“Lord, forgive our persecutors” was the prayer a Rohingya Christian pastor posted on his Facebook page as a vicious attack against a tiny group of Rohingya Christians unfolded in Cox’s Bazar refugee camp in Bangladesh this week.
A raging mob of at least 100 Muslim Rohingya extremists seethed through the Christians’ vulnerable community. In the multiple attacks, one Christian went missing and at least twelve were seriously injured, needing hospital treatment, including several children.
A Christian man suffered a large gash to his head when the extremists pelted stones at the community’s bamboo-and-tarpaulin church. The building was completely destroyed. The attackers also slashed victims with knives, sprayed acid and attempted to set fire to buildings.
The attackers looted and destroyed the Christians’ frail and simple shack homes – made with mud or bamboo walls, roofed with corrugated metal or tarpaulin. At least 20 families were made homeless.
Instead of protecting them the camp security forces turned on the Christians, beating them and leaving one man unconscious.
Estimated at just a few hundred in the camp, Rohingya Christians are mainly converts from Islam. They are surrounded by nearly three-quarters of a million Muslim Rohingya and completely isolated from other Christians in Bangladesh. Their existence is unrecognized by other Rohingya, except as a group to be despised and rejected.
Rohingya Muslims are typically peaceful and tolerant, but Saudi influence has radicalized some.
Stirring up the violence against the Christians is an extremist group called the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA, formerly called Harakah al-Yaqin).
A local contact said violence against the group has “tripled” in the past week and pleaded for help. He called for a protected area to be provided for Christian Rohingya in the camp. Hindu Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh already have such protection. The Christians just want the same protection in the camp that Hindus have.
Barnabas Aid is working discreetly with Rohingya Christians to send emergency food aid, clothes, medical and other basic needs, as well as materials to rebuild their damaged or destroyed homes and church building.
A horde of hostility is encamped around this tiny group of hard-pressed Christians. Listen to their cries. Pray for their protection.
Couldn’t we send out a few of the bishops most involved in the U.K. Interfaith Relations committee on a fact finding mission? Those Rohingya Christians must have done something really unkind to have upset those Muslims and cause them to act in self defence..
So come on Justin, you’ve got the numbers, resources, and diplomatic concessionary skills, let’s sort this out..
Forgive my bigotry, lack of appreciation of cultural differences, etc., etc. but: Don’t these people see the basic contradiction in what they’re doing? They’re oppressed as a religious and cultural minority by the mainstream Burmese and driven out of the country. So they turn on some of their own for what is essentially the same phenomenon? The lack of common sense is just mind-boggling.
I believe we’re seeing the precise behavior among the Rohingya that explains why they’re so unwanted by the Myanmar government. This is basically the typical treatment of converts from Islam to Christianity (apostates) that we see throughout the Muslim world. Unfortunately, while things are likely terrible for any Bangladeshi Christians, there are only certain regions in Myanmar where they’re likely safe. Many of the Burmese refugees in the U.S. Midwest are from the Chin province; they are Christians and are heavily persecuted by a government that favors Buddhism.
Yes. The persecution of the Rohingya in Burma is not admirable. However, some (by no means all) of the blame comes from radicalized behavior coming from some of the Muslim Rohingya. There are Buddhists behaving badly and Muslims behaving badly. Christians, as is often the case, are at the bottom of the preference tree and get mistreated by everyone.