In their joint commentary in the Singapore Straits Times today, Jasminder Singh and Muhammad Haziq Jani said that the Myanmar government’s treatment of the Rohingya community may add a religious element to the situation.

“That the Myanmar military is made up largely of Buddhists and the Rohingya are Muslims has added a religious element to the situation.

 “As a result, what is happening in the Rakhine state in Myanmar has drawn the attention not just of human rights groups, but also extremists and militant jihadists from Southeast Asia,” they said, adding that online religious extremists in neighbouring Indonesia have also expressed aim to start a jihad for the Rohingyas.

Both Jasminder and Muhammad Haziq are analysts from the International Centre for Political Violence and Terrorism Research at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University.

They said that some supporters of the marginalised Rohingya have also expressed hope that the terrorist group Mujahideen would come to Myanmar to fight against the government.

They said that an Indonesian online jihadist community had even furnished its Facebook pages with various Rohingya-related propaganda posts and pictures, including a map which provides a possible travel route for potential Indonesian militants to enter Myanmar via Aceh.

Some Indonesian social media users have also expressed their willingness to become suicide bombers to defend the Rohingyas.

“The Rohingya crisis is becoming a rallying cry for jihad, and is spawning stronger reactions than those over the alleged blasphemy by the governor of Jakarta, Basuki Tjahaja Purnama or Ahok. Some social media users in Indonesia have even declared their readiness to be suicide bombers for the sake of the Rohingya,” they said.

Muslim Indonesians had previously held protests in Jakarta to voice anger against the state capital’s mayor Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, better known as Ahok,for allegedly insulting Islam.

Like Indonesians, Jasminder and Muhammad Haziq said that Malaysians are also upset over the Rohingya crisis, and that Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak's involvement in a public protest demanding justice for the community sends a strong message.

They said that this has made it possible for the Muslim radicals to exploit the scenario and use it as part of their militancy war.

“Malaysians too are reacting to the Rohingya crisis. Muhammad Wanndy, a Malaysian ISIS fighter linked to the Puchong grenade attack, called on his supporters to prove that they are not keyboard warriors by killing any Buddhist-Myanmar person they may find in Malaysia or Indonesia,” they said.

Just this week, a protest march took place in Kuala Lumpur, the Malaysian capital, involving top political leaders, including the Prime Minister, in support of the Rohingya. This would indicate that due to the perceived persecution of the Rohingya, the South-east Asian radicals have been able to exploit it as part of their struggle in the region,” they said.

Last week, Singapore’s state-owned media agency Channel News Asia reported Myanmar de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi as accusing the international community of stoking enmity between Buddhists and Muslims in Rakhine, where an army crackdown has killed almost 90 Rohingya with thousands fleeing the country for Bangladesh.

She reportedly appealed for the world to understand Myanmar’s ethnic complexities, adding that the military operation was only launched after attacks on the country’s security forces last October, which the Myanmar government has blamed on Muslims.

Najib, Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi with other Umno and PAS leaders including the Islamist Opposition party’s president Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang had gathered at the Titiwangsa Stadium last week to protest the mass killings and violence of the Rohingyas in Myanmar by its military.

Source: themalaymailonline.com