Die Rohingyas - Konstruktion, De-Konstruktion und Re-Konstruktion einer ethnisch-religiösen nationalen Identität

Abstract

The Rohingyas living in the state of Rakhine (Arakan) in western Myanmar form a greaten bloc community Muslim community on the border to Bangladesh. In the past decades, great numbers of people fled the country and were repatriated later. The status of the Rohingyas is a controversial issue. The organisations representing their interest consider them as indigenous people of Myanmar looking back at a history of 1000 years in Arakan. Buddhist Arakanese as well as the central government of Myanmar, however, regard and treat them as foreigners. The paper examines the historical genesis of the construction of a national Rohingya identity vis-à-vis the Buddhist population of Rakhine and the whole of Burma/Myanmar as well as its contradiction. In addition, an overview on the Muslim influences on history and culture of the kingdom of Arakan will be given.