Religious Persecution of Muslims in Burma (for full report www.ibiblio.org)

There is no state religion in Burma, but successive Burmese governments have identified themselves strongly with Buddhism. Muslims and Christians have come under increasing pressure in the past five years and the SPDC has been singled out in various reports by international organisations and the United States government for violating religious freedoms. Churches and mosques have been forced to close, pastors and Muslim religious figures have been harassed and Christian and Muslim villages have been forced to construct pagodas. The abuse against Muslims, however, has been more widespread and attempts have been made to rally the public behind the abuse. Some of the abuse has been official, such as the closure of mosques, while the more outward forms have been supposed 'spontaneous acts' of the populace, although with obvious signs of instigation by the regime.

Laws in Burma dictate that large gatherings are not permitted. One such law, although not always enforced, states that gatherings of five or more people are not allowed and the participants may be arrested. This law was declared following the pro-democracy demonstrations in 1988 and has never been repealed. Muslims must ask for permission before celebrating major religious holidays or holding religious ceremonies. This permission must be sought at all levels, from the Township Peace and Development Council up through the State or Division Peace and Development Council and the Military Region Commander. Permission may be revoked at any point on the way up the chain. If the ceremonies or celebrations are held without permission, the Army and police may intervene, arresting the organisers who are then given long prison sentences by the SPDC-controlled courts. Since the anti-Muslim riots in 2001 [see the section 'Anti-Muslim Riots and Military Operations' below] Muslims in the cities where they occurred have been prohibited from attending their mosques or gathering in groups to worship. Only a handful were allowed to attend the funerals of those killed in the May 2001 riots in Toungoo. Since then, many have only been able to worship quietly in their own homes. In Tamu on the border with India, Muslims have also been banned from using mosque loudspeakers to call the faithful to prayer, which is the normal and accepted practice throughout the Muslim world.

We can worship. But we can't do what we want to do on special days. People can't preach or do special programs. They have been forbidden to do all these things. They don't allow us to build mosques. The Muslim people notice that they are being watched everywhere at whatever they do, so they do things secretly and quietly. They worship and do other things quietly. It means that we have to do it secretly. They still allow us to worship, but if they see a lot of people they suspect something. So the people there are afraid. Whatever they do they have to do it quietly." - "Than Maung" (M, 23), Muslim villager from xxxx town, Mon State (Interview #3, 2/02)

[W]e can worship, but we have to stay under their strict administration so we don't have freedom of worship. We have to ask for permission if we want to hold a religious ceremony or if we want to celebrate the days of special significance. We have to wait until we get permission and then we can do it. We can't do it if they don't give us permission. We often have to face these kinds of problems. … Our Muslim people worship five times a day. We use a loudspeaker to gather and invite the people to worship, but they have forbidden us to use it. They don't allow us to use it. They told us, 'Why do you have to use it? You cannot use it.' So they forbade us, threatened us and took action on us. They often do things like this to us." - "Aung Myint" (M, 33), Muslim villager from xxxx town, Sagaing Division (Interview #1, 2/02)

The SPDC has instituted a ban on the construction of new mosques and churches. Permission to build new mosques or religious schools must be received at all levels up to the Regional Command Headquarters responsible for the entire State or Division. They cannot be built without the permission of the Military Region Commander. Repairs on the interiors of the mosques are allowed, but not on the outside. Money for the upkeep of mosques does not come from the Religious Affairs ministry of the SPDC or any other branch of authority, it is donated by members of the Muslim community themselves. Despite having enough money from these donations to repair the mosques, Muslims are still usually not granted permission to make repairs to the mosque exterior. The apparent aim of this policy is to make Muslims ashamed of their faith and to create a false public impression that mosques are shabby places and Muslims are too poor or lazy to maintain them, with the longer term goal of eventually condemning the unmaintained structures and tearing them down never to be rebuilt. According to a report from the Arakan News Agency, an anti-SPDC documentation group, two mosques were destroyed in Upper Pruma village and Lower Pruma village of northern Rakhine State during the second and third weeks of April 2002. The two mosques were destroyed by a Na Sa Ka (Border Security Administration) commander who declared that the mosques had been built without permission from SPDC authorities. No such ban has been placed on the construction or maintenance of Buddhist monasteries. Instead, SPDC leaders have poured billions of Kyat in state funds into pagoda construction with the intention of making Buddhist merit for themselves, and Christians and Muslims are often forced to contribute money to and work on the construction of new monasteries and pagodas. Monasteries and pagodas have also been built alongside or within Christian and Muslim villages, especially in Chin State and Sagaing Division in Burma's northwest and in Karen State in the southeast.

Even though they are allowing us to repair the mosques, they are only allowing us to repair the insides. They don't allow us to fix the outside. So we can only repair part of the mosques. We aren't allowed to repair them completely. If we build it a little high they say it is too high and order us to take it down. We can't build whatever we want to build. We look at it and it makes us depressed. We have to face that kind of problem in our area. I just want to tell you a little bit about this. We have finished fixing the insides of the mosques now. We were able to fix it with the money that people gave through donations. … We were able to make it good and smooth inside, but we weren't allowed to do the outside of the mosque even though we had the donations to make it good. If we did it without their permission, they would take our land. We have to face a lot of problems. … There are a lot of Christian churches [many of the Naga and Chin people in the area are Christian]. There were a lot of Christian churches which were being built but they [SPDC] have now ordered them to stop building them. They don't allow them to build anymore. The Muslim mosques are the same. But they do allow people to make Buddhist monasteries. There are no problems to do that. There are about 30-40 churches that were being built but have now been ordered to stop. … The next thing is that right now in the border town of Tamu there are some religious buildings. The donors have already donated money to build a new building, but they aren't allowing us to build it. What we have to do is we have to report it to the township person in authority. After that we have to report it to the district. After the district we have to report it to the division. After that we have to report it to the [military] headquarters. After the headquarters gives permission, we can build it. So they don't allow us to build religious buildings. In the same way they also don't allow people to build all their Christian churches easily." - "Aung Myint" (M, 33), Muslim villager from xxxx town, Sagaing Division (Interview #1, 2/02)

The next thing is that they aren't allowed to repair any of the mosques or build new ones. When the number of people in the community increases, they become a new community and they want to build a new mosque. But they aren't allowed to do it." - "Thein Soe" (M, xx), Burmese Muslim human rights researcher (Interview #5, 2/02)

We can't worship and we can't open the big mosques. The Muslim groups in Hlaing Thaya new town and Shwe Pyi Thaya new town want to gather and build a mosque to worship in. If they were Christian people then they would want to build a church also. In the same way we want to build a mosque ourselves, but we can't." - "Khin Kyaw Mya" (M, 28), Muslim villager from xxxx town, Rangoon Division, talking about how Muslims forcibly relocated from Rangoon to 'new towns' outside the city have not been allowed to build mosques in the new communities (Interview #3, 2/02)

Muslim leaders have been told by the SPDC that they are responsible for their congregations if anything happens. Religious leaders in Sagaing Division have been warned not to mix religion with politics. Some leaders have been ordered to sign copies of regulations dictating how to control their people and agreeing to do nothing against the regime or its authorities. This is a clear threat which the SPDC uses throughout Burma to ensure that its authority is not questioned. Village heads, religious leaders and other community leaders are held responsible for the actions of their people, and townspeople or villagers know that their leaders will be tortured or killed if they do anything to displease the SPDC. This is also used as a way of saying that if anything happens to Muslims it is not the SPDC's responsibility.

For religion they also called the Malawi [Muslim religious teachers], showed them the regulations and ordered them to sign them to control their people, to not make problems and to do nothing against the authorities and the administration. They talked to our mosque trustees. They ordered them to take responsibility." - "Aung Myint" (M, 33), Muslim villager from xxxx town, Sagaing Division (Interview #1, 2/02)

The SPDC closely monitors the activities of Muslim religious groups that travel around to different towns for religious purposes. Whenever these groups travel, the authorities at all levels must be notified as to who they are, where they are going and why they have come. Muslim religious figures are usually easily recognisable by their beards and white clothing, and they have come under increased surveillance since the events of September 11th 2001 in the United States. Even before that, each year the SPDC has increasingly restricted the number of passports that it issues each year to Muslims to go for the Hajj to Mecca in Saudi Arabia. The Hajj is an important part of Islamic life, and all Muslims try to make this pilgrimage at least once in their lifetime. However, passports are difficult and expensive for most Burmese to obtain, and impossible for many Muslims because they do not have identity cards. In an attempt to create an appearance of religious freedom, each year the SPDC proclaims internationally that it is allowing Burmese Muslims to attend the Hajj, but in reality only two or three hundred passports are issued each year for this purpose. Burmese passports are only valid for one trip outside the country, and are issued for a specific destination. The SPDC's restrictions limit the number of Burmese Muslims who can go for the Hajj to only a rich, well connected and privileged few.

There are some Muslim religious groups that travel for religious purposes. They [the SPDC] administer strongly against those kinds of groups. They called a meeting with all the religious leaders there and warned the religious leaders to be careful of the religious groups who are travelling around there. They asked them [the religious leaders]not to mix politics with religion. They are making that restriction strongly. … For example, one of the religious groups arrives. We call them the T'Pli Jer Ma group. They are the people who are active about religion. We have to report to the district office if that kind of group comes. We have to report it to the District Peace and Development Council and the Township Peace and Development Council. We have to report it to them. After that we have to report it to the township police station, the Army camp and the SB [Special Branch police]. We have to go and report to them where they are staying, the reason they came, how long they will stay, when they will go back and whether they came for political reasons or not. We have to report to every place. We have to start by reporting to the ward [towns are divided into wards, each with their own administration] and then step by step from there. The intelligence unit there is #xx [Military] Intelligence. We report to all the authorities." - "Aung Myint" (M, 33), Muslim villager from xxxx town, Sagaing Division (Interview #1, 2/02)

Muslim women who marry non-Muslims are denied rights to any property if they later get divorced. In order for a Muslim to marry a man or woman of a different religion, the local official must be bribed and treated well or he may disapprove of the wedding and threaten the couple if they continue with it. Marriage laws exist in Burma for each religion and there is discrimination in cases of mixed marriages. In Rakhine State a marriage tax has been levied on Muslim marriages. So far this only appears to exist in Rakhine State.

The other thing is that if a Muslim woman marries another nationality, what happens is that the Muslim woman's parents have to treat the person in authority very well. If there is a problem and if the Muslim divorces, he/she can't take anything back. That is if he marries a woman of different religion. This started in Burma before the end of democracy. The law [the Muslim Marriage Act] has existed since 1954, before Ne Win [Burma's dictator from 1962-88] ruled. The law is like this. This is not the Muslim people discriminating based on religion, it is a law in Burma which separates the Muslim people. If a Muslim man wants to marry a Buddhist but their parents don't agree, and they can't leave each other, then they have to escape and run away. It is happening everywhere. Even if the Buddhist woman agrees, there may be someone in authority who doesn't agree. At that time they have to face a problem. They are threatened." - "Thein Soe" (M, xx), Burmese Muslim human rights researcher (Interview #5, 2/02)