The Rohingyas: Inside Myanmar's Genocide

"The Rohingyas" is comprehensive, well-written, and urgently needed. The Rohingyas have been a persecuted minority in Burma for decades, a persecution that has accelerated under the current government of Aung San Suu Kyi. "The Rohingyas" presents research to suggest that the persecution amounts to genocide, an accusation that recent events seem to be confirming. Sadly, the response from the international community has been feeble. This book is a must-read for anyone seeking to understand the historical and contemporary context of this ongoing crisis. One hopes that it will also help bring additional attention to the crisis, and halt the genocide before it's too late.

The Rohingyas: Inside Myanmar's Hidden Genocide by Azeem Ibrahim, shows, sadly, that more than half a century since the Holocaust, and other genocidal acts since then, the world community will not come to the aid of endangered minorities. The Rohingyas are on their own. The world does not care.This books explains how the Rohingya were transformed into “the other” by the government of Myanmar (Burma). Ibrahim illustrates what Timothy Snyder has written of the Nazis in World War II: the prime way to commit genocide is to strip a people of their national, legal rights. Once that is done, a minority group is at the mercy of the government, and other groups. Without access to the legal apparatus of the state, genocide is nearly inevitable.The sad take away from this book is that minority groups have to have some kind of self-defense (as backup) especially if they find themselves in a situation like the Rohingya. Humanity is not yet evolved enough to treat the so-called stranger with love and care. We don't risk our well being for others.

Anyone moved by the ongoing plight of the Rohingya people will find in this book a thorough explanation of how this has happened.

Excellent Book and gives a historical perspective to the recent Rohingya Genocide and more....

If you want to learn more about the Rohingya history, the book is alright, but I was expecting more depth...

All are perfect, beautiful and much useful to me.

Well researched and presented in a simple and succinct language,for any reader to understand the tragic fate of Rohingyas.

A detailed journey into how the Rohingya become the most persecuted minority in the worldIbrahim has produced a thoroughly researched book which documents the roots of the slow motion genocide against the Rohingya minority in Myanmar. He clinically demolishes the main accusations made against the Rohingya by the Buddhist extremist such as the Rohingya being illegal immigrants from Bangladesh and having no roots in Myanmar. Ibrahim tackles this head on and uses extensive archival documentation dating back to 1799 to expose the fabrication of such ideas. This is a must read if you want to understand what is quite likely to be the next genocide of our time.

Arguably the most thorough, holistic, collection of research and the leading piece of literature on the crisis at the moment. Brilliant book to read if you want an overall understanding of the conflict, it’s history and the cultural and geographic politics of the issue.

Rohingyas are by far among the most persecuted communities in the world today. This book by Azeem Ibrahim reveals the racist actions of Myanmar government, its military and Buddhist hardliners to oust the Rohingyas permanently from their land (Rakhine or Arakan) which they have been inhabitating for generations. The author has painstakingly done a lot of research and come out with substantial arguments to support Rohingyas' claim for citizenship and an honourable recognition, protection, freedom and rights as Myanmarese nationals in their own country, and of course repatriation of Rohingya refugees back to Myanmar from Bangla Desh and several other countries where they had to flee, to save themselves from the terrible violence mounted against them by the powers-that-be in Myanmar. Incidentally ,I wish the author had presented his own analysis of the Kofi Annan Commission's report, considering that the Commission to look into the Rohingyas issue was appointed in 2016 by the Myanmarese government itself. However, this omission does not affect the overall high quality of the book. Every student of world affairs needs to read this book to acquire a more informed and balanced view on the subject. My review of this book has been published by the Marathi newspaper 'Loksatta' on 16 June 2018. -- Sukumar Shidore

Genocide and mass murder stem from a complex set of circumstances that collectively legitimizes violence against a specific group. But these circumstances still need to be quite extraordinary. Despite the claims of ethnic or religious ideologues, intergroup harmony has in fact been the norm for most of human history. Yes, group differences on the grounds of ethnicity or religious belief can, and often do, lead to tensions between communities. If sufficiently serious and if no external authority intervenes, these tensions can spill over into localized acts of violence. But even when such local acts of violence flare up, they rarely produce something that could be defined as genocide.In his book, Dr Ibrahim looks closely at four paradigm cases of genocide in the 20th century: the Armenian genocide by the disintegrating Ottoman Empire in 1915-1918, the Nazi Holocaust during World War II, the Soviet purges of the Turkic people of Crimea and the Caucasus in 1941 to 1943 and the Rwandan genocide of 1994. Each case demonstrates the importance of international partners in restraining, or providing a free hand, to a state on the verge of committing genocide.The situation in Myanmar at the moment is showing some depressing parallels to Rwanda. No international power looks like it would be willing to intervene militarily in the country so the slow motion genocide continues until a trigger tips it over the edge to mass killing.

This book is a passionate plea to end the ongoing discrimination and grave human rights violations against the Rohingya minority in Myanmar. While this aim is laudable, the book does not constitute a serious scholarly work. Indeed, it appears to have been written in a rush, with a confusing structure and without the necessary editing. In many ways, it reads like a draft. In addition, as previous commentators have pointed out, the book could have benefited from additional and more thoroughly researched sources.

Reality personified!