By Dr. Habib Sidddiqui
Myanmar's
terrorist - Buddhist monk Wirathu is untouchable inside the country. In
2003 he was sentenced to 25 years in prison but was released in 2010
along with other political prisoners. Most keen observers knew the
reason as to why this anti-Muslim zealot was freed by the regime. He was
to serve as its pit bull and inciter for committing hate crimes and
ethnic cleansing drives against the minority Muslims, esp. the Rohingya
people that live in the Arakan (Rakhine) state of Myanmar, bordering
Bangladesh.
And Wirathu continues to deliver for the regime. He has effectively become the face of Burmese Buddhism. His '969' fascist movement has
led to widespread hate crimes and genocidal campaigns against the
minority Muslims all across the Buddhist-dominated country, and has
brutally rendered more than a million Muslims homeless. Many Burmese
Muslims are risking their lives to get out of this den of hatred and
intolerance, once called Burma. So frightening is the situation inside
Myanmar, esp. the Rakhine state, even the Rohingya refugees that live
under horrible conditions in makeshift camps inside Cox's Bazar district
of Bangladesh don't want to return to their ancestral land inside the
Buddhist country.
