Why read Myanmar's Enemy Within?

Book cover of Myanmar's Enemy Within: Buddhist Violence and the Making of a Muslim 'Other'

Book description

In 2017, Myanmar's military launched a campaign of violence against the Rohingya minority that UN experts later said amounted to a genocide. More than seven hundred thousand civilians fled to Bangladesh in what became the most concentrated flight of refugees since the Rwanda genocide of 1994. The warning signs of…

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Why read it?

1 author picked Myanmar's Enemy Within as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Uzi Rabi

Author

The Enemy Within discusses the factors that instigated violence in June 2012 between the Buddhists and Muslims within Myanmar. This violence had disastrous results for several ethnic communities, especially the Rohingya.

The book focuses on two main ideas: the development and maintenance of ethnic identity over a long period of time, that turns minorities into the ‘other’ in their own country, and Myanmar government’s practice of political violence that eliminates religious and racial diversity.

Wade describes how the discussion over an ethnic minority’s identity was manipulated by Buddhist extremists as well as the military junta. He also illustrates that…

From Uzi's list on The best books about political identity and divisions.