Today what is happening to Muslims in Myanmar (Burma) amounts to "a genocide". In the 1960s a Burmese Muslim called for "secularism", the separation of religion from the state.
"In Burma, it is the Muslim community that has carried the banner of secularism and opposed government attempts to specify a state religion. U Rashid, a respected member of the Burmese cabinet in the early 1960s and a leader of Muslims, opposed the prime minister's attempt to make Buddhism the state religion. He questioned whether, in view of the religious pluralism that characterized contemporary Burmese society, a state religion could serve to integrate and unite the nation:
'As a Muslim, I believe there should be no compulsion in religion. Everyone should be free to adopt and practice the religion he likes. As a Muslim, I do not and indeed cannot object to or oppose anything that Buddhists and persons professing other religions may do for their own religion. All I can and do ask for is that as Muslims, we should have the same freedom. . . . I am apprehensive that the adoption of a state religion will have a deep psychological effect upon the Buddhists in the country. They will begin to imagine that they have a special role in the administrative, economic, social and educational life of the country. The adoption of a State Religion will open the door to extremists to make more and more demands based on religion. We have already received some indications of these. Suggestions have already been made that . . . the President of the union of Burma, Cabinet Ministers, The Chief Justice of the Union, the Speakers of Parliament and the Commander-in-Chief should be Buddhists. It will not be easy for succeeding Governments to resist such demands. Such a situation will lead to unnecessary conflicts between the various religious groups in the country. A situation of that type will not be good for the country. All religious communities will not then pull together. The country and the people as a whole will suffer . . . any attempt by the religious majority to secure administrative, economic, social or educational advantages based on religion will be resisted by the religious minorities'."
Halim Barakat, The Arab World, 1993
"In Burma, it is the Muslim community that has carried the banner of secularism and opposed government attempts to specify a state religion. U Rashid, a respected member of the Burmese cabinet in the early 1960s and a leader of Muslims, opposed the prime minister's attempt to make Buddhism the state religion. He questioned whether, in view of the religious pluralism that characterized contemporary Burmese society, a state religion could serve to integrate and unite the nation:
'As a Muslim, I believe there should be no compulsion in religion. Everyone should be free to adopt and practice the religion he likes. As a Muslim, I do not and indeed cannot object to or oppose anything that Buddhists and persons professing other religions may do for their own religion. All I can and do ask for is that as Muslims, we should have the same freedom. . . . I am apprehensive that the adoption of a state religion will have a deep psychological effect upon the Buddhists in the country. They will begin to imagine that they have a special role in the administrative, economic, social and educational life of the country. The adoption of a State Religion will open the door to extremists to make more and more demands based on religion. We have already received some indications of these. Suggestions have already been made that . . . the President of the union of Burma, Cabinet Ministers, The Chief Justice of the Union, the Speakers of Parliament and the Commander-in-Chief should be Buddhists. It will not be easy for succeeding Governments to resist such demands. Such a situation will lead to unnecessary conflicts between the various religious groups in the country. A situation of that type will not be good for the country. All religious communities will not then pull together. The country and the people as a whole will suffer . . . any attempt by the religious majority to secure administrative, economic, social or educational advantages based on religion will be resisted by the religious minorities'."
Halim Barakat, The Arab World, 1993
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