Islamophobia: Burma’s racist fault-line

Abstract

The author, who has interviewed human rights activists in Burma, analyses the deeply entrenched and unchecked Islamophobia against the Rohingya, who have lived at least two centuries in Burma and yet are refused citizenship. They and Muslims from around the country have been subject to a recent deadly wave of anti-Muslim violence and yet politicians, including Aung San Suu Kyi, are unwilling to address the institutionalised racism, emphasising that constitutional change has to come first. The persecution of the Rohingya will continue, argues the author, while foreign governments are so willing to make political and economic deals with the racist former junta.