Bengal from which, the Burmese believe, the Rohnigyas originally came.

Is it any wonder that those Buddhist monks feel that it is they, their religion, their Buddhist culture, that are now imperiled, by Muslims following the same texts as those who put a virtual end to Buddhism in India, and who have carried out attacks on the last remnant of Buddhists in present-day Bangladesh, and destroyed so much of the art and artifacts of Buddhist culture in India, Afghanistan, Pakistan, China? For these monks, who are aware of how destructive a triumphant and triumphalist Islam has been for Buddhism, it is the Buddhists in Myanmar who are on the permanent defensive and, some believe, to protect themselves should preemptively strike against, and attempt to drive out, the local representativesflood into Myanmar of Muslim migrants over a half-century, recognized that the inter-communal violence in 1942 had started with attacks by the Muslim side, conceded that the Rohingyas had tried for many years, as self-described mujihadeen, to seize part of Myanmar and to make it an autonomous Muslim state, and that this past, as well as the actions of Muslims toward Buddhists and Hindus, deeply affected how the Burmese Buddhists viewed their own situation.

That might help calm the Burmese Buddhists down, make them feel less anxious, now that their fears were not being cavalierly dismissed but given a sympathetic hearing. And they, in turn, might cease to attack, as they have been, the Rohingyas. After all, anyone who looks around the world today cannot avoid noticing that Muslims