As in other communities, some Muslim leaders are backing the regime, while many more fight against it, but some find it difficult to trust a democracy movement that has disappointed them before.
By FRONTIER
According to the Quran, mythical birds known as the Ababil were sent by Allah to protect the holy city of Mecca, dropping stones on an invading army from above. Today, the modern Ababil flying over the skies of Myanmar take the form of drones, attacking the enemy not with stones, but with bombs.
“We believe that armed revolution is one way to end the dictatorship,” said Ko Min Ko Ko, spokesperson for the Myanmar Muslim Revolutionary Force. “That’s why we formed the Power of Ababil drone team, which has served its duty by cooperating with resistance groups on the ground under the supervision of our allied armed organisations,” he said.
The drone unit was formed in April last year by two members of the MMRF central committee, which is based abroad, but has since expanded to include operators from other religions. They received training from Shar Htoo Waw, a drone unit in the People’s Defence Forces, under the authority of the National Unity Government, a parallel administration appointed by elected lawmakers deposed in the February 2021 coup.
The drone team is known by its slogan “the Ababil are flying, the enemies are falling”, and made its first big splash on April 4, when it joined other drone units in launching a bold and rare attack on the military-fortified capital of Nay Pyi Taw.
Min Ko Ko said Muslims are involved in the uprising against military rule in all sectors, including financial boycotts, peaceful protests, international diplomacy, fundraising and more. But while many young Muslims are on the frontlines of the fight for democracy, some are wary of trusting a movement that has let them down in the past.
Meanwhile, some older religious leaders have been accused of serving as props for the regime to launder its reputation of intolerance towards religious minorities.
Lining up behind the regime
About a week after the Power of Ababil and other drone teams attacked Nay Pyi Taw, Muslim religious leaders gathered with their counterparts from other religions at the capital to receive land allocated to them by junta chief Senior General Min Aung Hlaing.
In an apparent effort to portray himself as tolerant of Myanmar’s religious diversity, he granted two acres of land each to representatives of Buddhism, Christianity, Shia Islam, Sunni Islam and Hinduism. In a speech at the event, Min Aung Hlaing said even though there are fewer Christians, Muslims and Hindus living there, he wants Nay Pyi Taw to be a place that represents all religions.
It’s a claim that’s hard to swallow. As commander-in-chief, Min Aung Hlaing oversaw the 2017 campaign of mass murder and rape against the Rohingya Muslim population in northern Rakhine State that expelled hundreds of thousands to Bangladesh. Since seizing power and sparking a civil war, his forces have been accused of targeting Christians, and destroying hundreds of churches and other religious sites in Kayah and Chin states.
But perhaps even more puzzling, is why Muslim leaders would gather to meet with Min Aung Hlaing despite this brutal treatment. They’re far from alone – Cardinal Charles Maung Bo sparked outrage when he was seen cutting cake with Min Aung Hlaing on Christmas in 2021, a day after over 30 civilians had been rounded up and slaughtered in Kayah. Buddhist monks have also been slammed for their cooperation with the regime.
A source close to the All-Myanmar Shia Muslim Organization told Frontier that the group received two acres of land in Pyinmana Township, and saw it as a rare opportunity to build a new mosque, which is typically restricted in Myanmar.
“In the notification letter, it says that the structure to be constructed on the land must be submitted to the Nay Pyi Taw Municipal Development Committee for approval in accordance with the specified terms and conditions,” he said, adding he didn’t yet know what those terms are.
As with other religious groups, like the Young Men’s Buddhist Association, the military also has pliant Muslim organisations it can trot out to make statements of support in state media. When the Three Brotherhood Alliance of ethnic armed groups launched a stunning offensive in late October, seizing huge swathes of territory from the military in northern Shan State, the All-Myanmar Islamic Religious Organization joined other groups in condemning the “terrorist organisations” for destroying “peace and stability”.
AMIRO is a coalition of Myanmar’s largest five Islamic organisations – Jamiat Ulama-al Islam, Islamic Religious Affairs Council, All Myanmar Mawlawi Federation, Myanmar Muslim Youth Organization and Myanmar Muslim Nation Affairs Organization.
In November 2022, Min Aung Hlaing granted the title of Thiri Pyanchi to two patrons of the AMIRO, Hajj U Nyunt Maung Shein and Hajj U Hla Win, recognising their “outstanding work for the good of the Union of Myanmar”.
Nyunt Maung Shein is a well-known Muslim leader who had previously been outspoken – he opposed the controversial military-backed Myitsone Dam and condemned the assassination of Muslim lawyer U Ko Ni, who had been working with the National League for Democracy government to reform the military-drafted constitution.
The same title was also granted last year to ultranationalist Buddhist monk U Wirathu, best known for whipping up anti-Muslim sentiment.
But from monitoring announcements posted to their social media pages, it becomes clear that most of AMIRO’s working committees are chaired by two prominent businessmen – U Kyaw Naing Oo of the Naing Holding Group and his usual deputy U Tin Maung Swe, of the Lion King Group. Many other well-known businessmen are also members of the organisation.
Pro-democracy Muslim groups claim AMIRO and other pro-military Muslim groups are run by cronies who are pursuing their own business interests with no regard for popular opinion.
“They are acting only for their own benefit while Muslims are dying,” said U Tun Kyi, a senior member of the pro-resistance Spring Revolution Myanmar Muslim Network. “Many mosques have been destroyed, the lives and homes of Muslims were destroyed, but they never speak out about them.”
He pledged to hold these “slaves of the military” accountable after the regime is overthrown.
“We have kept all of their statements as evidence to take action against them once the time for transitional justice comes. They are working against Islamic law, neglecting the interests of Muslim people and collaborating with criminals,” he said.
Tun Kyi highlighted the case of a 27-year-old Muslim father of two named Amanullah, who was forcibly recruited by the military in late March and died days later.
“Amanullah was murdered by the junta during the first round of conscription and they didn’t even issue a statement about him,” he claimed.
AMIRO did not respond to requests for comment.
Most ordinary Muslims Frontier spoke to also agreed that these organisations do not represent their feelings. A Muslim resident of Dawbon Township in Yangon told Frontier that a man, presumed to be a Buddhist nationalist, injured some worshippers with a sword near Nwe Aye mosque in March. He accused Muslim religious leaders of covering up the incident, rather than sounding the alarm.
“I assume they were ordered not to spread this news,” he said. “In our community, there is a joke about our Muslim religious groups. It’s that these groups exist just to track the moon, and have no other use,” he said.
Islam follows a lunar calendar, with religious leaders typically announcing events based on the changing phases of the moon.
The fight from within
Meanwhile, on the other side of the conflict, most Muslim resistance fighters told Frontier they experience limited discrimination from their comrades.
A member of a PDF based in Magway Region told Frontier that during Ramadan, some of his comrades were frustrated with him for fasting.
“The leaders and other members don’t want me to do it in such high heat. Because they are from a different religion, they don’t realise how important it is for me,” he said.
“I have to pray five times a day,” he said, complaining that other members of his group judge him for this. “They ask why I’m giving so much priority to my religion. Even though I try to make sure my beliefs don’t impact our missions, they still think I’m doing unnecessary things.”
A member of the 1008 Southern Shan Revolution Youth-Eagle Force said rather than active discrimination, Muslims in the resistance mostly suffer from a pervasive sense that Buddhism is the default religion of Myanmar.
“After the official recognition of Buddhism as the state religion by Prime Minister U Nu, the importance of other religions faded away,” said Ko Linn Yone Phyu, who isn’t Muslim but has five Muslim comrades in his group.
U Nu’s controversial decision in 1961 was reversed after General Ne Win’s coup the following year, but the military-drafted 2008 Constitution recognises the “special position” of Buddhism and successive regimes in Myanmar have favoured the religion.
Linn Yone Phyu said the rights of other minorities became watered down over decades of authoritarian rule, but the anti-junta resistance is now fighting to “eliminate bigotry” along with goals like ending dictatorship and establishing federal democracy.
But while the youth-led, mostly secular pro-democracy movement may be comparatively accepting of other religions and ethnicities, Muslims say they still face routine discrimination from the public in daily life.
A woman who identifies as Rakhine Muslim fled Rakhine’s Buthidaung Township in January to escape clashes between the Myanmar military and the Arakan Army but found a chilly reception in Yangon.
While she’s one of the few Muslims from Buthidaung with citizenship and documents that allow her to travel across state lines, many landlords still refused to rent to her.
“We contact owners who advertise that their apartment is for rent. Mostly, once they find out we are Muslims, they change their mind, and give some reason not to rent to us,” she said.
“It was really hard to find an apartment here,” she said, adding they eventually found a Muslim landlord who would accept them.
This societal discrimination has left many Muslim activists wary that they could be left behind after the revolution succeeds, or if the pro-democracy movement strikes a deal with the military.
While those at the vanguard of the armed resistance may be particularly open-minded, shifts in public opinion on Muslims and the Rohingya in particular have been greatly exaggerated, and political leaders are more beholden to the public.
Muslims have long faced both formal and informal restrictions on participating in politics, from pro-military and pro-democracy circles.
Rohingya have been disenfranchised and rendered stateless en masse. Many in the pro-democracy movement, including civilian leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, defended the military’s brutal 2017 crackdown on the group. Her party, the NLD, drew criticism in 2015 for failing to nominate a single Muslim candidate during the election that swept it into power after decades of military rule.
In 2020, two Muslim candidates were nominated and won seats in parliament for the NLD, and after the coup, a Rohingya Muslim was appointed deputy human rights minister in the NUG. But the resistance’s dithering on the controversial 1982 Citizenship Law, which has been used to deny citizenship to most Rohingya and other Muslims, has raised questions about how genuinely the resistance is committed to reform.
Both the NUG and its advisory body, the National Unity Consultative Council, have promised to abolish or reform the law, but haven’t done so yet.
“We call it the Nazi law,” said a coordinating committee member of the Muslims of Myanmar Multi-Ethnic Consultative Committee, who said mixed signals from resistance leaders on the 1982 Citizenship Law has made many Muslims suspicious.
“There is a question for us as to whether we put our future in the hands of these people. So although we are involved in the revolution, we have many doubts over whether this revolution will end the system that oppresses minority groups,” he said.
Tun Kyi said he’s heard from sources in the NUG that it now intends to amend rather than abolish the law.
“This is not a law that can be amended. Ne Win enacted it specifically to oppress Muslims,” he said. “The human rights ministry said it will assess the advantages and disadvantages of this law, but there is no advantage; it is imposed to treat Muslims as enemies that must bow down.”
The NUG’s human rights ministry did not respond to requests for comment, but U Sithu Maung, one of the two NLD Muslims elected to parliament in 2020, agreed the law “must be completely abolished”.
Sithu Maung is now the spokesperson for the Committee Representing Pyidaungsu Hluttaw, a group of MPs that acts as the legislative branch of the resistance.
“When analysing a law, if more than 50 percent of the entire law needs to be amended, it is better to write a new one than to amend it,” he told Frontier, but did not answer questions about why the law hasn’t officially been declared abolished yet.
Sithu Maung said the 1982 Citizenship Law is clearly inconsistent with the values of minority rights and non-discrimination outlined in the Federal Democracy Charter, drafted by resistance bodies as a blueprint for implementing federal democracy. But vague references to human rights in Myanmar law have done little to protect Muslims and other disenfranchised minority groups in the past.
“We don’t want anything more than anyone else, or less than anyone else,” said Tun Kyi. “We just want full citizenship rights that are equal with others’.”
