Muslims be part of Buddhist, Christian fighters to topple Myanmar’s army | Battle Information

Myanmar – Scattered throughout the plush, rolling hills of southern Myanmar’s Tanintharyi area, insurgent fighters stationed at checkpoints examine automobiles and vehicles touring in the direction of a close-by city nonetheless beneath the management of the Myanmar army – their adversary.

Whereas this can be a acquainted sight within the area, the place the wrestle towards the army waged by disparate armed teams has intensified because the 2021 coup, what units these rebels aside is their religion.

These are members of the little-known “Muslim Company”, who’ve joined the wrestle for democracy in Myanmar as a part of a Christian- and Buddhist-dominated armed group – the Karen Nationwide Union (KNU).

Formally named third Firm of Brigade 4 within the KNU, the 130 troopers of the Muslim Firm are only a fraction of the tens of 1000’s combating to overthrow the nation’s army rulers.

 

With their story largely untold, Al Jazeera visited the corporate’s headquarters, nestled between the ridges of jungle-clad mountains at an undisclosed location in Myanmar’s south, to piece collectively an nearly forgotten thread within the intricate tapestry of Myanmar’s battle.

“Some areas are focused on ethnicities having their own states,” Muslim Firm chief Mohammed Eisher, 47, defined, referring to the armed resistance actions who’ve lengthy fought towards Myanmar’s army.

In Tanintharyi, Eisher mentioned, nobody group dominates the land and, moreover, the army’s repression impacts all teams.

“As long as the military remains in place, Muslims, and everybody else, will be oppressed,” he mentioned.

Whereas Eisher mentioned he hopes the acceptance of variety throughout the anti-military forces would assist ease cultural and regional tensions which have beforehand led to battle in Myanmar, students say the embrace of the Muslim Firm underlines the inclusive nature of the historic rebellion happening, and the incorporation of beforehand marginalised teams into the wrestle.

Various traces of descent

Myanmar’s Muslims hint numerous traces of descent.

They embody the Rohingya within the west of the nation, Muslims with Indian and Chinese language heritage, and the Kamein, whose ancestors are believed to have been archers of a Mughal prince in search of refuge within the Arakan kingdom within the seventeenth century, and which is now a part of Myanmar.

In Tanintharyi, the place the Muslim Firm is predicated, some Muslims are descended from Arab, Persian and Indian merchants, whereas others are Burmese Malays, referred to as Pashu. The area’s ethnic variety additionally contains Karen and Mon, in addition to Bamar sub-ethnicities from the cities of Dawei and Myeik, amongst others.

Whereas their uniforms bear the KNU insignia, the Muslim troopers of third Firm carry a star and crescent moon badge of their luggage, symbolizing their lineage from the All Burma Muslim Liberation Military (ABMLA) – the nation was referred to as “Burma” earlier than it was re-named “Myanmar”.

Of their foremost camp, hijab head coverings and thobes – long-sleeved ankle-length conventional robes usually worn by women and men in Muslim nations – are frequent apparel. Recitals of Quranic verses ring out from a mosque, whereas prayer mats are laid out at distant insurgent outposts. All through the holy month of Ramadan, the corporate’s fighters observe fasting and attend every day prayers.

Successive military-led governments in Myanmar, along with hardline nationalist monks, have portrayed Muslims as a grave menace to Burmese Buddhist tradition. That has resulted in Muslim communities, with roots spanning greater than a millennium in Myanmar, going through scapegoating, spiritual suppression and denial of citizenship.

“It’s dangerous to generalize, but Muslims in Myanmar are highly vulnerable and have been exposed to significant violence,” Myanmar scholar Ashley South mentioned.

“In Karen areas, however, one often finds communities living peacefully – and it is significant that Muslim refugees moved tentatively to KNU-controlled areas, sometimes in preference to other groups,” South mentioned.

He added that the inclusion of teams beforehand alienated by Myanmar’s fractious politics is a defining trait of the present revolution, which has made sturdy positive factors towards the army because it grabbed energy in 2021.

Historical past of Muslim resistance

The Muslims who resisted the army following its overthrow of Myanmar’s elected authorities three years in the past after which discovered their approach to third Firm, should not the primary to rise towards repression.

Amongst these fleeing the anti-Muslim riots of August 1983 in what was then Moulmein – now referred to as Mawlamyine – in decrease Burma, a small group of refugees fashioned the Kawthoolei Muslim Liberation Entrance (KMLF) in KNU-held territory.

The KNU skilled about 200 KMLF fighters, however disputes between Sunni and Shia leaders finally fragmented the group.

In 1985, some KMLF fighters moved south to Tanintharyi, founding the ABMLA. After a long time of sporadic clashes with the army, they formally turned third Firm, identified colloquially because the “Muslim Company”. That was about 2015, after the KNU’s ceasefire with the army ended, in line with an administrator who has been with the group since 1987.

With army atrocities having devastated households throughout Myanmar because the current takeover, Myanmar’s military is now anathema not solely to Muslims and ethnic minorities however to many of the inhabitants, the administrator mentioned.

“The [2021] coup opened a path to freedom for everybody,” he added, talking to Al Jazeera as he sat on a hammock above a pair of army boots taken from a captured authorities base.

About 20 ladies serve in third Firm, together with 28-year-old Thandar*, a medic who joined in October 2021. After finishing fight coaching beneath the KNU, Thandar instructed how she heard concerning the Muslim power and determined to enroll.

“I’ll work here until the revolution is over,” she mentioned, smiling at their commander, Eisher. “He’s like my new father now,” she mentioned.

Amongst different issues, belonging to a like-minded firm of fighters “made it easier to have a halal diet”, she mentioned.

“Plus, I’m with fellow Muslims,” she added. “It’s good here. That’s why I’ve stayed here for so long.”

‘Freedom for all peoples of Burma’

About 20 Muslim recruits fleeing the army regime’s conscription regulation, enacted in 2010 however activated solely this 12 months in Myanmar, enlisted not too long ago, mentioned Eisher.

Throughout Al Jazeera’s go to to the corporate, troopers at its foremost camp had been principally married males, utilizing their depart to go to their households close by. A separate barracks housed the sick, usually younger males struck down with malaria earlier than.

The close by camp mosque is a modest constructing manufactured from breezeblocks with a tin roof, and plastic piping on the outer wall for ritual ablutions earlier than prayers.

Eisher instructed how his religion was examined in 2012 throughout a skirmish with the army, when he was shot within the neck and higher proper arm. Separated from his unit, he trekked alone for 2 days earlier than discovering his comrades, who carried him for 5 days by a dense jungle.

“The stench of the pus from my neck wound made me retch,” he recalled, touching the crater-like scar left the place a bullet had exited and remembering how onerous he had prayed.

“I was praying for the absolution of my sins, if I had committed any, and if not, for the strength to keep fighting,” he mentioned.

At an outpost deep within the jungle of third Firm’s territory, Mohammed Yusuf, 47, leads a unit of fighters. Like Eisher, Yusuf has suffered for the trigger. Twenty years in the past, whereas clearing landmines, one exploded, blinding him.

“I want freedom for all peoples of Burma,” he mentioned. “The revolution will be successful, but it needs more unity. Everyone should stay true to the cause.”

Third Firm additionally has its inner variety, together with a couple of Buddhist and Christian members on the foremost camp.

One of many Buddhists, a 46-year-old Bamar farmer-turned-revolutionary with a serene smile, has taken to rising eggplants and string beans for the fighters to eat.

After volunteering with two different resistance teams, she instructed how she got here to the realisation that her place was within the “Muslim Company”.

“There’s no discrimination here,” she mentioned.

“We’re all the same – human beings.”

*Thandar is a pseudonym because the interviewee requested that her identify not be used on this article.