Political - Muslim Blog

Israel Reopens Al-Aqsa to Diffuse Anger

AL-QUDS – After its first closure in decades, Israel reopened Al-Aqsa Mosque compound ahead of Friday prayer, October 31, imposing restrictions on male Muslim worshippers under 50.

“Israeli crimes are systematically increasing to target Jerusalem through killing, detentions, assaults, demolishing houses, and preventing worshipers from praying inside the compounds of the Al-Aqsa mosque,” the secretary-general of the Fatah movement in Jerusalem, Adnan Ghaith, told Ma’an

Israel reopened Al-Aqsa mosque on Friday, a day after the closure of the holy site for the first time since 1967.

Synagogues Choke Al-Aqsa Mosque

Israel To Divide Al-Aqsa Mosque

Al-Quds: The Olive City (Folder)

On Temple Mount – Q & A

Islamic Holy Sites Under Israeli Attacks

The Israeli closure of the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound followed incidents in which extremist Jewish rabbi Yehuda Glick was injured in a drive-by shooting in Al-Quds (Occupied Jerusalem) late Wednesday.

Yehuda Glick is an American-born Israeli and the chairman of the Temple Mount Heritage Fund, an extremist Jewish organization focused on “strengthening the relationship between Israel and the Temple Mount.”

Later on Thursday, Israeli police announced killing Moataz Hejazi, 32, a Palestinian who had spent 11 years in an Israeli jail and was released in 2012.

“They took him upstairs and then they shot him” Hejazi’s cousin told BBC.

Al-Aqsa is the Muslims’ first Qiblah [direction Muslims take during prayers] and it is the third holiest shrine after Al Ka`bah in Makkah and Prophet Muhammad’s Mosque in Madinah, Saudi Arabia.

Its significance has been reinforced by the Islamic incident of Al Isra’a and Al Mi’raj — the night journey from Makkah to Al-Quds and the ascent to the Heavens by Prophet Muhammad (Peace and Blessings be Upon Him).

Jordan has been supervising Al-Aqsa Mosque and other endowments in Al-Quds since 1948.

Rebuke

Thursday’s closure of Al-Aqsa mosque was widely condemned by Arab and Western leaders.

A spokesman for Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas considered the full day closure of Al-Aqsa as a “declaration of war”.

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Calling for reopening Al-Aqda compound for Muslim worshipper, the US State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said: “We’re extremely concerned by escalating tensions across Jerusalem and particularly surrounding the Haram al-Sharif, Temple Mount [Al-Aqsa Mosque].”

“It is actually critical that all sides exercise restraint, refrain from provocative actions and rhetoric and preserve the status quo on the Haram al-Sharif/Temple Mount [Al-Aqsa mosque] in word and in practice,” Psaki added.

Meanwhile, the Fatah movement in the occupied Jerusalem called for a day of range on Friday over the killing of Hijazi by the Israeli police, whose funeral was held amid heavy security presence on Thursday, October 30.

Deeming it an “act of terrorism”, Fatah leaders said that Hijazi was denied the right of defense, shot without a proof after being accused of killing the extremist Jewish rabbi Glick.

Israel occupied the holy city of Al-Quds, the West Bank and Golan Heights in the 1967 war and later annexed them in a move not recognized by the international community or UN resolutions.

Since then, Israel has adopted a series of oppressive measures to force the Palestinians out of Al-Quds, including systematic demolition of their homes and building settlements.

Sweden officially recognized the state of Palestine on Thursday, the first EU country in Western Europe to do so, reflecting growing international exasperation over the moribund Israeli-Palestinian peace process.

Al-Aqsa Closure is Declaration of War: Abbas

AL-QUDS – For the first time since 1967, according to several reports, Israeli authorities have closed on Thursday, October 30, Al Aqsa Mosque compound in Al-Quds (Occupied Jerusalem) following the shooting of a far-right Jewish rabbi.

“This dangerous Israeli escalation is a declaration of war on the Palestinian people and its sacred places and on the Arab and Islamic nation,” Abbas’ spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeina quoted him as saying by Agence France Presse (AFP).

“We hold the Israeli government responsible for this dangerous escalation in Jerusalem that has reached its peak through the closure of the Al-Aqsa mosque this morning,” he added.

Synagogues Choke Al-Aqsa Mosque

Israel To Divide Al-Aqsa Mosque

Al-Quds: The Olive City (Folder)

On Temple Mount – Q & A

Islamic Holy Sites Under Israeli Attacks

Announced by Israel’s public security minister early on Thursday, Muslim worshipers were prohibited from entering the mosque “until further notice”.

Following the announcement, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered “a significant hike” in the number of police forces patrolling Jerusalem.

“Israeli authorities shut the Al Aqsa Mosque entirely since dawn,” Sheikh Azzam al-Khatib, head of the Jordan-run Organization for Muslim Endowments and Al-Aqsa Affairs, told Anadolu Agency.

Al-Khatib said that the holy site has never been shut since 1967, when Israel occupied Al-Quds.

“We are holding contacts to reopen the mosque to Muslim worshippers,” al-Khatib said.

The Israeli closure of the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound came shortly after Jewish rabbi Yehuda Glick was seriously injured in a drive-by shooting in Jerusalem late Wednesday.

Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld confirmed to Ma’an only that a “known right-wing activist” had been shot.

The attack was reported after a conference focused on the reconstruction of a Jewish temple on top of the al-Aqsa mosque was concluded at the center, with top right-wing Jewish officials and activists in attendance.

He has been previously banned by Israeli authorities from entering the compound due to provocations while on the site.

Later on Thursday, Israeli police announced killing Moataz Hejazi, 32, a Palestinian who had spent 11 years in an Israeli jail and was released in 2012.

Condemnations

The Israeli decision to close Al-Aqsa, the world Muslims’ third holiest site, has been described irrational and dangerous through several words of condemnation.

“We lay responsibility for this decision on the Israeli government and police,” Al- Omar Al-Kiswani, director of Al-Aqsa Mosque, told Russia Today.

Kiswani added that the decision would lead to destabilization and a strengthening of tensions not only in Al-Quds, but in the entire region.

Earlier this month, Abbas warned his government would appeal to international law to deal with alleged Israeli “aggression” against Al-Aqsa.

Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas warned that his government will seek international “legal measures” to deal with Israeli “aggression” against Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa mosque.

Al-Aqsa is the Muslims’ first Qiblah [direction Muslims take during prayers] and it is the third holiest shrine after Al Ka`bah in Makkah and Prophet Muhammad’s Mosque in Madinah, Saudi Arabia.

Its significance has been reinforced by the incident of Al Isra’a and Al Mi’raj — the night journey from Makkah to Al-Quds and the ascent to the Heavens by Prophet Muhammad (Peace and Blessings be Upon Him.)

Jordan has been supervising Al-Aqsa Mosque and other endowments in Al-Quds since 1948.

Israel occupied the holy city of Al-Quds, the West Bank and Golan Heights in the 1967 war and later annexed them in a move not recognized by the international community or UN resolutions.

Since then, Israel has adopted a series of oppressive measures to force the Palestinians out of Al-Quds, including systematic demolition of their homes and building settlements.

Indonesia Swears in President Jokowi

[media-credit id=1 align=”alignnone” width=”460″][/media-credit]JAKARTA – Amid celebratory atmospheres in the world’s most populous Muslim state, Indonesia’s Joko Widodo was sworn in on Monday, October 20, as president, with high hopes among supporters to bring national reconciliation and change.

“Unity and working hand in hand are prerequisites for us to be a great nation. We will never become a great nation if we are stuck with division,” Widodo, known as Jokowi, told Indonesians after reading the oath of office, the BBC reported.

“This is a historic moment for us all to move together, to work and work,” he said.

The former Jakarta governor leader, widely known as Jokowi, won a narrow victory over an ex-general in July’s election, making him a new star for Indonesians.

His appointment marks a departure from military and political elite who have controlled presidential seat for decades.

Jokowi, the Democratic-Party of Struggle’s candidate, has sowed hopes among voters through his promises of a “new, clean leadership that consolidates democracy”.

“This is the time for us to unite our hearts and hands, this is the time for us … to reach and realize an Indonesia that has political sovereignty, economic independence and cultural character,” Jokowi said in his inaugural speech to a packed parliament.

The inauguration ceremony was attended by the US secretary of state, John Kerry, and various Asian leaders including the prime ministers of neighboring Malaysia and Singapore, the Sultan of Brunei and Australia’s prime minister.

“What we see in the region is a pretty steady calling for Indonesia to remain active in foreign affairs,” said a US official travelling with Kerry.

Outside the Parliament building, thousands gathered on the streets of the capital, Jakarta, waving flags and banners to celebrate the unprecedented ascent of the small-town businessman to leader of the southern-Asian country.

Indonesia is the most populous Muslim state where Muslims make up 80% percent of the 220 million population.

Hard Mission

Making an unexpected rise, Jokowi was seen as facing resistance from the establishment to his transparent, can-do approach to governance.

“He has climbed up to the top of the pyramid but he’s still weak within the powerful political class,” Achmad Sukarsono, a political analyst at the Habibie Centre thinktank, told The Guardian.

Yet, Jokowi’s intension to take the challenge was apparent from his first presidential speech.

“I would like to call all fellow Indonesians to remember one thing stated by Sukarno: ‘In order to build Indonesia into a strong, nation we need the spirit of courage to face the waves.”

“As captain of the ship I would like to call everyone to come aboard the ship of Indonesia and to say to them we will sail and we will face all storms and waves based on our strengths.”

The inauguration, the first time in Indonesian history that one democratically elected president has handed over to another, has inspired great hope in the country of 240 million people.

“We used to have our transfers of power marked by bloodshed,” said an elderly Indonesian man to me today.

“Today – we have this: a huge party.”

Nigeria’s Ex-Leader Joins Presidential Race

ABUJA – Remembered as a fighter against corruption during his short presidential term, Nigeria’s former military ruler Muhammadu Buhari has officially joined the presidential race, rapping the incumbent president’s failure to curb insurgency and crime gangs.

“Nearly all are in fear of their lives … due to insurgency by the godless movement called Boko Haram, by armed robbers on the highways, by kidnappers who have put whole communities to flight,” Buhari said in his bid in the capital Abuja for the All Progressives Congress (APC) ticket, Reuters reported on Thursday, October 16.

“I … present myself before you … and before God seeking to be elected as APC’s Presidential candidate,” said Buhari, a Muslim northerner.

Addressing thousands of cheering supporters in a white traditional robe, dark glasses and a green skullcap, Buhari blasted the government of incumbent president Goodluck Jonathan for failing to stamp out insecurity.

Thousands have died in Boko Haram’s increasingly bloody campaign to carve an Islamist state out of the religiously-mixed country, Africa’s biggest economic power and oil producer.

During his short term from 1983-85, Buhari won a rare reputation as a fighter against corruption.

Most Nigerians agree he did not use the presidency to enrich himself and his backers. His iron-fisted administration jailed several politicians on graft charges.

He had been expected to run and face ex-vice president Atiku Abubakar in the primaries on December 2.

Abubakar declared his intention to run late last month.

Jonathan, a Christian southerner, has yet to officially declare his intention to run, but is widely assumed to be going for another term.

Abuja is festooned in smiling campaign posters touting his achievements and calling for “continuity”.

The incumbent president assumed intension to run has been welcomed by elites from his powerbase in the largely Christian south.

Yet, it is expected to upset many in the mostly Muslim north, who argue he tore up an unwritten rule that power rotates between north and south every two terms, when he ran in 2011.

Jonathan took over from northern leader Umaru Yar’Adua, when he died in 2009 during his first term.

At the start of this year the opposition coalition was looking stronger than any has since the end of military rule in 1999, after a wave of defections from the ruling party, including by Abubakar and several lawmakers.

Division

While Jonathan faces no opposition within the ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP), an expected rivalry between two Muslim runners would lead them look weaker and more divided.

The PDP issued a statement “welcoming” Buhari, but strongly disputing his criticisms of the government, defending its record on agriculture and power generation but not mentioning Boko Haram.

“The APC is hell-bent on using every opportunity at its disposal to discredit the PDP in its quest for political control,” PDP spokesman Olisa Metuh said.

Scenarios for any failure of both Muslim bids would spark Muslims’ anger in at the perception that power has become concentrated power in the oil-rich south of Africa’s leading energy producer.

More than 800 people were killed and 65,000 displaced in three days of violence in the north after Jonathan’s 2011 win.

“Nigeria in my experience has never been so divided, so polarized by an unthinking government hell-bent on ruling and stealing forever whatever befalls the country,” Buhari said.

Nigeria, one of the world’s most religiously committed nations, is divided between a Muslim north and a Christian south.

Muslims and Christians, who constitute 55 and 40 percent of Nigeria’s 140 million population respectively, have lived in peace for the most part.

But ethnic and religious tensions have bubbled for years, fuelled by decades of resentment between indigenous groups, mostly Christian or animist, who are vying for control of fertile farmlands with migrants and settlers from the Hausa-speaking Muslim north.

Former MP Attacks Swedish Muslim Minister

CAIRO – Sweden’s new Housing Minister Mehmet Kaplan has come under attack from a former Swedish MP after he blamed widespread Islamophobia as the main reason that young Muslims were joining militant groups in Iraq and Syria.

“It’s unforgivably naive to think that giving money to these kinds of [Muslim] organizations and mosques will work against segregation and will reach out to these youths who are being radicalized,” Social Democrat politician Nalin Pekgul wrote in her piece in the Dagens Industri newspaper, the Local.se reported.

“It’s exactly this kind of naivety that people like Mehmet Kaplan are counting on, and it’s time for everyone who wants to oppose the radicalization to realize the damage Mehmet Kaplan and others like him can accomplish.”

The attack on Kaplan, who is Sweden’s new Housing Minister, started following his statements to the Turkish media in which he blamed Islamophobia as a main reason driving young Muslims to the so-called Islamic State (formerly known as Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL)).

The minister argued that the government should give more money to Europe’s mosques in an effort to tackle the recruitment.

Going on in her blatant attack, the Social Democrat politician accused Kaplan of having a “hidden agenda” without further explaination or proof on her claims.

“For fear of being labeled as an Islamophobe, no one dares question Mehmet Kaplan and his hidden agenda,” added Pekgul.

She added that with Kaplan in government, Sweden’s Green Party heads Gustav Fridolin and Åsa Romson “have sent a clear signal to Sweden’s Muslims that the Islamists now have the support of the Swedish establishment”.

Kaplan, a 43-year-old born in Turkey, is a former spokesperson for the Muslim Council of Sweden.

He has been a member of the Green Party since 2003.

Kaplan was on board Turkish urkish Mavi Marmara which sought to break Israel’s naval blockade of the besieged Gaza Strip in 2010.

Turkish-born Kaplan is not the only Muslim minister in the Swedish recently appointed government of Stefan Löfven.

Earlier this month, Aida Hadzialic was named as the new Upper Secondary School and Adult Education Initiative in Sweden.

Muslims make up between 450,000 and 500,000 of Sweden’s nine million people, according to the US State Department report in 2011.

Sweden has opened its doors to immigrants for decades.

In 2012, some 43,900 asylum seekers arrived, a nearly 50 percent jump from 2011 and the second highest on record. Nearly half were from Syria, Afghanistan and Somalia and will get at least temporary residency. There was a total of 103,000 new immigrants.

Some 15 percent of Sweden’s population is foreign born, the highest in the Nordic region.

Eyes on Muslim Voters for Maharashtra Polls

MUMBAI – In the first test to the recently elected Narendra Modi’s government, all eyes of Hindu parties are fixed on Muslim voters in the western Indian state of Maharashtra, who go to polls on Wednesday, October 15, to pick a new legislative assembly.

“After many years we are going to see a multi-cornered elections. I don’t think margin is going to be too large,” Muslim voter from Nagpur Irfan Khan told OnIslam.net.

“But Muslims have to vote in such a way that their vote should not be divided. We had seen earlier that Muslim candidates lost from Muslim majority areas just because of too many Muslim candidates in fray.”

India Polls: Game Changer For Muslims?

Voters went from early morning on Wednesday in a single phase legislative assembly election to select the 288 members of the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly in India.

For the first time all eyes are on Muslim votes in the state after Bharatiya Janata Party’s(BJP) historic win in the general elections (Lok Sabha) in May this year.

Even hard core Hindu parties are making every efforts to win over Muslim votes and to an extent have succeeded.

The Maharashtra Muslim Sangathan, a group of NGOs of Marathi-speaking Muslims has already extended its support to the BJP.

“We have seen the Congress-NCP alliance, who have failed to fulfil our promises. Now we have other options,” said Nizam Qazi, convenor of the Sangathan.

Similarly, Maharashtra Muslim Sangathan, also an association of Marathi-speaking people, has now sided with Shiv Sena.

The two Hindu hard core parties have succeeded in dividing Muslims in Maharashtra. Now Marathi-speaking Muslims are keeping a distance from Urdu-speaking Muslims of the state.

With a multi-cornered contest in the state, Muslims- who form 10.6 percent of the total electorate in the state will play an important role in this elections.

The twin splits of the alliance of the Congress- Nationalist Congress Party(NCP) and the BJP-Shiv Sena has set the stage open for an interesting contest.

Muslim Votes

All the parties have realized the fact that every vote is going to count in these elections.

“It is totally a different contest this time. Even hard core Hindu parties like Shiv Sena and BJP are looking for Muslim votes,” Andalib Akhtar of Thane told OnIslam.net.

He added, “After a split in major alliances, the margin is not going to be too large. Each vote is going to count and that is why they are making effort to woo Muslims also.”

The Congress-NCP alliance which ruled the state for 15 years has failed to make any impression on the Muslim community.

“They had promised many things for us, but they never kept their promises,” Najeeb Ullah told OnIslam.net.

“I am not going to vote for these so-called secular parties,” he added.

Five major political parties-the Congress, the NCP, the BJP, Shiv Sena and the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) have filed 1,356 candidates for the 288 assembly seats.

The number of Muslim candidates contesting the elections this time has gone up.

Congress has fielded highest number of 19 Muslim candidates this year in comparison to 12 candidates in the last election in 2009.

NCP had given tickets to 16 candidates. In the last elections, the party contested 113 seats and fielded just four Muslims.

BJP has this time chosen two Muslim faces and Shiv Sena just one. In the last elections, BJP had given ticket to just one candidate. Raj Thackeray’s MNS has given tickets to seven Muslims.

In a Muslim dominated Malegaon, 17 Muslim candidates are in fray from different political parties. Raju More from the Bahujan Samaj Party(BSP) is the only non-Muslim candidate.

“I am not much concerned about the religion of the candidates, but we want that those chosen should work for all sections of the society. We don’t want communal riots and tension between different communities,” said Mufti Raqqab, a Muslim scholar based in Mumbai.

In order to make inroads in Maharashtra, Hyderabad based Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM) has also fielded 24 candidates in Muslim dominated areas.

But it is not going to be easy for MIM as there are many Muslim candidates contesting in each seat. Division of Muslim votes would really make the task difficult for Muslim candidates.

“There are many seats where Muslims can decided the fate of candidates,” said Muzzafar Hussain, a political analyst based in Mumbai.

“But the division of votes always makes it easy for non-Muslim candidates to win.”

Malala, a Hero or a Villain?

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KARACHI – Malala Yusufzai, the youngest Nobel Prize winner, has turned out to be a hero and a villain simultaneously in her home country, praised by secular media and politicians and criticized by people who see her as a tool used by the west.

“You have raised our heads with pride,” President Mamnoon Hussein Hussein said in a statement as soon as the Norwegian Nobel Committee announced the names of Malala, and Indian child rights campaigner Kailash Satyarthi as winners of 2014 Noble Prize.

Malala, who was one of the favorites for Noble Prize last year, is the second ever Pakistani who have received this prize. Dr Abdul Salam was the first Pakistani awarded with Noble Prize in 1979 in Physics.

Pakistan’s Malala Shares Nobel Peace Prize

President Hussein came at the top of those who praised Malala’s Nobel Award, joining his country’s secular media, politicians, human rights activists, and artists who showered praise on the young activist.

Yet, many Pakistanis on the streets dubbed her as a tool being used by the West to malign Islam and Pakistan.

Hussein termed the Nobel Prize for Malala a matter of pride for Pakistan. “The entire nation is jubilant over this news,” Hussein added.

Former President and co-chairman of main opposition Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), Asiz Ali Zardari dubbed Malala as pride of Pakistan.

“This is a wonderful news for Pakistanis. You really deserved that Malala,” he said adding that Noble Prize for Malala was victory of her cause.

Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, the PPP chairman tweeted “Malala, the daughter of Pakistan, and the ambassador of peace, we are proud of you.”

“Malala, a national hero, long live Pakistan.”

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Malala, now 17, rose to fame in 2009 for her anti-Taliban blog billed as “Gul Makai (cornflower) for the BBC against Taliban when she was merely 11. However, many believe that her diaries were written by her father, Ziauddin an owner and principal of the school where Malala would study, in collaboration with the then BBC Urdu Service Bureau Chief.

Malal’s autobiography “I am Malala” earned fame worldwide, however was struck in controversy in Malala’s homeland with many dubbing her as a tool being exploited by the West to malign Islam and Pakistan under the guise of Taliban, is written by British Christina Lamb.

Quiet Streets

Film director, Sharmeen Obaid Chenoy, who won the first Oscar award for Pakistan in 2012, said that recognition of Malal’s struggle for girl’s education rights, would be an inspiration for Pakistani girls.

“The entire nation should celebrate this,” Sharmeen tweeted.

However, Contrary to Sharmeen’s expectations and hype on electronic and social media, things are totally different in her hometown Swat, where Malala is largely seen as a “tool” being used by the West to “malign Islam and Pakistan”.

“What she has done for education and peace in Swat,” asked Shahzad Alam, a resident of Mingora, the capital of the scenic valley-once the stronghold of Taliban, told OnIslam.net.

“We don’t care what she has got. What we know is that she has accumulated millions of dollars for her education fund (Malala education fund), but nothing has been spent for education in Swat,” he claimed referring to an education fund set up by Malala for promotion of education in Pakistan, especially in her hometown Swat.

Shahzad said that only 100 students, who too had not been selected on merit, were given admission to Malala’s father’s school in Mingora in last two years.

These children are being given Rs 3000 (30 dollars) per month out of millions of dollars she had accumulated, he said.

He charged that Malala education fund was being utilized only for Khushal School owned by her father.

“She had announced to set up a girls college in Swat last year but not even a single brick has been placed for that,” he added.

A local journalist wishing not to be named told OnIslam.net that he had to work hard to get comments from common people in favor of Malala for his TV channel.

“I was asked by my channel management to get comments in her favor, but believe me, I had to personally request my friends to give some favorable comments to save my job,” the journalist said in a lighter vein.

Thousands of students protested last year when the district administration named a college in Saido Sharif town of Swat after Malala. The administration had to reverse its decision amid angry protests.

“She never voiced for education,” Saleem Ather, another Swati charged. “She would study in her father’s school like a queen. She never wrote the diaries (condemning Taliban) , which are attributed to her”.

“It was his father who was anti-Taliban, and the BBC that needed some stuff against them (Taliban),” he claimed adding “I know her father for long time. He simply used Malala who was just 11 at that time,” he said.

“It was Taliban’s stupidity that rose her to fame otherwise she was doing nothing except going to school like a normal child following the ouster of Taliban from Swat,” he said.

Burma Tortures Rohingya Muslims

RAKHINE – A human rights group has warned that a growing number of Rohingya Muslims have been facing state-sponsored torture and persecution over alleged affiliation to a vague militant organization.

The arrests were “arbitrary” and “clearly a reaction to the al-Qaeda announcement earlier in September,” Chris Lewa, the Arakan Project’s founder, told the Anadolu Agency (AA).

Worrying news was first revealed by the Arakan Project, a Thailand-based group that documents abuses against the Rohingya, about a Rohingya Muslim who has been tortured to death in Burma’s far north-west, near the border with Bangladesh.

Rohingya Muslims…An Open Wound

Satellite Exposes Rohingya Misery

Segregated Rohingya Muslims

Moreover, the rights group accused the authorities of rounding up at least 58 men in the last two weeks from several villages in the north of Rakhine state.

The wife of the dead man told the group she was forced to sign a statement that her husband died of natural causes.

Authorities claimed that the recently arrested Muslim men were accused of having ties to a group called the Rohingya Solidarity Organization, or RSO.

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The RSO is believed to have been formed in the 1990s after the Myanmar army forced hundreds of thousands of Rohingya accused of being in the country illegally to flee to Bangladesh.

Despite little being known about the organization’s movements today, sporadic attacks on Burma’s border with Bangladesh are often blamed on the RSO.

Earlier this year Khin Maung Myint, head of foreign relations for the pro-Rohingya National Democratic Party for Development, claimed “the RSO hadn’t existed for 20 years.”

Furthermore, he accused the government of using RSO as a smokescreen to its Muslim persecution operations.

Described by the UN as one of the world’s most persecuted minorities, Rohingya Muslims are facing a catalogue of discrimination in their homeland.

They have been denied citizenship rights since an amendment to the citizenship laws in 1982 and are treated as illegal immigrants in their own home.

The Burmese government as well as the Buddhist majority refuse to recognize the term “Rohingya”, referring to them as “Bengalis”.

Rights groups have accused the Burmese security forces of killing, raping and arresting Rohingyas following the sectarian violence last year.

Over the last two years, Buddhists mob attacks have left hundreds of Rohingya Muslims killed and evacuated more than 140,000 from their homes.

The violence has displaced nearly 29,000 people, more than 97 percent of whom are Rohingya Muslims, according to the United Nations.

Many now live in camps, adding to 75,000 mostly Rohingya displaced in June 2012, after a previous explosion of sectarian violence.