Page 149 - A Helping Hand for Refugees

of the country and in its political and cultural life for more than 350
years. They have even provided such senior officials as five viziers,
along with governors, army generals and ministers.

However, following the killing of the Muslim Sultan Shah Salim
II in a conspiracy in 1638, the empire entered a period of decline and
collapse. With its invasion by Burma in 1784, the Muslim people living
in the region suffered great oppression. Many of them were forced to
flee to Bengal, which was under British rule. According to East India

Company records, in 1799 35,000 Rakhine Muslims fled their lands
because of persecution by the Burmese. The records tell us this; “…in
one day soon after the conquest of Arakan the Burmans put 40,000 men to
Death: that wherever they found a pretty Woman, they took her after killing
the husband; and the young Girls they took without any consideration of their
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parents, and thus deprived these poor people of the property…" Some of
the Muslims fleeing Burmese violence left the country and had to
migrate to India.

After the withdrawal of the British who had been in control of the
region, in 1824, there was soon a considerable increase in the number

of attacks on Muslims. During the Second World War and the Japanese
occupation the pressure on Muslims increased still further, culminating
in Muslim men, women and children being barbarically murdered by
swords and spears in the village of Chanbilli in the township of Minbya
in 1942. After the slaughter the district was pillaged. All gold, silver
and valuable items belonging to Muslims were seized, and their ani-
mals were confiscated. In the attacks that started in this village and
spread across Rakhine, 307 Muslim villages were wiped off the map,
more than 100,000 Muslims were martyred and some 80,000 were driven

from their homes. 19

Adnan Oktar (Harun Yahya) 147