As salamu alaikum (Peace be upon you) I'm with brother Anwar and, sorry, I forgot your name. Sayed Ahmed. Okay these
are our Rohingya brothers, right. As we've said. I've been asking them questions and
learning about the situation. I had actually started a page in 2012 (facebook.com/StopBurmaGenocide)
regarding the situation in Myanmar, and I didn't know much about it. And shortly
after I actually met you (Br. Anwar) at the University. You were speaking about your,
kind of, your situation your family history and so on and if for me it's
been a really big learning opportunity in terms of you know understanding other
cultures especially other situations of what's going on the world and
unfortunately this is one of those situations where it's not really a
positive experience like I was being you know you come into it and there's a lot
of bad things going on and so you're kind of forced to learn from that
perspective it would have been much nicer to learn like yes there's my
brother my brothers and sisters in Islam living in this country and they're happy
and right but unfortunately this is not the case now for a lot of people there's
been a lot of attention recently about it but can you tell me a little bit in
terms of the history because obviously this isn't something that just started
last week or last year as I said I've even gotten involved since 2012 trying
to learn but can you let us know some of that information. [Br. Anwar] Sure, thank you.
As salamu alaikum (Peace be upon you) I would like to be brief as brief as I can because if I drag is
like a to longer story just some basic stuff yeah some basic stuff historically
we have been there where the Aboriginal people of the land although the Burmese
government is repeatedly saying there they're spending a lot of resources to
make us look like we came from India who came from Bangladesh or somewhere else
and originally Bridgette Aboriginal people were from that land and our
ancestors are all Hindus not Buddhist we these people converted to Islam we never
came from somewhere else in initial people they converted to Islam but this
come to Erica much later so historical perspective
I will just keep that that short the conflict wise when I there there was no
conflicts before between two these two major communities I would say because
there are other claims but two major ones are Muslims Rohingya through
hanging out when you say one guy like 95 percent or more are Muslims and there
are a few Hindus the Buddhists are called a kind are we in our language we
call mark they also their only must mock so this
mark and the winger to cleanse there was no issue up until 1942 before that there
was no the Burmese King it was a separate Kingdom we're never part of
Burma by the way it was a separate in American Kingdom and Burma's King used
to come to our economy tak those are the problem we had not among each other at
all and then in 1824 or 1794 17 yeah so in this 28 something I forgot the date
is not coming yeah Burmese King invaded ah huh
okay then at that point they just killed indiscriminately a lot of Buddhists as
well as Muslims and some people you know reign far far away the Chittagong
current Chittagong district was part of our country yeah and then when British
came to colonize Archon it was 1824 and at that time the arkin state was part of
Burma okay then British colonize it and then okay
when British sorry just so yeah because I just want
to put in a context to that we forget that we're talking about Burma or
Myanmar and we forget that these names are constantly fluctuating anyway yeah
right so yes mostly I I come I'm comfortable using / - not that I don't
like the word mere man whatever they change I can call it you just come
rationally it was a little confusing right because
I have to I'm trying to figure out the names and and yeah with the colonialism
and and the British coming in and we see it in the Middle East in other parts of
the world where things get carved up and you you know you don't know what's when
I was a kid there was like certain countries and then now so there's
Bosnian Albania all break up into their own little things and so sorry yeah but
now they're calling they're calling us actually foreigners in factual in fact
that in reality but but men are the foreigners to Huracan the original
people Aboriginal people are growing girls and then some lady late comer are
the booties are kind and they're also chopped mind some other other small clan
but the total foreigners apartment yes in any case the major conflict
started in 1942 when Japanese was with were withdrawing and British were
reoccupying at some point Japanese also came to our Cannondale oh by the yeah I
understand the world war 2 yeah you know Japanese took over a lot of that region
even parts of China and so on exactly it would switch back to the British again
and yes when they were switching back German Japanese plaid or the committed
suicide there were a lot of guns left at that point something so called Burmese
patio or nationalist yeah they investigated something in in secret as a
king as many class possible Kalaa is the word by the way the derogatory word they
used to describe the wrong gas the Muslims
Kalaa mean if I if I were to compare a word in North America's like nigger then
in 1942 half of the entire population was killed half of them my mother's side
they were deep deep inside the Afghan state and nearly all of them were killed
only only a few left so in overall it was half of the
population of skin the other half survived you know when you say half do
you know approximately how many people because I know that I believe that
there's they're estimating about a million today right and living in you
know the are kind stay brahim as they call it there's about a million roll
at that time it was actually a approximately 400 to 500,000 people five
yeah so half of that 250,000 approximately yes kill half the
population so that's what that's how people remember it my father was not
that inside but he over here and my mother had a bullet wound here big one
on her right hand my grandpa my mother's father and my mother's mother survived
all of the entire a couple of villages like a hundreds of tens of thousands of
people were king Bouchard actually and my mother has a
younger sister she was 2 years old my mother was 4 years old they somehow
survived so that memory that was the complicated point was that's where most
of the like hundreds of villages were completely cleaned out there was no
trace of the Muslims only Muslims were made mostly concentrated towards the
bundle Bangladesh border at that time it was East Pakistan North is Pakistan yet
but it was you know enough River now divided so that's where concentrated all
of over here is a clean no Muslims then we got independent there are some some
issues you know discrimination and there was sorry so what do you mean it by
independence independent we got from British colony oh ok after 1948 actually
that seems to be an interesting year yeah this akka Stan Israel all around
this same 47 48 yes yeah India got independence East Pakistan West Pakistan
and sort of and and we got independence from the British colony then there was
discrimination against we become minority because the kilo of a lot of
the people and we became minority there was discrimination in a few years only
two three years later there was a more Mujahideen movement like a freedom
fighters who say we need for our full rights and then it was democratic
government so in 1962 actually around like around
1960 a year or two earlier government had government and they would
it has dial-up and then it should resolve okay yes you're a full-fledged
citizen who said there is no discrimination there was a specific May
you region district as administered by the central government and then we were
given most of our rights also although not Foley and we had quite a lot of
freedom we could move around we can go anywhere we could go to a college
university anything that we want to do as a citizen and it was it was fully
accepted and something like that we had a radio broadcasting program in our own
language would be once I think twice of one sign from God and it was from the
National Broadcasting Corporation it lasted until 1965 although the coup
could is that from the democratic government the dictator name went to the
power in 1962 it lasted three more years even even in his hand and since then
this is the major marking point where the discriminations the seed was you
know planted yeah this is 1962 and then sorry I won't ask so in terms of the
military coup like so they took the democratic government well what was the
government like at that time was it kind of a mixed or was it just predominantly
Burmese it was predominantly Burmese the at that time the prime minister name was
OMA he was a core Buddhist everything he wanted to do is Buddhist everything's
good he's like Buddhist national thing every and but the national religion is
Buddhism national this is good as national that is Buddhist it was a kind
of death sort of guy not only the Muslims the Buddhist has problem with
that but would you describe it the same as what's happening now is very
different it was democratic system yeah but you know there have been that sense
of nationalism in terms of their religious beliefs yes and the pride is
aware the majority and we are the superior some sort of like that but it
is still democracy and people have the right to
president thing and debate was going on all the time in the parliament at that
time there were a lot of Muslim and please not only in peace they were
ministers Muslim have been service Muslim for grinding actually but I mean
Muslim I mean by Muslim is one guy I'm talking about yes there were other non
Rohingya Muslims MPs or ministers in the Parliament then slowly 1962 everything
was done gone so it was dictatorship then he started
to change he mean they totally win it was the head of the army military he
start to changed one by one one at a time and then in 1974 he drafted with a
few other along with a few other dialogues or with the help of a few
other racist nationalist berman and a kind who are in our state a constitution
to exclude all the muslims form from Burma's citizenship yeah and then the
bigger challenge for them was this one yes because we are where we're now
concentrated sort of part we are the majority like almost 98% are all Muslims
everywhere you know if he can take care of us somehow the rest go from what I
understand I meant correct me if I'm wrong but there was also some other
ethnic groups as well that were in there like 50s and 60s that were also kind of
targeted is that correct like yes then so it's kind of like they were doing a
sweep of all the different ethnic groups that weren't considered Buddhist is that
correct it is correct yes absolutely I also mentioned a little bit that they
had a mentality of Maha or or superior Burman ISM sort of thing in the ad they
were discriminating against the Christian we have various different
Christian trends and one of the major claim is Buddhist come on over here mom
you saw you know some Hmong come from Laos and Cambodia and you know yeah we
in our country we come on em when we on this morn a Buddhist 99% 100%
devotees even though they're Buddhists the Burmese still have grudge against
them because they are not Burman you know where's the play here something
like that okay so you're you're uh you're a Buddhist but not the right to
destroy your inferior Buddhist yes and again if you there is another claim
called Shan haha or you know fifty five forty five percentage-wise
Christian and Buddhist so there are a lot of Buddhist there as well and some
of the Quran like a woman named here we have a clan called Karen Karen has also
20 30 35 percent Buddhist also there are also prejudice against those people and
there are other minority groups and they are all took um against the government
even before there was coup d'etat because there was injustice there
although the the period of governing since 1942 until 1962 48 and the last CC
- although it was a girl democratic governing system the Equality was not
there so all those minorities when when they sign some sort of agreement when
they are going to demand the independence from the British colony
everybody was promised the Equality equal rights but after independence it
was not implemented so that was the reason why they took yeah yeah yeah it
is it's unfortunate I mean we're seeing it
it's a little side here but we're seeing it kind of now with our special down in
the United States where there's there's no matter where you go there's always
this kind of level of you know there's white Christians but the right question
white Christians are you know many of them not many but there are enough to
say that I'm better because if you happen to be Christian you're not quite
there because you and so it's we always have this especially being white
Canadian you know European heritage that that's the way we see it with you know
there is a tendency from our perspective we're the dominant in this country but
to see it over there as interests thing to hear that there was that you
know I never put saw it that way your Burmese all your uh your Buddhist but
you're not burning you know barman oh yeah Sean ok yeah
yeah boo did I understand that you know your cannon Buddha is okay yeah exactly
so it is there in terms of because you're talking like ethnic groups like
you say I'm thinking I mean my understanding is that they're working at
yourself I've even heard labels I don't know if they're correct but the arkanese
Indians for example I've heard that term if that's correct but like you said
you're the right Aboriginal people you've been there for five six hundred
years right so when they talk about these burmese how does what are they
considered like you bernie is do you have to be born in that country is it a
heritage thing like so many generations of being born like this is the blood
relation blood related that's what they are saying no Karan Immigration Minister
his name is Qing yi yeah he's saying that oh you know every country has a
different system our system is based on the blood relation although he's saying
that and there are other factors there is a lot of contradictory thing yeah and
you don't have to be born in Burma to be able to citizen as long as you're a
Buddhist yeah now they're bringing a lot of on the under the government
sponsorship a lot of Bangladeshi Buddhists are migrating to Burma Burma
is much worse off than Bangladesh really economically living standard human
expectancy education health health care everything why they are coming as soon
as they come here they get free man free everything at the expense of they can
their resettle at the expense of their own yes so they will kicked out the
Rangers and they'll take the land and they got a free house and everything so
they are coming like that so deficit there's there become citizen know the
current the major party who started problem in 1912 2012
mo is the head of the leader party leader RNP DP and DP r m DP o r NP
something with difficulty somehow when I'm talking I am forgetting a lot of
year yeah his name is mo he was born in Greece in Bangladesh he has a blood
brother same for the same mother still in Bangladesh he's a singer who I was
recently I had a song sang by him is still there yes and now this guy is the
head of the other state government is crazy so it's actually there is no
planet it's like I can do as I wish yeah sort of thing and for example let's say
say it and I wear we're Blood Brothers like you know biological brothers okay
and I convert it to good ISM there's no problem for me I become a surgeon I can
go do that I can do anything real brother same parents same father
same mother I just converted to Buddhism I have no problem okay but if he stayed
a Muslim then there will be an issue everything everything he will not go
anywhere it will not be able to go to school colleges or do business or move
around from one place to another place and he marries everything is yes locked
a lot of barriers for him okay and so so it is it okay so then I guess what I'm
getting out of this is that is it specifically I mean obviously there's a
lot of talk about your being targeted because of Islam being Muslim or does it
go deeper than that because what you just described there means that there's
because there's contradictions in the way they're doing it it's really not
about the fact that you're at your ethnic background for example is it just
because you're a Muslim is that what the real issue I think so I can I can
challenge anybody on that I think so I have proof I mean you sometime you
don't really need to be a historian to group this thing's a simple common sense
I have a brother he converted to Buddhism and there is no problem we can
do anything just because I'm a Muslim I can you go to school I cannot do
business I can move I cannot actually go to another different another village
yeah so these prove you really don't need to be a researcher or a professor
to to test him how to to say this is what is wrong and what is
right yeah because a lot of times it's presented as an ethnic issue right so as
a racial issue so I mean I do see like in terms of your complexion and your
appearance you can see that you you tend to be more from the Bengali Indian side
as opposed to you see like a lot of the Munks mongoloid yeah you can very see
that there's very distant echoes actually the the the original mob we
call their kind Buddhist in our country our darker than us so this is a very
complex issue yeah anyway I kind of jump into something
else when I was coming by the historical plan I just wanted to finish here at the
70s and then yes and then did the Constitution that drafted carefully on
1790 74 they try to implement it there were some you know some issues they
could not implement it they said okay then let's try one
push out let's see how many how many we can reduce then in 1978 all of a sudden
there was called something called immigration census they have to check
people then in that year nearly 300,000 either two hundred seventy two thousand
eighty thousand people fled to Bangladesh only about half about half
returned there is we don't want to go either died there a lot of people died
under a fugitive I was in the refugee camp and flat with my mum along with all
the siblings except one sister she stayed back with her husband it was my
second sister then the other thing is why we played was my mother has this
mental thing that you know she is a survivor of 1942 Massacre anything
happened these people are bad we need to run yes
yeah why this happen my father was at that time the capacity of the state
comes I kept the does the old name now they changed to situate he was there on
the street police said where's her ID from your edenia on his check when
and then he gave the ID they tore it apart and throw it away and I said show
me your ID my mother said are you not so know what
what happened what's wrong with you I just gave it to you you've torn it apart
throw it away and they're asking me again so the arrest him took him away
and we never saw what happened to him but then the burn team shot him buried
alive we don't know and we got the news my father was arrested put in the jail
then my mother said this is the time we need to run this country's back because
our young childhood memory is haunting our and then we left and we were in
Bangladesh for a little over a year then there was an agreement of some sort
between at that time the Bangladeshi president al Rahman and in Burma it was
dictating the wind they made some sort of agreement I don't know where of
course those are those things are not available to me and we went back so in a
sense it is proof that Burma cannot deny we are from that country we need to go
back we actually got back although all of our properties although we lost you
know cops and our cows and buffaloes and whatever other things we had we still
got back our you know the place that where we had house so we had to rebuild
it and farm land and everything everything we got back so again only
about half of the people went back the other have either died or they stay
somehow sneaky to Bangladeshi community because they had this haunting memory
you know a lot of them and some of them went to Pakistan at that time it was
easier to go to Pakistan Danny night after about a year or two my
mother died and then in 1982 they there's a law called 1982 Citizenship
Act that act as it was passed in that year in the Parliament and as soon as
that pass overnight will become stateless
so we become a people of no identity yes we had all the documents if you it's not
to do anything at all with the government they say okay bring this
bring this bring this bring this bring this they will collect everything and
then they will return me they will not return back so it's a very systematic
they have a lot of different ways to see is your ID yes well once you submit and
that's that's it it's gone never come back that's what happened and then in
1983-84 I was in grade 8 the middle school and next year I did too in the 84
I need to go to high school in order for me to go to high school to apply for the
admission I need the national identity card and then I'm not I'm not qualified
yeah so that's when I left the country and
yeah in this next time around I went back again it was in 1990 89 it was
there was a very brief democratic period after 88 nationwide demonstration there
was a nationwide uprising whole Burma yeah in 1988 then there are
you know the dictation they will lost his job he was kicked out and some other
army came and one reason another came the kilo a lot of people Buddhist nun
Buddhist Christian army police naked everybody sort of thing in the crop grab
the control of power again but there was a brief democratic period and for me it
was very difficult very harsh to survive in Bangladesh necessity a street kid and
I didn't know what to do sort of thing somehow I managed then I sneaked into
Burma I was not able to go to my relation then I mean into Thailand so
until I came to Thailand I was sorry I came to Canada
so I just kind of wanted to go back to your father for a second in terms of how
you said you know was this a common thing like I mean it sounds like that
you know they would just kind of randomly kind of pick people you know
was it was something that maybe a business that your father was in the
high-profile individuals or was it just occasionally they would just at that one
with you just kind of grab me because I'm guessing this was a few years back
that this kind of thing would happen because I mean I mean I would have been
I think if it was happening a lot more often a sense of like we're talking tens
of thousands on a regular basis I think that it would be in that particular year
it was not a random thing it was the government order to arrest people and
you got less of they have documents they don't have doctors everybody had a few
minutes here they would so army and security forces they were ordered to
arrest people okay there was a there's a reason no no excuse no excuse they said
they're doing they're carrying out a immigration sensors which means they are
just checking who is foreigners with who is not with Vermeer apartment national
so then we're no foreigner at all there was no business of any sort let's say if
you go to Toronto or New York and if you randomly pick 10 people at least three
would be from another country from Europe from from somewhere else Asia but
over there a hundred percent Burmese national and
all of a sudden in the countries are just said okay KD of this check yeah and
then arrest them so with the ID card would be on the ID card to signify that
use the name father's name age and then religion that you believe okay and then
your height and some sort of a scar on your favorite so there's a strong
possibility there based on either the name or the fact that you're Muslim
gives the indication of okay this is somebody that we wants it yes also
religion is there is automatically is very very visible obvious they would
know so it was it was especially plan to drive more people okay and then his
history was another major push another major errors was invited
the one in 92 and they did again hundreds of thousands people or kings
really buried alive and again happened so this yeah young when they came to
refugee came in 1991 so they were before they come to Canada they were in the
refugee camp for 1718 years some of them have been for now 30 years in Warners is
there than they have never known a life or human life when human dignity they
don't know anything honestly so that's and then again in 1994 they carry out
killing again 2001 sometime different places so did this major thing started
in 1912 yeah I think I should stop there then ya know that's kind of what I was
getting at is like that's that's the point in time when I was introduced to
this issue right yes I had actually been a Muslim
for about five years at that time so as I said I was expanding I was learning
about things and because I was will say I was in a white Western shelter kind of
life I didn't really think about these things too much but as I got more
involved with the community I started seeing this kind of kind of this
information and I was kind of like you know I'm obviously very naive about many
things that were happening because it just we didn't think about them much
you
For more infomation >> Piove! - Duration: 0:54. 
For more infomation >> Isso é Ridículo - Um44k (Toca na Rua) Nossa Toca - Duration: 3:41. 
For more infomation >> Spot Buondì Motta METAL!!! - parte seconda: "il papà" [FREE DOWNLOAD] con sottotitoli - Duration: 0:46. 
For more infomation >> A Brahma tá de cara nova - Duration: 0:31. 
For more infomation >> Conversa com verso - 4 - Duration: 1:12. 
For more infomation >> 'O mar secou': por que a água se retrai misteriosamente antes da chegada de Furacão Irma - Duration: 8:43. 
For more infomation >> OPERA ARIAS, by Mezzosoprano Joyce DiDonato with Tivoli Copenhagen Phil - Duration: 38:23. 
For more infomation >> 古いデジカメでもインスタ投稿出来る ElecForUカードリーダー iPhone Android 対応 - Duration: 4:39. 
For more infomation >> Interview w/ Party Boat's Brett...
For more infomation >> Citroen Jumper - Duration: 0:51. 
For more infomation >> Kia Venga - Duration: 0:52. 
For more infomation >> Renault Clio TCE 120PK EDC GT | R-LINK | CLIMATE | RS DRIVE AUTOMAAT - Duration: 1:02. 
For more infomation >> Nissan Qashqai - Duration: 0:51. 
For more infomation >> Infiniti Q70 - Duration: 0:51. 
For more infomation >> Infiniti Q70 - Duration: 0:50. 
For more infomation >> Nissan Juke - Duration: 0:48. 
For more infomation >> Nissan Juke - Duration: 0:51. 
For more infomation >> Nissan Juke - Duration: 0:52. 
For more infomation >> Nissan Juke - Duration: 0:48. 
For more infomation >> Nissan Juke - Duration: 0:50. 
For more infomation >> Suzuki Celerio - Duration: 1:01. 
For more infomation >> Prô Moises Bossato Glossário de Matemática - Equação quadrática - Duration: 2:00. 
For more infomation >> VW Golf VI Comfortline - Duration: 1:04. 
For more infomation >> Volvo XC70 2.4 T COMFORT LINE - Duration: 0:47. 
For more infomation >> Nissan Pulsar 1.2 DIG-T X-TRONIC CONNECT EDITION - Duration: 0:59. 
For more infomation >> Nissan Juke 1.2 DIG-T 115PK 2WD TEKNA NAVI CLIMA CRUISE LMV - Duration: 1:00. 
For more infomation >> Renault Espace 2.0T Privilege Automaat Airco/ECC,Navigatie,Panoramadak,Xenon - Duration: 1:01. 
For more infomation >> Tôonz & le Quintet - Acéré Macéré - Duration: 3:15. 
For more infomation >> Kylie's Kids: Meet Ava - Duration: 2:38. 
For more infomation >> ICO DOVU - ИНТЕРВЬЮ с ОСНОВАТЕЛЕМ ARWEN SMIT - Duration: 21:05. 
For more infomation >> How to Set clock in Maruti cars in {Hindi & English} By Ashish - Duration: 2:13. 
No comments:
Post a Comment