You know, as a Burmese Muslim- there, so you know from the start who’s talking- everyone keeps going on about Burmese extremists killing the Rohingya but all I can think is that when it’s the US killing my people back home no one really cares and coughs something up about a “war on terror” when all they want is the oil and what they are doing is not getting extremists there but killing innocent civilians and calling it “collateral damage”.

I’ve lived most of my life in Burma. And I know the Burmese, and they’re not all one entity. No people of any religion are all homogeneous with the exact same opinions and mindset. There was a riot once, and we- our family, and the other Muslims on our street- we were told that if anyone came to hurt us to not think ourselves defenceless, because our Buddhist neighbours would defend us. And they said- as many other have said- that Buddhist extremists that kill or hurt other people aren’t being true to their faith.

I also know why some of the Buddhists despise the Muslims so much. It’s because out oh-so-honourable ancestors came to Burma, made money, and abused the natives. And then when they’d done that, those now-rich people left, leaving their poor to fend for themselves. And then those poor were stripped of their land/money/assets because the natives were angry- and rightfully so. I get that they were angry. I would be too. I wish they didn’t put that anger on the people left, because they aren’t at fault, which is why this isn’t justified, but their anger is, yes.

And in the end, well, you all can go on about Buddhists killing Muslims in Burma and making the entire country seem savage and evil because of one group of people but just keep in mind that your tax dollars go toward funding a war that have taken and are taking the lives of more Muslims than the Buddhist extremists ever will.