Burma is home to some of the early civilizations of Southeast Asia including the Pyu and the Mon. In the 9th century, the Burmans of the Kingdom of Nanzhao entered the upper Irrawaddy valley and, following the establishment of the Pagan Empire in the 1050s, the Burmese language and culture slowly became dominant in the country. During this period, Theravada Buddhism gradually became the predominant religion of the country. The Pagan Empire fell due to the Mongol invasions (1277–1301), and several warring states emerged. In the second half of the 16th century, the country was reunified by the Taungoo Dynasty which for a brief period was the largest empire in the history of Southeast Asia. The early 19th century Konbaung Dynasty ruled over an area that included modern Burma as well as Manipur and Assam.
Since independence in 1948, the country has been in one of the longest running civil wars among the country's myriad ethnic groups that remain unresolved. From 1962 to 2011, the country was under military rule. The military junta was officially dissolved in 2011 following a general election in 2010 and a nominally civilian government installed, though the military retains enormous influence.
The sectarian violence was sparked by a seemingly innocuous dispute at a Muslim-owned gold shop in Meiktila on March 20, yet soon spread across the region with frightening intensity. Before long 43 people had been killed, at least five mosques torched and around 12,000 people had fled to ramshackle displacement camps outside the town. The government imposed a state of emergency and curfews in certain hard-hit areas, but the violence nevertheless swelled to 11 nearby townships where Muslim districts were plundered. Brad Adams, Asia director of HRW, has since lamented “the failure of the police to stop wanton killings and the burning of entire neighborhoods.”
Similar Buddhist-Muslim violence devastated western Burma’s Arakan state last year in clashes that saw some 120,000 people forced from their homes and more than 120 lives lost. The fighting was mainly targeted at the Rohingya, a distinct Muslim group not included in Burma’s official 135 ethnic groups and thus, branded illegal migrants from neighboring Bangladesh. The government was therefore quick to brand the Arakan crisis an “immigration issue,” although the clearly anti-Muslim character of the latest violence, which did not involve the Rohingya, has since heralded a re-evaluation of earlier incidents.
The clashes have been most notable for the brand of militant Buddhism that appears to be gaining ground in Burma since the end of junta rule in March 2011. Monks have unparalleled moral authority in traditional Burmese society. Wirathu, an outspoken monk who was jailed in 2003 for stirring religious clashes in the northern city of Mandalay, has dubbed himself “the Burmese bin Laden” in reference to the jihadi leader Osama bin Laden’s religious fervor, despite his hatred of all things Islamic. The 45-year-old posted an inflammatory speech online last week that warned “once these malevolence Muslims have control and authority over us, they will not let us practice our religion” and accused Muslims of accumulating “money to get our young Buddhist women.”
Evidence has been gathered suggesting that the Burmese regime has marked certain ethnic minorities such as the Karen, Karenni and Shan for extermination or 'Burmisation'. This, however, has received little attention from the international community since it has been more subtle and indirect than the mass killings in places like Rwanda.
The Rohingya have consistently faced human rights abuses by the Burmese regime which has refused to acknowledge them as Burmese citizens (despite some of them having lived in Burma for some generations) and attempted to forcibly expel Rohingya and bring in non-Rohingyas to replace them. This policy has resulted in the expulsion of approximately half of the Rohingya population from Burma. An estimated 90,000 people have been displaced in the recent sectarian violence between Rohingya Muslims and Buddhists in Burma's western Rakhine State. As a result of this policy Rohingya people have been described as "among the world’s least wanted" and "one of the world's most persecuted minorities." They have been denied Burmese citizenship since a 1982 citizenship law was enacted. Rohingya are not allowed to travel without official permission, are banned from owning land and are required to sign a commitment to have no more than two children. In 2012, a riot that broke out between ethnic Rakhine Buddhists and Rohingya Muslims, left 78 people dead, 87 injured, and thousands of homes destroyed. It also displaced more than 52,000 people. As of July 2012, the Myanmar Government did not include the Rohingya minority group–classified as stateless Bengali Muslims from Bangladesh since 1982—on the government's list of more than 130 ethnic races and therefore the government says that they have no claim to Myanmar citizenship.
The 2012 Rakhine State riots are a series of ongoing conflicts between Rohingya Muslims and ethnic Rakhine in northern Rakhine State, Myanmar. The riots came after weeks of sectarian disputes and have been condemned by most people on both sides of the conflict.
The immediate cause of the riots is unclear, with many commentators citing the killing of ten Burmese Muslims by ethnic Rakhine after the rape and murder of a Rakhine woman as the main cause. Whole villages have been "decimated". Over 300 houses and a number of public buildings have been razed. According to the Myanmar authorities, the violence, between ethnic Rakhine Buddhists and Rohingya Muslims, left 78 people dead, 87 injured, and thousands of homes destroyed. It displaced more than 52,000 people.
The government has responded adopting traditional methods by imposing curfews and by deploying troops in the regions. The Burmese army and police have been accused of targeting Rohingya Muslims through mass arrests and arbitrary violence. A number of monks' organizations that played vital role in Burma's struggle for democracy have taken measures to block any humanitarian assistance to the Rohingya community.
Al-Qaida and Taliban are responsible for mass massacre of myriad of innocents in Afghanistan and identically in Burma. Regretfully, great majority of Muslim world regard them to be the champion of Islam. Their adherents enjoy political patronage, financial assistance and military aid by Gulf States. The disrepute and extremists fame thus earned has endangered the Muslims in Burma, turning Buddhists against them. Consequently, it can be said extremism begets extremism.