One Region in Myanmar Limits Births of Muslims

[struggle4progress]

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: May 25, 2013

YANGON, Myanmar — The local authorities in the western state of Rakhine in Myanmar have imposed a two-child limit for Muslim Rohingya families, a policy that does not apply to Buddhists in the area and comes amid accusations of ethnic cleansing during earlier sectarian violence.

Officials said Saturday that the new measure would be applied to two Rakhine townships that border Bangladesh and that have the highest Muslim populations in the state.

The unusual order makes Myanmar perhaps the only country in the world to impose such a restriction on a religious group, and it is likely to fuel further criticism that Muslims are being discriminated against in the Buddhist-majority country ...

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/26/world/asia/a-region-in-myanmar-limits-births-of-muslims.html?_r=0

[dimbear]

1. Myanmar doesn't choose to see its future religion determined by over-reproduction.

Seems fair. Even seems minatory.

[struggle4progress]

2. Since the country is 90% Buddhist and only about 4% Islamic,

yours will seem an ill-founded worry

Using recent historical rates, the current doubling time might be about 40 years

So if the Buddhist population simply maintained its present size and the Islamic population doubled every forty years, the Islamic population might be expected to overtake the Buddhist population about two hundred years from now

[dimbear]

7. I notice that they take this measure locally. Seems mild and limited.

DUers may wonder why Myanmar doesn't simply restrict everyone equally. There is a custom among Buddhists for many individuals to have no children at all. There aren't Buddhist commandments to marry or reproduce. Limiting Buddhist families to 2 children would gradually diminish that whole religion.

Of course there may be those who look across the border into Bangladesh. That tragic train wreck of a country doesn't excite much emulation.

[grantcart]

4. Unfortunately it is simply blind religious bigotry.

[LostOne4Ever]

3. Even the Buddhists

are not above religious intolerance it seems.

[Lordquinton]

5. American Buddism is very different from how it is in the rest of the world

Last edited Tue May 28, 2013, 04:22 PM - Edit history (1)

Many religions vary from country to country.

[Jim__]

6. Unfortunately, that may be one of the milder forms of persecution the Rohingya face in Myanmar.

From wikipedia:

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.[171] This policy has resulted in the expulsion of approximately half of the Rohingya population from Burma.[171] An estimated 90,000 people have been displaced in the recent sectarian violence between Rohingya Muslims and Buddhists in Burma's western Rakhine State.[97] As a result of this policy Rohingya people have been described as "among the world's least wanted"[172] and "one of the world's most persecuted minorities."[173][174] They have been denied Burmese citizenship since a 1982 citizenship law was enacted.[175] 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.[175] In 2012, a riot broke out between ethnic Rakhine Buddhists and Rohingya Muslims, which left 78 people dead, 87 injured, and thousands of homes destroyed. It also displaced more than 52,000 people.[176] 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.[177]