Here's one you may have missed because -- be honest -- when you see "Bangladesh" in the headline don't you flip frantically to the funny pages? Anyhow, AP reports this afternoon that three (count `em -- three!) boatloads of Rohingya Muslims fleeing violence in Burma [Not Myanmar? Which is it today? Ed.] have been turned away by neighbouring Bangladesh. About 1500 refugees have been denied entry so far, and more are on the way.
Police official Janagir Alam told AP "They have been chased away. We are keeping our eyes open so that nobody can enter Bangladesh illegally."
And Bangladesh's Foreign Minister, Dipu Moni, said at a news conference in Dhaka that it was not in his country's interest to accept any refugees because the impoverished nation's meagre resources are already strained. And even when it's strained, you can't eat hemp, eh.
Am I the only one who finds it more than ironic that a Muslim country should refuse to accept Muslim refugees? What's wrong with those people, anyway?! Possibly their boats were not equipped with compasses, otherwise they would surely have made their way to "Christian" Canada, where they would have been welcomed with open arms, and immediately given houses, cars and extra cash for imported rice so they wouldn't feel homesick.
Footnote: Violence between Buddhists and minority Muslims in western Myanmar [Burma? Ed.] started on Friday. Since then at least 12 people have been killed and hundreds of homes burned. The cause of the violence? At least one report cites the alleged rape of a Buddhist girl by three Muslim men, which prompted a revenge attack by about 300 Buddhists on a busful of Muslims, killing 10 of the latter. Sounds more like Pakistan than Burma, but some say you can expect that kind of trouble wherever you have a sizeable Muslim community. Like Burma. Or India. Or Indonesia. Or... errr... hmmm...
Further reading: "How can we be silent in the face of Islamization of our country?"
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