Myanmar and the limits of pan-Islamism (The problems with global Muslim consolidation)

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Myanmar and the limits of pan-Islamism (The problems with global Muslim consolidation)

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• First round of protest: Since 2012, Myanmar has been persecuting the Rohingyas, but other than protests in US and Europe, nothing much happened. In fact, Muslim-majority nations like Bangladesh and Malaysia acted strongly to stop Ronhingya influx.
• Large-scale violence changed it all: 2017 changed everything, and B'desh, Turkey, Malaysia, Indonesia and Pakistan demanding an end to Rohingya suffering, and stop of their flight from Myanmar.
• Why the change of stance? Many reasons - 
1. political, economic and humanitarian, 
2. chance to claim leadership in the fragmented Muslim world, 
3. growing Muslim protests worldwide.
• What all happened? 
1. Turkish President took the lead at the OIC, and his wife travelled to Rohingya camps in B'desh.
2. Malaysia + Indonesia + Turkey delivered assistance in Rakhine state & talked to Myanmar govt.
3. Bangladesh PM highlighted Rohingya's plight at the UN and asked for safe zones in Myanmar
• Duplicity of these leaders: In both Turkey and Bangladesh, leaders are trying to delegitimise domestic opposition by branding them "Islamic terrorists"!  They are carrying out a "War on Terror" just like Myanmar did against the Rohingyas.
• Change in the Muslim world: Due to the Rohingya issue, "States" are reclaiming leadership in the Muslim world. Despite the Saudi-led and Iranian-led movements in West Asia, some kind of Muslim unity is visible (first time post Syrian bloodshed).
• Who was holding the placard for Muslim victimisation? Many religious groups were, from Jihadis to the liberals. They asked for immediate responses to suffering. After the Cold War, what happened to the Bosnian Muslims (during Yugoslavia's breakup) is an example. A lot of what was happening before this for global Muslim causes was political, not humanitarian.
• Non-state actors being viewed with suspicion: In Pakistan, religious / militant groups outraged with Rohingya's mistreatment are now criticised for their own actions against sectarian minorites (in Pakistan). So is some big internal shift in Muslim opinion and protest?
• Arbitrary Muslim victimisation: Some groups are known globally as victims - Palestinians, Bosnians and Rohingya. But some are not - Uighurs, Somalis, Yemenis and Chechens. Is this because the other groups have not faced a crisis coming out of Western imperialism (or Zionism as its surrogate)?
• Solidarity arising in the West! First in 1989, it was seen in the backlash against Salman Rushdie's novel "The Satanic Verses". Anything from West draws a global response, but not anything not from the West. Wars getting large coverage in West draw a global Muslim response.
• Impact of West: For many centuries, Asians, Africans  and Latin Americans have linked with each other through Europe and America. So is Islam's globalisation dependent on the West (which it calls "enemy")?
• Weakness of this approach: Such global Muslim solidarity starting in the West quickly evaporates. So violence against Rohingyas may not arouse similar interest till the West takes it up again. So hating the West needs support from the West itself!
• Summary : Global Muslim solidarity against torture on Muslims anywhere else depends on the outrage first generated in the West, and it is almost always anti-West in character.

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