World needs to protect Rohingya Muslims: Analyst

Press TV has interviewed Massoud Shadjareh, head of the Islamic Human Rights Commission in London, about Myanmar’s minister of religious affairs and culture coming under fire for his offensive comments about Muslims in the Southeast Asian country. 

The following is a rough transcription of the interview.

Press TV: Taking into accord recent comments made by Myanmar’s minister of religious affairs and culture, it seems that any hopes of having the first democratic re-elected government in Myanmar in decades of altering the situation for the Rohingya Muslims seems to be vanishing?  

Shadjareh: Absolutely. We have been fearing this for a very long time. As a matter of fact we have reported our concern to the United Nations over this issue that really we are not talking about the juntas behaving badly, it is actually a culture, it is setting in and has been established in Myanmar which demonizes the Muslim citizens and actually denies them their citizenship so therefore denies them any right, whatsoever, and leaves them in the hand of extremists to kill and burn their properties and destroy them and ethnically cleanse Myanmar of Muslims who have lived there for centuries and this is really something that needs to be recognized and addressed.

Up till now the international community has been saying through the process of democratization [that] this will be resolved. Now we know very clearly that that is not the case and the fact that a minister of religion comes out with such bigotry, it actually proves the problem not only exists and is exaggerated and needs to be dealt with a huge urgency.  

Press TV: Well that is the question, if in your words this is so deeply culturally rooted within the basic, the hearts and minds of the people of Myanmar, then how can it be resolved?

Shadjareh: Well it cannot be resolved internally from Myanmar. It needs to be resolved by pressure from external. The fact is this that what is really taking place is that Myanmar needs to establish its identity and it has chosen to establish its identity and strengthen its identity by attack against the Muslims so it would unite the rest of the society and this is exactly what Adolf Hitler was involved in and this is exactly what Milosevic and others were involved in former Yugoslavia and we really should not allow this to take place and we need to rise up to the challenge of protecting the Myanmar Muslims and Rohingyas internationally because nationally there is no hope.  

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