{"id":64239,"date":"2015-09-28T12:00:26","date_gmt":"2015-09-28T11:00:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=64239"},"modified":"2015-09-22T13:24:27","modified_gmt":"2015-09-22T12:24:27","slug":"race-and-religion-law-revellers-hit-mandalay-in-burmamyanmar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2015\/09\/race-and-religion-law-revellers-hit-mandalay-in-burmamyanmar\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Race and Religion\u2019 Law Revellers Hit Mandalay in Burma\/Myanmar"},"content":{"rendered":"

22 Sep 2015 – Influential nationalist group Ma Ba Tha celebrated in Mandalay Region yesterday, with tens of thousands of monks and laypeople convening to celebrate the passage of its controversial package<\/a> of so-called Protection of Race and Religion laws.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Ashin<\/a>

Ashin Wirathu (right) watches events celebrating the passage of the race and religion laws in Mandalay yesterday. Photo: Si Thu Lwin \/ The Myanmar Times<\/p><\/div>\n

The festivities<\/a> were headed by Masoeyein monastery\u2019s U Wirathu, a prominent figure in Ma Ba Tha\u2019s central committee.<\/p>\n

A march was held from Kyauk Myet Zay football stadium in Maha Aung Myay township to the football stadium in front of Phayargyi. People from other sub-townships in Mandalay celebrated by dancing and blaring music, while others rang in the occasion in traditional dress.<\/p>\n

\u201cMonks and people in Myanmar were able to enact the law by signing [a petition] and protesting. The law is good for not only Buddhist women but also for non-Buddhist women,\u201d said Ma Ba Tha secretary Bhaddanta Indacaka Bhivamsa. \u201cI\u2019d like all of you to read the law carefully,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The four \u201crace and religion protection\u201d laws include the Population Control law<\/a>, which was signed off on by President U Thein Sein on May 20. The Religious Conversion Law<\/a> was greenlighted in the upper house on August 27, with the Interfaith Marriage Law and the Monogamy Law also enshrined in August.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe laws are not breaching human rights<\/a> \u2013 they are respecting human rights. They are not insulting other faiths, and it will only protect Buddhism and Buddhist people,\u201d said Ma Ba Tha associate legal secretary of legal support committee U Zaw Naing.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople said on Facebook that [the laws entail] seven years\u2019 imprisonment and 10 years\u2019 imprisonment – [these are] people who have not read the law in detail. There is no loss of human rights. The law said \u2018not more than seven years of imprisonment and not more than ten years\u2019 imprisonment.\u2019 So, the case might be settled for one-day imprisonment, if the judge is of a good nature,\u201d he continued.<\/p>\n

The package of laws has drawn widespread condemnation from civil society and international rights groups, with Human Rights Watch saying the legislation represents \u201ca wholly unjustified state interference in the right to freedom of conscience and religion\u201d, and could be used to unfairly target the country\u2019s Muslim minority.<\/p>\n

A 37-year-old Muslim man from Ayeyarwady Region last week became the first to be charged<\/a> for a breach of the monogamy law.<\/p>\n

The legislation was submitted to parliament for consideration following a major petition drive from Ma Ba Tha, who claim they collected upward of 1 million signatures from people across the country.<\/p>\n

_______________________________<\/p>\n

Translation by Thiri Min Htun<\/em><\/p>\n

Go to Original \u2013 mmtimes.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The four \u201crace and religion protection\u201d laws include the Population Control law, which was signed off on by President U Thein Sein on May 20. The Religious Conversion Law was greenlighted in the upper house on August 27, with the Interfaith Marriage Law and the Monogamy Law also enshrined in August.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-64239","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-asia-pacific"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64239","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=64239"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64239\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64239"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64239"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64239"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}