Burma and Serbia

The situation with the Rohingya in Burma has been in the news lately. I haven't studied all of the details and backstory, but for the Buddhist in Myanmar to take this action is pretty unexpected. I mean from what I've always heard Buddhism is all about peace and love. So for the Buddhist who I'm told are so peaceful, to be pushed to taking this drastic action, it makes me wonder what must have happened.

So the Muslim Rohingya are being forcibly ejected from Burma into neighbouring Bangladesh. Now Bangladesh is an Islamic nation, an exporter of terrorism as we saw in New York just this week. So it was this accident of geography that gave Burma this option in dealing with the Rohingya issue, that is the option to force them out of their country into an adjacent Muslim zone.

Which brings to the parallels with Serbia. Also recently the old Balkan wars of a generation ago have been in the news. Serb and Croat leaders from back then still going through trials and sentencing. So back in those days Serbia also had Muslim problems in their nation. And Serbia in a way set the example by forcibly removing Bosnian Muslims out of Serbia and into Bosnia and Muslim dominated areas. Serbia, like Burma today, had the option with geography to push Muslim trouble off their land and onto an adjacent Muslim country.

It's interesting the changes in world opinion from a generation ago in the Yugoslav wars to today. Back then it was Serbia is bad, bomb Serbia, stop Serbia. There was no discussion at all about Serbia being Christian, or the threats Serbia was facing that led them to do what they did. Ah simpler times.

Now today with Burma and the Rohingya the outrage is more muted. World opinion is more nuanced. The situation with the Rohingya and Muslim violence is seen as difficult and complex. The actions taken by Burma are certainly harsh with a real human toll, and individual-level injustice. Yet its recognized that Islamic strife is a problem worldwide (Genesis 16:12). Also the world recognizes that it isn't sufficient to tell Burma that mass deporting the Rohingya is not an option, while offering no other solutions.