RIYADH: Ghazanfar Ali Khan
The attack on Muslims in Sri Lanka, China and Myanmar by extremist Buddhists and religious fanatics backed by governments is a matter of “serious concern” for the Muslim world and international community, said Saleh S. Al-Wohaibi, chief of the Riyadh-based World Assembly of Muslim Youth (), here Wednesday.
He voiced deep concern over the systematic persecution of innocent Muslim minorities in these three countries.
In an interview with Arab News, Al-Wohaibi said: “The Muslim communities in China, Sri Lanka and Myanmar are being subjected to attacks as people around the world celebrate the holy month of Ramadan.”
He also expressed WAMY’s inability to help Muslims overseas or extending financial aid, saying that “the regulatory agencies have imposed curbs on WAMY’s overseas transfer of funds.”
He, however, said that WAMY has been closely working with some organizations in China and Sri Lanka. Muslim communities in Sri Lanka, which account for nine percent of the country’s 20 million population, are being subjected to attacks by unruly mobs of Buddhist extremists. A number of Muslims were killed and hundreds of people seriously injured by anti-Muslim militias in southern Sri Lankan coastal towns in the last few weeks.
In Myanmar, inter-religious violence has taken place throughout the country over the past two years. At least 300 Muslims have been killed and more than 150,000 displaced since the June 2012 religious unrest. Most of the victims have been members of Myanmar’s Muslim minority, estimated to be about five percent of the population.
In China, the authorities have imposed restrictions on Uighur Muslims during the month of Ramadan, banning government employees and schoolchildren from fasting, in what rights groups say has become an annual attempt at systematically erasing the region’s Islamic identity.
Photo: Saleh S. Al-Wohaibi, chief of the Riyadh-based World Assembly of Muslim Youth. (SPA)
Arab News