Maungdaw District and Township administration officers have extended the emergency act 144 again on Aug.8. The act that has been effective since June of last year will go for another two months starting on the eve of the Muslim Eid festival. The extension was administered by U Aung Myint Soe, the district administration officer and U Kyi San, township administration officer.
The Eid festival important holiday for all the Muslims from Burma marking the end of the fasting period associated with the recently passed Ramadan. Before Rohingya Muslim would gather together to pray in mass but now they can’t because gatherings of more than five are outlawed.
This is the second time people have been denied the right to celebrate Eid in Arakan state, said a Maungdaw student.
“The Burmese government has declared to the international community there isn’t religious discrimination in the country, but in reality there is religious discrimination except against the Buddhist religion.”
Buddhists are allowed to gather for a religious celebration in monasteries in Maungdaw under the emergency act, but Rohingya can’t pray in the Mosque, the student said wondering why the law is applied differently to the two groups
