The Irrawaddy is overflowing with the tears of Muslim widows
The death toll in the earthquake in Myanmar is in the thousands. No one was spared, regardless of religion, caste, rich or poor. The damage is more in the central part of the country, especially in the Mandalay region.
Mandalay and neighboring Amarapura are the old capitals of Myanmar. As a result, there are many old-fashioned structures here. The epicenter of the earthquake was also very close to this city. As a result, the situation in Mandalay is like that of Hiroshima-Nagasaki after the atomic bomb was dropped.
Muslim families in this second important city of Myanmar were additionally devastated by the earthquake. The earthquake struck on Friday during Friday prayers. A large number of adult Muslim men in this region were in the mosque at that time. Friday is usually the custom to be held in the mosque at a specific time. Again, the day of the earthquake was the last Friday of the month of Ramadan. As a result, the number of attendees was higher than normal on Fridays. The earthquake struck during noon prayers. Some of the worshippers were in the mosque at that time in ruku, some in sajdah, and some in munajat. In some places, prayers were just beginning. Most of the mosques in central Myanmar are also old.
The structures easily collapsed in the earthquake. There were two tremors. While the survivors of the first tremor were moving the injured, a second, stronger tremor hit. As a result, the survivors were also injured and killed.
The result was a terrible tragedy. The mourning in Muslim villages seems to be a bit excessive. The atmosphere is heavy with the cries of widows. In many neighborhoods, the burial and shrouding of the dead was also delayed for a long time. Because, on the one hand, there is a shortage of men, and on the other hand, there is no government in these regions now. Due to the civil war, the military does not even dare to come for rescue operations. They are a very hated organization by the local people. As a result, the state rescue and relief operations are also very limited here.
The area most affected by the earthquake is the Irrawaddy River, the lifeline of Myanmar, which flows between Mandalay and Sagaing. Sagaing is to the west of the Irrawaddy and Mandalay is to the east. Sagaing has the largest madrasa in Myanmar.
There are already many Muslim settlements on both sides of this river. The Muslims here are not as visible from the outside as in Bangladesh. However, the mosques give an idea of the type of settlement in the surrounding area. The mosques are also different in architecture from those in Bangladesh and India. They are built in the architectural design of Bama. Mosques were also used as schools in many cases.
Many such mosques were built here during the reign of King Bodhapaya. When Amarapura was declared the capital in 1783, Muslims were given various important responsibilities in the royal court during the reign of Bodhapaya. Not only Bengal, but many Muslims came here from faraway Afghanistan as well. At that time, many mosques were built one after the other along the Mandalay-Amrapura road. There are also some shrines here. The famous Ling Jing Goye shrine of Abid Hussaini is located here. During the reign of King Mingdin in Mandalay, there was also a mosque inside the royal palace. At that time, the king of this place built a house there for Burmese Muslims to stay during the Hajj in Mecca. Needless to say, those days are now a thing of the past.
Later Burmese nationalists were not very interested in renovating the surviving mosques and shrines here. Even if Muslims wanted to renovate them themselves, they had problems getting permission. From 2012-13, a kind of hostility began to be seen in these matters.
Even then, many Muslim establishments survived here. But this time everything was reduced to dust in the earthquake. There is confusion about the number of Muslims in Myanmar outside Arakan. No other Muslim community is recognized as a separate ‘ethnic’ entity here except the Kamyan. However, there are Muslims of many cultures throughout the country. Although the government does not recognize them as an ethnic group, Muslims in this central region refer to themselves as ‘Burmese Muslims’.
The number of such followers of Islam outside Arakan, whether recognized or not, would be at least 1.5 million. A large part of them lived in Rangoon and another part on both banks of the Irrawaddy. Muslims from other parts of Myanmar could live in relative peace in the central region. However, the earthquake has displaced a large number of such people this time. Especially the number of female-headed households has increased enormously.
A friend from Rangoon said that at least 1,000 Muslims have been reported dead in Sagaing and Mandalay. This number may increase further in the future. Some areas are still cut off from normal communication. It can be said that there was no rescue effort in Sagaing for the first three days. Because three-quarters of the houses have collapsed. The Irrawaddy is overflowing
According to sources in Rangoon, at least 100 mosques have been destroyed. However, this information cannot be verified by any third party.
In the absence of government rescue efforts, a team of rescuers from Malaysia is pulling bodies out from under the rubble of collapsed mosques in Mandalay and Sagaing. According to the latest estimate of rescue workers, it is difficult to find a mosque that has not been destroyed on both banks of the Irrawaddy. Needless to say, many Buddhist pagodas have also been destroyed in this disaster. But the death toll there is not like that of Muslims. Because, there was no public gathering there like a mosque in the afternoon. However, many students have died here too when some residential buildings of Buddhist temples collapsed. Apart from this, the death toll is increasing irrespective of religion and caste.
The official death toll is currently around 3,500. However, the destruction has been immense beyond the deaths. Among the surrounding areas, only Assam had an earthquake of such magnitude seventy-five years ago.
