Press Release: Birth Control of Rohingya Muslim Women as its latest Weapon of Ethnic Cleansing

Press Release 

The Fascist Burmese Regime Presents Birth Control of Rohingya Muslim Women as its latest Weapon of Ethnic Cleansing of Rakhine’s Muslims 

Not content with its complicity in the razing of Muslim villages as well as the rape, torture, murder and displacement of over 120,000 Rohingya as part of its systematic campaign of ethnic cleansing in its Western Rakhine state, the fascist Burmese regime has now presented birth control of Rohingya Muslim women as its latest pogrom policy against its Muslim minority. On Monday the 29th of April, a Burmese government-backed commission appointed to investigate the violence in Rakhine published its suggestions of how to address the ethnic problems in the state. The report proposals included instituting a population control policy in Rohingya communities to counter what the commission stated were fears amongst Rakhine’s Buddhists about the rapid growth of the Rohingya population. Such a proposal is an assault on Islam’s recommendation and high praise for Muslims to bear many children as according to the saying of the Prophet (saw) who said: تزوجوا الودود الولود فإني مكاثر بكم الأمم يوم القيامة “Marry an affectionate woman who gives birth to many children, for I will vie in glory with the Prophets because of your number on the Day of Judgment.” 

Successive Burmese governments have for centuries been trying to expel the Rohingya Muslims from the country by harsh social policies such as the 1982 Citizenship Law that denied Burmese citizenship to the Rohingya on ethnic grounds. In addition, the Rohingya Muslims face restrictions on marriage and the Burmese security force Nasaka demand heavy payments for Rohingya seeking to marry or preparing to give birth. This latest birth-control policy is therefore the latest attempt by the Burmese authorities to eradicate the country of its Rohingya Muslim minority through the social ethnic cleansing strategy of limiting the size of its future generation, while also continuing its forced displacement and massacring of Rohingya women and children. In the midst of the Burmese regime’s continued brutal violence and crippling social policies against the Rohingya Muslims, the European Union lifted its trade and economic sanctions on Burma this April. The US has also removed the majority of its sanctions against investment in the country and in recent days has moved to boost trade ties with Myanmar. As Western capitalist states scramble to reap the potential financial rewards in Burma, it is clear that they view the lives of the Rohingya Muslims as an insignificant matter that is worth nothing compared to securing their trade and investment interests in the country, demonstrating once again that their priority lies in protecting financial gain over human life and dignity. Furthermore, despite being rendered stateless and having been subjected to the cruelest acts of brutality and oppressive policies of ethnic cleansing, Rohingya Muslim women have been abandoned by the regimes of the Muslim world such as in Bangladesh, Malaysia, and Indonesia due to their corrosive nationalistic system and policies. Blinded by such nationalism, they have failed to defend the blood of the Myanmar Muslims and refused them a safe haven to which to flee where their needs can be met, often pushing those seeking refuge back to the sea to drown. They view them as people from a foreign nation who are a burden to their economy rather than as Islam obliges as brothers and sisters to whom they have a great responsibility to take care of. 

O Muslims! Hizb ut Tahrir calls on you to work with it to establish the Islamic Khilafah to give bayah to the eminent scholar Sheikh Ata Bin Khalil Abu Al-Rashtah, the Ameer of Hizb ut-Tahrir, as the Khaleefah for the Muslims, implementing the system of the Khilafah alone thus eradicating the artificial, Western-imposed borders between our countries as ordered by Allah (swt), thereby uniting our lands and with it our hearts. It will not only grant persecuted Muslims a safe place to live with dignity, providing them shelter, food, and rights as equal citizens of the state but will also unite our Muslim armies, mobilizing them to protect the blood of those Muslims living under occupation or oppression. This was exemplified at the time of the Crusades when the Khilafah, whose capital rested in Iraq sent one of it best generals, Salahuddin Ayubi who was Kurdish to liberate the land of Palestine from its Crusader occupiers – reflecting a portrayal of the Khilafah system that views the Muslim as a Muslim regardless of nationality, ethnicity, and race of Muslims, indeed the Khilafah will work to protect Muslims and end their bloodshed wherever they may be. The Khilafah is therefore a state whose re-establishment will cause nations to quiver at the mere thought of harming a single Muslim under their rule. 

Dr. Nazreen Nawaz 

Member of the Central Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir