Burmese Muslims given two-child limit

[dipsydoodle]

Source: Guardian / AP

Muslims in a province of Burma have been ordered not to have more than two children in an attempt by the government to stop Buddhist attacks on Muslims.

State officials said the two-child limit in the state of Rakhine would ease tensions between Buddhists and their Muslim Rohingya neighbours.

Local officials said the new measure was part of a policy that will also ban polygamyin two Rakhine townships that border Bangladesh and have the highest Muslim populations. The townships, Buthidaung and Maundaw, are about 95% Muslim.

The measure was enacted a week ago after a government-appointed commission investigating the violence issued proposals to ease tensions, which included family planning programs to stem population growth among minority Muslims, said Rakhine state spokesman Win Myaing. The commission also recommended doubling the number of security forces in the volatile region.

"The population growth of Rohingya Muslims is 10 times higher than that of the Rakhine (Buddhists)," Win Myaing said. "Overpopulation is one of the causes of tension."

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/may/25/burma-muslims-two-child-limit

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Appears to have been enacted a week ago but only announced to today.

[RILib]

1. there should be a two child limit everywhere.

[Lenomsky]

16. Agreed 100% ..

Regardless of the reason in the OP I agree 2 child limit per family +/- 1 as accidents happen

It's unreasonable to allow un-restricted population growth on the planet .. *shrugs*

I certainly don't have the answer but it's a MUST.

[RILib]

18. no +s

That helps the population decline sooner.

[smirkymonkey]

21. +1000

[Ter]

22. You want the government getting involved in reproduction?

I'll pass.

[dotymed]

2. I have not heard about the violence

perpetrated by Buddhists against anyone. I thought Buddhists were extremely pacifist and abhor killing (or injuring) any living thing.

[dixiegrrrrl]

4. Apparently that goes out the window when overcrowdig and scarcity happen.

Anti Muslim riots have been happening in Myanmar since at least 1997.
Wiki has a good summary:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persecution_of_Muslims_in_Burma

Muslims as a minority group have been targets for thousands of years in various countries,
plus
different "castes" within the Muslim belief system have been fighting for ages.
One example: Syria, carrying over into present day.

The Alawites are a secretive group that believe in the divine nature of Ali, the cousin of the Prophet Muhammad.
They have been persecuted in the past and survive in the remote and more mountainous parts of Syria.
The ruling Ba'ath party is dominated by Alawis (President Bashar al-Assad is Alawi himself) and they have sought fatwas from Shiite clergy in Lebanon declaring that they are, in fact, Muslims.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persecution_of_minority_Muslim_groups

[muriel_volestrangler]

6. In Sri Lanka too; the Dalai Lama condemned it

though he doesn't, of course, have any authority over Buddhists in either country, so it's still up to them to decide if leading murderous attacks is a good thing for Buddhist monks to do.

Myanmar, which was earlier known as Burma, has been wracked by sectarian violence that has killed hundreds and displaced more than 135,000 over the past year, while Sri Lankan Buddhist groups have recently attacked Muslim businesses.

"Killing people in the name of religion is really very sad, unthinkable, very sad," the Nobel Peace laureate said. "Nowadays even Buddhists now involved, in Burma and Sri Lanka also. Buddhist monks ... destroy Muslim mosques or Muslim families. Really very sad."
...
Sri Lanka, which is dominated by a Buddhist majority, has also been hit by rising instances of hate speech against Muslims and attacks on Muslim-owned businesses.

Groups led by Buddhist monks have spread allegations that the small Muslim minority was dominating business there and trying to take over the country by increasing its birthrate and secretly sterilizing Buddhists.

http://www.startribune.com/world/206552621.html

[Posteritatis]

9. No group of hundreds of millions is a simple monolith. (nt)

[Glorfindel]

3. Very wise and compassionate

The whole world should enact this policy. It would be the best possible gift to the future.

[DonCoquixote]

5. You are sailng past the fact

That this is meant to target Muslims. You did not see a two baby limit on Buddhists, nor on suburban white Americans, no, Muslims, because the best way to stop violence against them is to limit their number. Gee!

It is one thing to suggest that all people should have this policy, it is another to ignore the WHY behind this is being done, or the fact that Buddhists may start having 4 children to ever Muslim two as a means of dominance.

[cosmicone]

7. It is not that simple.

In many parts of the world, muslims intentionally have multiple wives and hundreds of children to increase their percentage in the population. As soon as they hit 51%, they want an Islamic Republic there.

At the time of independence, India's population had 11% muslims ... now 14.6% because while most every other group (sikhs, jains, hindus, christians, jews and buddhists) have reduced their birth rates, muslims have not. In fact, they have opposed every family planning and anti-polygamy program solely on the basis of religion.

I agree that the law should apply to everyone equally .. so the buddhists should face the same 2 child limit. What is probably true is that the buddists rarely have two or more than two offspring so the equality is sort of moot.

[Comrade Grumpy]

14. I'm glad they're not accidentally having multiple wives and children. That would be awkward.

Can you point out to me on which page of the Protocols of the Elders of Mecca they lay out this strategy?

[awoke_in_2003]

15. That is an inconvenient truth...

that also applies to the religious right in this country. Both groups wants theocracies.

[OneAngryDemocrat]

12. Thank God...

Someone besides me "gets" it.

[Posteritatis]

8. Legislation meant to restrict what a specific ethnic group can do is *never* compassionate. (nt)

[Scootaloo]

10. Am I really seeing DU'ers advocating this?

I have no doubt that if the law targeted, say, Jews, or Presbyterians, it'd be correctly labeled as the bigoted tyranny that it is.

[Posteritatis]

17. We're depressingly comfortable going all paternalistic when it's Them Having Kids, I've noticed

I'm sympathetic to encouraging people to lower birthrates overall - which has been happening worldwide anyway - but, as cynical as I feel sometimes about this place, I'm still shocked that people are actually okay with a government mandating restrictions for a specific subset of the population.

Between this and the unthinking Pioneer Fund fans in a few other stories last week... gah, just gah.

[Liberal_in_LA]

23. yes u are

[OneAngryDemocrat]

11. What wil the conservative Christian Coalition say?

We will NOT see any of the immoral right-wing sacks-of-shit who harangue daily about abortion rights here or abroad say diddly-squat about Burma's race-based social engineering.

They're way too wrapped up in their own genocidal hypocrisy to do anything other than quietly give the green light and an acquiescent nod to Burma's 'Final Solution' to the 'problem' of Muslims living in their land.

[Comrade Grumpy]

13. That is brazen religious discrimination.

Buddhists attack, so Muslims must have fewer children?

[Enrique]

19. ethnic cleansing

with apparently no uproar about it.

[Posteritatis]

20. Cheered, in fact, by some of the denser among us. It's depressing. (nt)