Punk rockers draw double-takes as they dart through traffic, but it's not just the pink hair, leather jackets or skull tattoos that make these 20-somethings rebels: It's their willingness to speak out against Buddhist monks instigating violence against Muslims while others in Myanmar are silent.
"If they were real monks, I'd be quiet, but they aren't," says Kyaw Kyaw, lead singer of Rebel Riot, as his drummer knocks out the beat for a new song slamming religious hypocrisy and an anti-Muslim movement known as "969." "They are nationalists, fascists. No one wants to hear it, but it's true."
Radical monks are at the forefront of a bloody campaign against Muslims, and few in this predominantly Buddhist nation of 60 million people are willing to speak against them. For many, being Buddhist is an important part of being Burmese, and monks, the most venerable members of society, are beyond reproach. Others are simply in denial, or buy into claims the Muslim "outsiders" pose a threat to their culture and traditions.
The silence is as dangerous as the mobs razing mosques and cheering as Muslims are hunted down and beaten to death with chains and metal pipes, says Michael Salberg, director of international affairs at the US-based Anti-Defamation League.
Advertisement
"It's not perpetrators that are the problem here," he says, pointing to conditions that paved the way for the Holocaust in Germany and the genocide in Rwanda. "It's the bystanders." Full story...
Related posts:
"If they were real monks, I'd be quiet, but they aren't," says Kyaw Kyaw, lead singer of Rebel Riot, as his drummer knocks out the beat for a new song slamming religious hypocrisy and an anti-Muslim movement known as "969." "They are nationalists, fascists. No one wants to hear it, but it's true."
Radical monks are at the forefront of a bloody campaign against Muslims, and few in this predominantly Buddhist nation of 60 million people are willing to speak against them. For many, being Buddhist is an important part of being Burmese, and monks, the most venerable members of society, are beyond reproach. Others are simply in denial, or buy into claims the Muslim "outsiders" pose a threat to their culture and traditions.
The silence is as dangerous as the mobs razing mosques and cheering as Muslims are hunted down and beaten to death with chains and metal pipes, says Michael Salberg, director of international affairs at the US-based Anti-Defamation League.
Advertisement
"It's not perpetrators that are the problem here," he says, pointing to conditions that paved the way for the Holocaust in Germany and the genocide in Rwanda. "It's the bystanders." Full story...
Related posts:
- Why Burma could become another Rwanda...
- U Wirathu, Burma’s 'bin Laden of Buddhism’
- No justice for Muslims massacred by Myanmar Buddhists...
- Massacre in Myanmar ignored by everyone...
- Burma's Buddhist mobs sow fear amid widening unrest...
- Video shows Burmese police standing by as Buddhists attack Muslims...
No comments:
Post a Comment