This is what the KKK, English Defence League, or ISIS would look like in Burma, wrapped in the garb of Buddhist monks. Last Sunday they marched behind their leader Ashin Wirathu (who runs a “monastery” of 2,500 of these guys), called by Time magazine “The Face of Buddhist Terror” in 2013. But of course the face of Buddhist terror is now Aung San Suu Kyi who fronts for the Burmese generals in their genocide against Rohingya Muslims.

The rabidity of Wirathu’s hatred for Muslims is matched by supremacist, nationalist, & fascist forces worldwide–of the kind we see unleashed in Arakan state against the Rohingya & in Syria against the revolution. Dr. Maung Zarni, the Burmese Buddhist dissident in exile, called Wirathu a “genocidal demagogue” unleashed by the Burmese generals. As a Buddhist, he said “Stop calling him a “monk.”

There’s no reason to root around in the teachings of Buddhism, including in Theravāda, the current of Buddhism Wirathu follows, to find the basis of his nationalism–anymore than one can find the roots of ISIS in the Quran or of the KKK in the Bible. These are reactionary, counter-revolutionary political currents that use religion to justify their hatred. The hatred for Muslims that mobilizes these “monks” out of meditation to march down the street chanting hate mantras against the Rohingya is rooted in ethnic conflict in Burma where the Bamar (Burmese) are the dominant group. It is a hatred orchestrated, incited, & unleashed by the generals as Dr. Zarni said.

The way to stop these guys is not to mobilize vigilantes with brickbats to punch-a-fascist-in-the-face but to collaborate with Rohingya activists in building a worldwide solidarity movement to stand against & back down supremacist, nationalist, & fascist forces. They’re thugs & cowards at heart hiding behind state power. Building such a movement is not a pipe dream but a possibility.

Stop the genocide against the Rohingya people. Full solidarity with the Rohingya struggle for human, democratic, civil, & refugee rights.

(Photo from AFP)

So is it communal violence between Buddhists & Muslims in Arakan state as much of media claims or is it jihadi insurgents as Modi, Aung San Suu Kyi, Putin, & Assad supporters claim? Or has jihadism now infiltrated communal conflict & there is no longer a difference? What a pile of horse manure we conceive when we practice to deceive.

When Modi met with Suu Kyi yesterday they exchanged felicitations over defeating terrorism in Arakan state–by which they meant ARSA insurgents, a possibly imaginary ragtag group who they claim attacked security forces. Why the Burmese army & civilian death squads have to torch whole villages, rape, execute, & hunt tens of thousands of Rohingya civilians like animals to get those terrorists is not explained.

There is something particularly grotesque about this exchange between Modi & Suu Kyi. India is attempting to deport 40,000 Rohingya refugees back to Burma but Burma doesn’t want them back & used artillery from India to drive them out. There’s also something particularly monstrous about this exchange because of India’s persecution of Muslims, including the 2002 pogrom led by Modi in Gujarat, & the occupation of Kashmir where India employs the same human rights crimes Suu Kyi is using against the Rohingya people.

Stop the genocide of the Rohingya people. Stop the deportations. Full solidarity with the Rohingya struggle for human, democratic, civil, & refugee rights.

Photo is Modi meeting with Suu Kyi yesterday.

(Photo from India Today)

After six terrifying days of running with her grandmother, this tiny child is crossing the border into Bangladesh. Is it possible she could be one of the ISIS operatives who created a new theater of jihad in Arakan after they failed in Syria & she has now been sent to destabilize the Bangladeshi government, as Assad supporters claim? Or is she just a little girl running for her life?

Stop the genocide of the Rohingya people. Stop vilifying refugees. Full solidarity with their struggle for human, democratic, civil, & refugee rights.

(Photo via Shafiur Rahman on Twitter)

Irish pro-fascist socialists tried to prevent the White Helmets from receiving the 2017 Tipperary International Peace Award at a ceremony tomorrow in Ireland. They failed but they’ll be there making a nuisance of themselves. The fetish that Assadists have about rescue workers has been orchestrated to a fever pitch by Vanessa Beeley, an Assad propagandist, highly overpaid given the intellectual character of her work. Pound for pound, she has pumped out more diatribes against the White Helmets than she has against US military intervention which she never writes about.

But who you gonna believe? One of Assad’s flunkeys who’s embedded with the Syrian army & hangs with Assad officials? Or MSF/Doctors Without Borders who are on the front lines of so many humanitarian crises around the world & who’ve trained some of the White Helmet medical staff in Syria? Or maybe Amnesty International UK who praise at great length the rescue & medical work, not to mention the courage of White Helmets? Or possibly Nagieb Khaja, an award-winning Danish journalist who covered the wars in Afghanistan & Syria & spent ten days filming the White Helmets in action?

We extend our deepest respect to the White Helmets. A humanitarian award is an honor but it’s chump change compared to what they are due for endangering their own lives to save others.

Photo is a White Helmet.

Bangladeshi officials claim the Burmese junta has been laying landmines across a section of its border with Bangladesh for the past three days. They said the purpose was to prevent the return of Rohingya refugees. According to the UN, in the past eleven days up to 90,000 Rohingya have crossed the border with thousands more expected. No one’s going back willfully. It is more likely to blow up refugees as they cross into Bangladesh.

Is it possible for Russia to engage in humanitarian bombing of civilians in Syria whilst supporting the Burmese military junta in its genocide against the Rohingya? Only in the twisted politics of libertarian rednecks. Perhaps Russia’s role in Burma needs to be laid out to show the character of the Putin regime & expose the lies about its role in Syria–as if bombing civilians weren’t sufficiently damning.

Russia is one of the primary arms dealers to Burma, along with Israel, India, & China. They sell Burma arms, fighter jets, & advanced artillery systems to conduct genocide against the Rohingya & war against other ethnic groups at war with the regime. Last month, the Russian Foreign Ministry issued a statement strongly backing the military onslaught in Arakan state & blaming the violence on ARSA insurgents. There’s no playing dumb here. Russia is fully apprised of the scale of genocide in Arakan state & fully supports it.

Russia & China also ally to provide diplomatic protection at the UN Security Council where they used their veto powers in March & again last week to block statements of concern about the Rohingya. Statements of concern; not even condemnations of a genocide.

That’s what makes the Rohingya solidarity protest in Grozny, Chechnya, numbering in the tens of thousands, & protests at the Burmese embassy in Moscow, estimated at 800, so significant. It is estimated that Russia has nearly 16.5 million Muslims. Chechnya with a population of 1.3 million is 95-percent Muslim. The protest in Chechnya was called by its autocratic leader Ramzan Kadyrov who once called Chechens “foot soldiers in Putin’s army.” In one post on Instagram (later deleted), Kadyrov openly challenged the Kremlin saying “If Russia is supporting these devils [the Burmese junta] who are committing crimes, then I’m against Russia’s position.” We’re talking chickens coming home to roost.

When you understand Russia & China’s emerging new role in world politics–as a reactionary counterbalance to US & European power–then the new political alignments between Stalinists, libertarians, fascists begin to make sense. It isn’t that there should not be a counterbalance to US & European hegemony; there most certainly should be. It’s imperative. But that counterbalance is not Russian & Chinese militarism. It is the forces of solidarity assembling against war, occupation, genocide, in defense of Muslims under attack as in Syria, India, Kashmir, Burma, & in defense of all the oppressed.

Photo is protest in Grozny, Chechnya standing in solidarity with the Rohingya people.

(Photo from Reuters)

Trump has rescinded the DACA program which allowed undocumented immigrants who came here as kids to work & get a driver’s license. It’s not certain what will happen to them now. But since immigration has their names & addresses, it knows just where to pick them up for deportation.

For a long while immigration rights was one of the most active social movements in the US. Some of it was hijacked by the Democratic Party & paid less attention to movement building. It’s time again to hit the streets in massive numbers.

Malala Yousafzai twittered a condemnation of the Rohingya genocide & a rebuke to Aung San Suu Kyi. This is not the first time she has done so & in a forceful way. It might be a good time for the Dalai Lama to follow her lead & speak out in a straightforward way, not in platitudes about compassion. It’s not that he has never spoken out in the past but let’s just say he’s a man who pulls his punches.

We can dispense with that idiotic punch-a-fascist-in-the-face vs. movement building dispute by letting those who prefer fisticuffs to politics go their own way. Nothing better than to see the rear ends of the macho brigade hitting the dusty trail.

To add nuance to the view of many Assadists that the Rohingya genocide is all about those pipelines to China, Sputnik News–the voice of Putin in troll form–says George Soros & Rohingya extremists under the influence of Al Qaeda are behind it all. It’s not too late for people to reclaim their senses & leave Assadism behind. Or is it?