The Myanmar Rohingya Muslims have endured decades of suffering with all the persecutions they faced from extremist Buddhists and the Myanmar regime itself. These sufferings don’t go unnoticed as the world community, specifically the Muslims have raised the issue to such an extent that since fresh violence in the Maung Daw province erupted late 2016, mass demonstrations were organized all over the Muslim world.  In Malaysia, efforts towards this result in a string of responses. The latest response on the latest developments in Arakan is the “Food Flotilla for Myanmar” effort which is expected to depart Port Klang on February 3. This as an effort to alleviate the suffering of the Rohingya Muslims organized by the Malaysian Consultative Council of Islamic Organisations (Mapim), Kelab Putra 1Malaysia and a coalition of NGOs from the region. Malaysian ambassador to Myanmar, Mohd Haniff Abd Rahman, had announced that the Myanmar authorities have agreed verbally to allow the mission to take place, albeit with certain conditions, following a meeting between the Malaysian delegation and Myanmar representatives. The conditions state that the aid must go through Yangon and not via Sittwe as had been previously planned.

Comment:

This effort of sending aid to the Rohingya Muslims must be commended. But the conditions imposed on the effort can be a setback as the Myanmar regime is known to block aid from reaching the intended party.  This is not something unexpected. What do we really expect when we are dealing with a bloodthirsty regime that persecutes and kills Muslims relentlessly? Hence, the humanitarian assistance such as this may just fail to reach those in need, and instead goes into the hands of the killers!

Although the aid effort is to be commended, it is very important to understand that such humanitarian aid will never be able to solve the problem. We should remember that the true intention is not just to “lighten” the burden of the victims, but what is important is that we want to eliminate this crisis from its root cause. This is because as long as the root of the problem is not addressed, the crisis will never be eliminated.  And because of this, we will continue to witness the persecution, injustice and killings of Muslims in Arakan. We must understand that the problems facing Rohingya Muslims is a spitting image of the oppression faced by Muslims in Kashmir, Palestine and Bosnia at one time. In reality, they were persecuted and murdered by infidel regimes solely because their religion is Islam. Not only that, they were systematically tortured, their homes destroyed and they were forcefully driven out of their homeland. This is exactly the reality that happened in Arakan.

Humanitarian assistance is only a temporary solution that does not come close to solving the real problem.  Maybe today the Rohingya Muslims can find comfort in the food, clothing and medicine that we contribute, but tomorrow they may not even have the opportunity to live!  The aid that we are giving may ease the burden of the “victims”, but will never teach the “predatory” the lesson they deserve, when in fact we know that as long as there are predators, there will always be victims!  We feed and treat the injured deer, but as long as the tiger is alive and well, it will not pay heed and will continue be attack and kill the deer!

The Rohingya crisis can only be resolved in two ways:

First: Muslims must send troops to fight in Myanmar. The Rohingya problem have reached the stage where it is now a military issue. If the Muslim government does not do so, then the armies must move to save their brothers and sisters. Only with the elimination of the predators, then Allah swt willing, there will be no more victims, and the crisis will come to an end.

Second: If the armies don’t move as is the reality today, there must be da’wah efforts to re-establish the Khilafah State and this shall continue to be intensified until the shield of the Muslims, the Khilafah is established and the Myanmar regime is thrown into the dustbin of history.

RasululAllah ﷺ said, «إنما الإمام جنة يقاتل من ورائه ويتقى به فإن أمر بتقوى الله عز وجل وعدل كان له بذلك أجر وإن يأمر بغيره كان عليه منه» “Indeed the Imam (Khalifah) is like a shield with which people will fight and be protected from behind her. If he orders to fear Allah swt and do justice, then he is going to be rewarded for it. But, if he orders the contrary, then he will be punished for it” [Bukhari and Muslim].

Dr. Muhammad – Malaysia