Van Sander naar Zubayr

Posted on October 4th, 2007 by .
Categories: Misc. News.

Meestal doe ik dit niet, maar vond dit toch wel een mooi verhaal. Dank aan Umm B. voor het toezenden. (more…)

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Muslims in Burma

Posted on October 4th, 2007 by .
Categories: Misc. News.

Reading Gabriele Marranci’s website earlier this week I came across a story on the Rohingya Muslims in Burma. It is an interesting story that has hardly received any media coverage the last weeks during the conflict in Burma (see for example a search in Dutch on Google). They mainly live in the Northern part of Burma represent 4% of the Burma population but 50% in that area. Islam was brought to Burma in 9th century via merchants. Their own state, Arkana, was annexed by a Burmese King in the 18th century and in the 19th century by the British colonizers. As happened in other places too, the Burmese Muslims were promised that they would get their own autonomous region which never came into existence. The relationship between Muslims and Buddhists was one of peaceful coexistence during some times and (violent) prosecution and expulsion in other times. Their support for the British troops (while Buddhists supported the Japanese troops), their attempts for having autonomy and of course also the usual meta-narratives about Islam (in which the destruction of the Bamyan statues by the Taliban plays in important role) show how global and local narratives influence the position of these Muslims.

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