My response to Mr. Raman’s remarks on Rohingya violence

| by Dr Rifai Naleemi

( August 08, 2012, London, Sri Lanka Guardian) With all respect to Mr Raman for his expertise in Extremism and radicalism, I would like to express my views on this issue. I too agree that all forms of radicalism and extremism should be wiped out: whether it is Muslim, Hindu Extremism or Christian extremism or for that matter any type of extremism should be condemned and wiped out. Extremism is like a virus it spreads so quickly and it would better to take all measure to curtail it. Extremism is not a monopoly of Muslim groups alone: We have seen fundamentalist and extremist groups in each and every religion. In this context, as you rightly pointed out there may have been some extremism elements from Rahingya community in the past decades but we fail to ask why these radical groups emerge here and then.

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As you have rightly mentioned in your article, most of Muslim radical groups emerged in modern time as reactionary groups: for instance, Babari-mosque issues, Kashmir problem, Palestine problems, Chechnya problems and Rahingya problems. Once young people are persistently oppressed by so called legitimate governments, young generations with young blood opt for violence to get their basic rights. In this context, there may be a handful young people who resort to violence acts in this region. But this does not justify barbaric and cruel behaviours of Burmese government to kill innocent people. This does not to justify Bangladesh government to send back innocent women, children and elderly people without any sense of humanism or remorse.

Rohingya refugee Rehana Begum holds her child as she hides in a house in Teknaf, Bangladesh, on June 17, 2012. She said her family fled mass burning of houses and violence in Burma, setting out in a wooden boat for neighbouring Bangladesh. They were pushed back three times by border guards, but finally made it on their fourth attempt and are now hiding with local villagers to avoid being arrested. (PHOTO: Reuters)

What is the root cause of extremism and radicalism? In most cases, injustice is the root cause of extremism and radicalism. People in Rahingya have been subjected to basic human right violence and yet, they have been maintaining peace and patience for the last 6 decades. No one is there to speak for this weak and vulnerable community. No international or regional organization came forward to speak for them. They have been without fundamental human rights like all other human beings and yet, their plight has been intentionally ignored and neglected by all parties. Why is this social discrimination? Are they not human beings like us? Do not they deserve human treatment like all other human beings? Do not they have human rights like all other human beings? What crimes they have done to live like slaves in this modern world?

Coming back to your question of linking with extreme groups, can we blame all because of the mistake of few? I think we should not generalise this. Because of a few of them, we can not say that the entire Rahingya community is supporting extremism and radicalism: As I said early each and every community got some extreme elements: Do not we have Hindu Extremists and Buddhist extremists? And it would be wrong to link the entire community with extremism connection. That is the point I would like to make here. The military government in Burma has been violating basic human rights of these people for many decades and in this case extremism comes from the military government not other way around:

Justice is unconditional and we should treat people with justice without any discrimination. Justice and equality are main two pillars of modern democracy at least in some part of world. People are born freely and no one has right to enslave them with some institutional bullying. In this case of Rahingya community I think that injustice has been done and it is a moral duty people like you and me to speak for weak and vulnerable not only in India but also in this global village. If we see injustice in any corner of the world we should have courage to speak out against the injustice. Me and you before we identify our self with our language, ethnicity or colour we should be brave enough to declare that we are first and fore most human beings. The entire humanity is one human race and this sense of universal human brotherhood should prevail beyond our national, ethnic, and linguistic and geographical limitation and confinements. It is earthly ambition to think within these worldly limitations and when we die do our souls have these earthly attributes to say English Souls are different from Indian Souls? This colour and cast discrimination are coffined to this physical world once we depart form this world there is no such discrimination.

Coming back to your point, that we assume that there are some extreme elements in Rahingya community, yet, Burmese government should identify those elements and bring them to justice. They should not have free licence to kill innocent people in the pretext of war on extremists or radicals connected to some international organizations. They should punish the culprits not innocent people. In case of Rahingya community the entire community is punished for the mistakes of a handful of people. That is what I strongly object. If father makes a mistake you do not punish sons and if sons makes mistakes you do not punish father. In the same way, how innocent people could be punished to the mistakes of some. Moreover, it is claimed that ancestors of these people hail from Arabic traders and some indigenous and Bengal people of this region. What wrong their children did to punish them. They have not chosen their place of birth and their parents and grandparent lived in this religion and hence they live in this region beyond their choice. So how could any one punish them for the choice of their forefathers who choose to live in this region?