Islam in Myanmar

Demographics

Burmese Muslim groups

• Panthay, Chinese Muslims in Burma migrated from Yunnan Province of China.
• Burmese Malays in Tanintharyi. Burmese people of Malay ancestry are locally called Pashu regardless of religion.
• Bamar Muslims are a community descended from inter-ethnic marriages between Indian Muslim males and Burmese females. They are the largest Muslim group in Myanmar and form more than half of the total Muslim population in the country. Culturally, Bamar Muslims are the same as the Bamar Buddhists including their lifestyle, clothing and language.
• Kamein, a government-recognized ethnic minority native to Rakhine state and one of the seven groups of the Rakhine nation.
• Rohingyas, a minority Muslim ethnic group in northern Rakhine State, Myanmar. The Rohingya population is mostly concentrated in five northern townships of Rakhine State: Maungdaw, Buthidaung, Rathedaung, Akyab, Sandway, Tongo, Shokepro, Rashong Island and Kyauktaw.

  Pathi and Panthays

Rohingya people

Islam by state

State	Population	Islam	% of State Population
Ayeyawady History The first Muslims in Myanmar date to early Arab Muslim merchants in the Bagan period. Early settlements and propagation of Islam is documented to the 9th century. The First Mongol invasion of Burma in the 13th century and the relationship of the Mrauk U Kingdom with the Bengal Sultanate are examples of prominent Muslim presence in Myanmar with Muslims ranging from traders and settlers to positions of status as royal advisors and port authorities. The Pathi and Panthay ethnic groups also form a historically significant group of precolonial Chinese Muslims in Myanmar. In addition, British rule in Burma brought several Muslim diasaporic immigrants, including Indian Muslims who became a significant population in Rangoon. The core of the Burmese Muslim community today are the descendants of Muslim peoples who settled and intermarried with local Burmese ethnic groups. Muslims arrived in Burma as traders or settlers, military personnel, and prisoners of war, refugees, and as slaves. However, many early Muslims also as saying goes held positions of status as royal advisers, royal administrators, port authorities, mayors, and traditional medicine men. Burmese kings resettled Muslims as prisoners of war throughout history as they did with other ethnic groups. Muslim artillerymen, riflemen and royal bodyguards served regularly in Burmese army during the Konbaung dynasty. The colonial period saw substantial immigration of Burmese Indians, many of them Muslim. Various riots and dissatisfaction with the socioeconomic conditions under British rule in Burma led to increased anti-Muslim sentiment. Muslims sought representation and citizenship during independence, but faced significant opposition. In the 1960s, all Muslims were increasingly seen as foreign elements unwelcome in the country. During the State Peace and Development Council junta rule, anti-Muslim riots became increasingly common. Anti-Muslim pamphlets were widely distributed and vengeful Buddhist mobs formed to reports of alleged Muslims raping Buddhist women in 1997, 2001, 2012, 2013 and 2014. In 2005, the Ministry of Religious Affairs cited the various examples of Muslims and Christians throughout Myanmar's royal history and the loving kindness of Burmese culture to declare freedom of religion for all. issued a declaration concerning freedom of religion In 2015, anti-Muslims sentiment focused increasingly on the Rohingya people in northern Rakhine State. Starting in 2016, persecution targeting the Rohingya grew leading to a crackdown with extrajudicial killings and other human rights abuses and brutalities. In 2017, this was followed up by the Rohingya genocide, where a military operation killed thousands and drove out hundreds of thousands of Rohingya people into Bangladesh. Bagan period In the early Bagan era, Arab chronicles document merchants landing at ports such as Thaton and Martaban while sailing from Madagascar to China. Arab travellers visited the Andaman Islands in the Bay of Bengal south of Burma. The first Muslims landed in Myanmar's Irrawaddy delta and on the Tanintharyi coast. By the 9th century, they were also present in Arakan, prior to the establishment of the first Burmese empire in 1055 AD by King Anawrahta of Bagan. The sea ports of Burma are rife with the legendary accounts of early shipwrecks in their vicinity, which are supported by archaeological remnants. However, long-term settlement by Muslim traders appear to date to later centuries following the First Mongol invasion of Burma. Deified Muslim figures In Burma's semi-historical traditional historical chronicle, the Hmannan Yazawin, two Kalar Muslim sailor brothers, Byat Wi and Byat Ta, arrived near Thaton in the 11th century. Kalar today is an ethnic slur for Indians and Arabs, but originally meant "dark-skinned" and is assumed to have meant that they were from India. According to the chronicle, they gained superhuman strength after eating the magic meat of a mystic. The king of Thaton became afraid of them and killed the elder brother. The younger brother, Byatta, escaped to Bagan and took refuge with king Anawratha. He met and married Me Wunna from Mount Popa and had two sons- the Shwe Hpyin brothers. The Shwe Hpyin brothers served the Bagan king as warriors. They became famous for infiltrating the Chinese King of Gandalaraj Utibua's bodyguards to draw three lines with white lime on the king's body and write a threatening message on the wall, scaring the Chinese into peace. However, the brothers were eventually executed because they refused to contribute in the building of a pagoda in Taungbyon, There was dissatisfaction with the decision and, according to legend, the two brothers' spirit manifested and demanded possession of Taungbyon. They were then deified as two of the 37 Great Nats, the Burmese pantheon. The brothers are the subject of Myanmar's largest Nat festival- the Taungbyone Festival, celebrated annually for six days. Worshippers avoid consumption of pork out of respect for their religion as Muslims. Traders in Lower Burma When King Anawrahta attacked Martaban, the capital of the Thaton Kingdom in the 12th century, their king Manuha was recorded to have two Muslim officers who commanded the defence fiercely. Early Muslim settlements the propagation of Islam between the 9th and 14th century were documented by Arab, Persian, European and Chinese travellers. the majority of these were trade colonies in Lower Burma, with Muslim traders primarily referring to Pegu as "Burma". Later, during the Bagan king Kyansittha would take Indians captive during his invasions of Lower Burma, starting some of the first Muslims settlements in Upper Burma. At first Muslims arrived on the Arakan coast and moved into the upward hinterland to Maungdaw. The time when the Muslims arrived in Burma and in Arakan and Maungdaw is uncertain.