![Mixing up religion and Education]()
par j.james | Juin 8, 2016 | Myanmar
The news that Ma Ba Tha is opening a private high school on the outskirts of Yangon somewhat troubles me.
[su_row][su_column size= »1/3″] 
[/su_column] [su_column size= »2/3″]
I am a Buddhist myself; however, monks getting closely involved in the education system to build children’s morals and their devotion to be Buddhists, in my opinion, feels too much like pushing an agenda of protecting “race and religion”.
I am not against teaching religion as part of an education curriculum. But religious teaching could, and in my opinion should, still be done in monasteries, as currently practised in Myanmar culture, where young boys are expected to be novices. [/su_column] [/su_row]
Alternately, the Committee for the Protection of Nationality and Religion – as Ma Ba Tha is formally called in English – can offer courses on the essence of Buddhism during school holidays for example. They could even open Sunday schools like in the West.
I believe moral education begins at home. It is not the responsibility of an institution or a specific religious group to impart morality. Families, especially parents, have an important role to play here. Schools can fine-tune these moral values, but it is parents who, as children’s role models, have direct influence on their child’s character. Continue Reading …
![Mixing up religion and Education]()
par j.james | Mai 7, 2016 | Ethnic issues, Myanmar
Why were Kaman Muslim deaths ignored?
[su_row][su_column size= »1/3″] 
[/su_column] [su_column size= »2/3″]
My error was that, like everyone else who wrote about this, I misidentified the people who died when a boat making one such journey from the Sin Tet Maw camp in Pauktaw township sank on April 19. I said they were Rohingya: the stateless group of people denied citizenship by Myanmar authorities who have sanctioned serious rights abuses against them.
This week I visited Sin Tet Maw. Community leaders there and relatives of the dead told me that the majority of those on board, including the estimated 21 who died, were in fact Kaman Muslims originally from Kyaukphyu. They are one of the country’s 135 recognised ethnic groups and most are legally entitled to citizenship rights of some sort. [/su_column] [/su_row]
This tragedy highlights the fact that thousands of Kaman people remain trapped in IDP camps and villages facing the same restrictions as the Rohingya. It points to the lie behind the message consistently cited by many of those with power in Myanmar that what is happening in Rakhine is principally about illegal immigration.
The truth that is too often skirted round by international organisations and governments is that people are being kept in camps and denied rights not because they are illegal immigrants, but because they are Muslim. Continue Reading …
![Mixing up religion and Education]()
par j.james | Mai 5, 2016 | Myanmar
’Rohingya’ ferry victims not Rohingya.
[su_row][su_column size= »1/3″] 
[/su_column] [su_column size= »2/3″]
The loss of life in rough seas on April 19 after the sinking of a boat carrying 40 to 60 people from Sin Tet Maw in Pauktaw township soon hit social media and then international headlines. A US embassy statement expressed deep concern, using the controversial name Rohingya to describe the victims.
That wording prompted protests outside the US embassy in Yangon on April 28 from nationalists who vehemently object to the term and insist that they be called by their official label of “Bengalis”. [/su_column] [/su_row]
But a Myanmar Times investigation reveals that most on board were internally displaced persons – IDPs – who originally came from Kyaukphyu and were of Kaman ethnicity. Their families and community are angry that more people, locally and internationally, do not defend their rights and recognise they are different from the Rohingya.
“People should not call us Rohingya. We are Kaman and we have rights,” said U Khin Maung Hla, leader at Sin Tet Maw IDP camp. Continue Reading …
![Mixing up religion and Education]()
par j.james | Mai 5, 2016 | Bangladesh, Religious fundamentalism
Secular state and free speech .
[su_row][su_column size= »1/3″] 
[/su_column] [su_column size= »2/3″]
The recent wave of murders in Bangladesh and government’s reactions in such issue has already made a shadow of trouble and it can be more colossal in near future.
The question aroused with key words –secular state and free speech.
Recently, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina of Bangladesh denounced anyone who criticised religion or expressed their own lack of religious faith in striking terms: “I don’t consider such writings as freethinking but filthy words.
Why would anyone write such words? It’s not at all acceptable if anyone writes against our prophet or other religions.” [/su_column] [/su_row]So does she mean that it’s all right to kill people who write such words? Hack them to death with machetes, usually?An opinion published in the The Japan Times saying Bangladesh prime minister did not say “yes,” but she didn’t exactly say “no” either. And this is regrettable, because quite a few people are being hacked to death in Bangladesh these days. Continue Reading …
par j.james | Avr 28, 2016 | Bangladesh, Religious fundamentalism
Why Bangladesh may be the next proving ground for global jihadist groups
[su_row][su_column size= »1/3″] [/su_column] [su_column size= »2/3″]
Even for Bangladesh, where gruesome killings of secular writers and liberal activists have become all too common, back-to-back slayings in recent days seemed to mark a troubling new turn.
The killings of an LGBT activist and U.S. government employee, along with a friend, in the capital on Monday were claimed by the South Asian affiliate of Al Qaeda. Two days earlier, Islamic State said it was responsible for the death of a low-key university professor who was hacked with machetes in the northern city of Rajshahi. [/su_column] [/su_row]
The claims have puzzled terrorism analysts, who say there is little concrete proof of the rival militant organizations’ strength in Bangladesh. But Al Qaeda and Islamic State have both sought to gain a foothold in this predominantly Muslim nation of 160 million people, and experts worry that Bangladesh is ill equipped to respond if it becomes a battleground for global jihad.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s government has cracked down on Islamist political parties and been accused of silencing critics in the media and civil society. The prime minister initially deflected blame for the deteriorating security situation and accused her political opposition, including the Jamaat-e-Islami party, of being behind Monday’s killings. Continue Reading …
par j.james | Avr 21, 2016 | Bangladesh, Religious fundamentalism
Bangladesh’s shameful response to religion critic killings.
[su_row][su_column size= »1/3″] [/su_column] [su_column size= »2/3″]
Paul Fidalgo is communications director for the Center for Inquiry. Michael De Dora is director of the center's office of public policy, the organization's representative to the United Nations and the president of the United Nations NGO Committee on Freedom of Religion or Belief. The opinions expressed in this commentary are theirs. [/su_column] [/su_row](CNN)An innocent young man is brutally hacked to death in the street by marauding thugs with machetes, and the government's response is to effectively blame the victim. This is the outrageous and absurd situation in the supposed democratic state of Bangladesh, where a bloody campaign of terror is being waged against secularists and atheists who have criticized radical Islam. But rather than act to protect the rights and safety of its people, Bangladesh's leaders are coddling the killers and chastising the dead.
Last week in Dhaka, 28-year-old law student Nazimuddin Samad found himself surrounded by Islamist extremists, reportedly linked to al Qaeda in the Indian subcontinent. They hacked at him with machetes, and shot him to ensure he was dead, all because he had written posts on Facebook promoting secularism and criticizing radical Islam. Continue Reading …
