sent to refugee camps run by the United Nations.

The UN says decades of discrimination have left the Rohingyas stateless, with Myanmar implementing restrictions on their movement and withholding land rights, education and public services.

Since June, hundreds of members of the nearly-one-million-strong Rohingya Muslim minority have been killed and tens of thousands of others among them have been displaced in the west of the country due to a wave of communal violence.

Over the past two years, waves of ethnic Muslims have attempted to flee by boats in the face of systematic oppression by the Myanmar government.


Source: FARS