Jihadis exploit Rohingya crisis

Al-Qa’ida’s call for Muslims everywhere to travel to Myanmar to support the Rohingya minority “financially, militarily and physically” increases the gravity and urgency of what until now has been regarded primarily as a humanitarian crisis. Islamic State, too, for its own evil ends, is trying to exploit the desperation of hundreds of thousands of fleeing Rohingya.

As the international community pressures Myanmar and its State Counsellor, Nobel Peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, to halt the violence against the Rohingya, the factors spurring the expansion of Islamic terrorism across our region must not be overlooked. Malaysian authorities have found that some Rohingya have been recruited and dispatched for training to the Islamic State “caliphate” on the southern Philippines island of Mindanao. In Kuala Lumpur, Defence Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin has warned, presciently, that the region will “pay the price” if it does not deal with the crisis. “We cannot leave them (Myanmar’s Muslim minority Rohingya) desperate and wanting, because if they are and they turn to these groups, countries in this region would have to pay the price,” he said.

Amid growing anger across the Muslim world over the Rohingya, Indonesian Islamist groups, too, are summoning volunteers to fight in Myanmar. Al-Qa’ida, which has a strong presence in Afghanistan and South Asia, particularly in Bangladesh, is seeking to exploit such sentiment. Bangladesh has become fertile ground for al-Qa’ida and Islamic State, which are taking advantage of an upsurge in militancy in the fourth largest Muslim majority country. “The savage treatment meted out to our Muslim brothers by the government of Myanmar … shall not pass without punishment,” al-Qa’ida has warned.

The UN estimates that more than 400,000 Rohingya have fled in the face of ruthless attacks by the Myanmar military. The UN Security Council has rightly condemned what it terms “a textbook example of ethnic cleansing” by the Buddhist majority. Following the condemnation, Ms Suu Kyi brought no credit to herself by cancelling a scheduled trip to attend this month’s UN General Assembly session.

The urgent need for her to make good on her reputation as a doughty fighter for democracy and human rights, and not to make excuses for the atrocities of the rampaging Myanmar army, is overwhelming. The international community needs to mobilise to help the refugees.

The potential of the crisis to fuel Islamic terrorism in our region should not be forgotten, as the interventions by al-Qa’ida and Islamic State make clear. The disclosure that Ata Ullah, leader of the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army, which is fighting to defend the Rohingya, is the product of a Saudi Arabian madrassa and underwent a jihadist training course with the Taliban in Pakistan is of deep concern. ARSA’s operations are overseen by a committee of 20 Rohingya exiles in Saudi Arabia.

At a time when Australia’s counter-terror forces are fighting to prevent Australians from joining jihadi forces abroad, the last thing our region needs is another conflict involving al-Qa’ida and Islamic State. As the so-called “caliphate” in Syria collapses and jihadists flee, the stakes in the Rohingya crisis are portentous.