By Muslim Mirror News,
Mumbai, April 4: Muslim organisations condemned the communal violence against minorities in Myanmar (Burma), Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. They decried the targeting of places of worship and recent ethnic killing of Muslims in Burma. They demanded the Indian government to call the envoys of the three governments and ask them to take positive steps to stop the persecution of minorities and torching of their homes and places of worship. They urged the government to put pressure on the international community to call for an end to the violence.
Several Muslim groups here on Tuesday held a press conference at Mumbai’s Marathi Patrakar Sangh. Maulana Mahmood Daryabadi, General Secretary, All India Ulama Council, Farid Shaikh, President, Mumbai Aman Committee, Maulana Burhanuddin Qasmi, Director, Markazul Maarif Education and Research Centre, Dr. Azimuddin, President, Movement for Human Welfare, Maulana Aijaz Kashmiri and Shia scholar Maulana Ahmd Ali Abidi addressed the press.
The representatives of Muslim groups said that in the riots in Burma, a few months ago, according to news reports an estimated 35,000 Muslims were butchered by Buddhist extremists. These riots saw the slaughter of innocent women and children and burning of their homes. Hardly had these wounds been healed when the news of fresh violence in Mechtalai city broke out. Unofficial reports claim, so far around 1300 people are killed in the recent violence and thousands displaced and the irony remains that the mayhem is still on unchecked.
The NGOs also raised concerns about the incidents of violence against minorities in Sri Lanka by Sinhalese Buddhist extremists, who have been running organised campaigns against the Muslims. An organisation called Buddhist Bala Sena has been making unprovoked attacks on masjids and temples in Sri Lanka.
Muslim organisations also condemned the violence against Hindus in Bangladesh and said that the Bangladeshi government failed to protect its Hindu minority from extremist groups.
They also condemned the insult of the Holy Kaaba (house of Allah) and Prophet of Islam (saws) on the internet specially through social networking web sites and other media. They alleged these anti-Islamic campaigns are but to antagonize Muslim youths. They appealed to the Muslims to remain wise while protesting against such nonsense provocation. The NGO leaders have also asked the government to frame tough laws against web sites and other means of communication to control hate-speech and religious provocation.
The Muslim community leaders were upset with the failure of Indian government to provide with justice to the 92/93 Mumbai riots victims, whereas the accused of the 1993 Mumbai blasts are already trailed and punished by the apex court. But the cases of Mumbai riots have not yet been put for trail.
“Every victim – riots or bomb blasts, must avail equal justice enshrined in our constitution. And it is the duty of an elected government to uphold its citizen’s right fairly and equally,” said the Muslim leaders.