YANGON: Buddhist vigilantes in western Myanmar attacked a bus and killed nine Muslims, police said on Monday, the deadliest communal violence in the region since a reformist government took power a year ago.

The bus was besieged near Taunggoke town in the western state of Rakhine on Sunday evening by a group who blamed some of its passengers for the murder of a Buddhist woman a week ago, said residents and politicians. One of those killed was travelling in a separate car.

Rakhine is home to Myanmar’s largest concentration of Muslims, but their presence is often resented by the Buddhist majority. The resentment is particularly sharp for Rohingya Muslims, whose roots date back to the 19th century when they were brought to the country as labourers by colonial power Britain. Ko Kyaw Lay, a Muslim human rights activist in the region who belongs to an opposition party, said none of those killed were Rohingyas.

Police could not immediately confirm details of the violence. “An investigation is underway but I can’t give you any further details,” said a police official who requested anonymity. In a separate incident on Sunday in Sittwe, the Rakhine capital, 10 people were shot and wounded when riot police tried to break up a protest, witnesses said. They said the rally by about 200 people was unrelated to the attack on the bus.

Protesters threw stones at police and a 13-year-old novice monk was among those wounded, witnesses said. Myanmar is one of Southeast Asia’s most ethnically diverse countries, where sectarian and ethnic tension persists despite a new political climate and broad reforms by a civilian-led government that says it has made peace and national unity a priority since it replaced a military junta 15 months ago.

In the case of the bus attack, Taunggoke resident Kyaw Min said the Buddhists “were angered by the authorities’ handling” of an attack on a woman who people in the area said was raped by several men and then killed. Just before Sunday’s attack, leaflets bearing a photo of the woman and describing the rape were distributed in the area.

Several residents, who declined to be identified, said the Muslims on the bus were not from the area and were on a visit to Rakhine state. They suggested those killed may not have been the perpetrators of the reported rape and murder.

In a joint statement, eight overseas-based Rohingya rights groups condemned the attack on “Muslim pilgrims”, which they said came after months of anti-Rohingya propaganda stirred up by “extremists and xenophobes”. A spokesman for the coalition, Tun Khin, said that although those killed were not ethnic Rohingyas, the groups were concerned about the plight of Muslims in Myanmar. They called on the government to treat Muslims fairly and tackle “Rakhine terrorism”.

Residents were also on edge after the Sittwe demonstration...Demonstrations were extremely rare under Myanmar’s former military rulers but are becoming more frequent as the public voices discontent over issues such as land ownership and chronic power shortages...

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2012\06\05\story_5-6-2012_pg14_1

yup. We need to get rid of all the religions and then the real reasons will come out.

SOB

Falah

Why did muslims feel the need to invade so many countries?

How can you explain away the mass slaughters by muslims?

Why is it that muslims are such racist bigoted slothful thieving people?

His campaign was officially justified by claims that the Muslim Delhi Sultanate was too tolerant toward its Hindu subjects, but was motivated greatly by the considerable wealth to be gained. By all accounts, Timur's campaigns in India were marked by systematic slaughter and other atrocities on a truly massive scale inflicted mainly on the subcontinent's Hindu population.[42]

Timur entered Delhi and the city was sacked, destroyed, and left in ruins. Before the battle for Delhi, Timur executed 100,000 captives:[11][38]

When this order became known to the gházís of Islám, they drew their swords and put their prisoners to death. 100,000 infidels, impious idolaters, were on that day slain. Mauláná Násiru-d dín 'Umar, a counsellor and man of learning, who, in all his life, had never killed a sparrow, now, in execution of my order, slew with his sword fifteen idolatrous Hindus, who were his captives."

Before the end of 1399, Timur started a war with Bayezid I, sultan of the Ottoman Empire, and the Mamluk sultan of Egypt Nasir-ad-Din Faraj. Bayezid began annexing the territory of Turkmen and Muslim rulers in Anatolia. As Timur claimed sovereignty over the Turkmen rulers, they took refuge behind him. Timur invaded Syria, sacked Aleppo and captured Damascus after defeating the Mamluk army. The city's inhabitants were massacred, except for the artisans, who were deported to Samarkand. However, Ibn Khaldun praises Timur for having unified much of the Muslim world when other conquerors of the time could not.[45]

In a form of rectification, in 1400 Timur invaded Christian Armenia and Georgia. Of the surviving population, more than 60,000 of the local people were captured as slaves, and many districts were depopulated.[46]

He invaded Baghdad in June 1401. After the capture of the city, 20,000 of its citizens were massacred. Timur ordered that every soldier should return with at least two severed human heads to show him. (Many warriors were so scared they killed prisoners captured earlier in the campaign just to ensure they had heads to present to Timur.)[citation needed]

Does it give a nice warm fuzzy feeling inside to know what the war mongering religion of peace can really do?


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timur#Period_of_expansion

Adamant wrote on Jun 7^th, 2012 at 3:19pm:



You must be kidding. Can you name a country that Christians haven't invaded?

falah wrote on Jun 7^th, 2012 at 4:40pm:


Falah are you ashamed of Muhammed's example? Shouldn't you be proud of it, and ashamed only of modern Muslims impotence in re-establishing the empire?

falah wrote on Jun 8^th, 2012 at 9:00am:





Muslims didn't tax anyone they conquered, eh? They didn't impose Islam on the conquered, they didn't massacre all 'polytheists' who didn't convert to Islam, eh?

You make it out as if Mohammed and his conquering hordes were some sort of 7th century Ghostbusters or band of Robin Hood types. They weren't.
They went for the booty. You can tell by simply looking at the history of Islam, and the bloody internal rivalry that was its hallmark from the get-go. The early caliphs were killing each other for booty and power.i

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=bae_1304490155

Sprintcyclist wrote on Jun 8^th, 2012 at 6:52pm:


WWI who were the Christians fighting in that one? What about WWII, everyone was sending each other Christmas presents before the Japanese got involved?