Yangon: Yangon authorities on Friday sued three Muslim men for holding Ramadan prayers in the street, after the religious school (madrasah) where they used to worship was shut down by a nationalist mob.
Police brought the charges after around 50 Muslims gathered to pray on Wednesday on a road in Thaketa township, the site of one of a growing number of raids by Buddhist hardliners on Islamic events.
Two nearby Islamic schools were shuttered in late April after ultra-nationalists complained local Muslims were illegally using them to conduct prayers.
Authorities have said the closure is temporary but given no timeline for when they may be reopened.
“We feel sorry. This month is important for us,” local Muslim leader Zaw Min Latt told AFP. “We used those schools for prayer for decades. These restrictions have been brought in after more than 60 years.”
Local authorities issued a statement saying the prayer session threatened “stability and the rule of law” in the mainly Muslim neighborhood in the east of Myanmar’s commercial capital.
A policeman who asked not to be named confirmed the charges.
Two officers tried to stop AFP journalists from filming when they visited one of the madrasahs on Friday.
The case comes as Myanmar’s government has been seeking to clamp down on hate speech after a spike in anti-Muslim actions by hardliners from the country’s Buddhist majority.
AG/IINA
