By Puteri Othman
GOMBAK, 5 March 2015: The forum on “Rohingya: The Chronic Cry of Ummah” held recently at Experimental Hall, IIUM, had drawn full house attendance from the university community. Organised by the Al-Aqsa Friends Society, this was the first ever forum successfully conducted by the society in collaboration with the Rohingya Students Association and the IIUM Theatre Club.
Two speakers were invited to give the talk on the historical background and the current situation of the Rohingya. They were Ghiyathudeen Bin Maulana and Hnin Pwint Phyu Zaiton (also known as sister Hanim Zaitun). The forum started at 9.00 p.m (by that time it was already full house) with a multimedia video presentation on the Rohingya and ended with a performance by the IIUM Theatre Club.
The forum was conducted to create awareness about the Rohingya people. The largest massacre of the Rohingya in the hands of the Buddhists had killed hundreds and thousands of Rohingya and nearly one hundred thousand of them have become homeless.
They are deprived of their nationality, religious rights, education rights and even civil rights by the Myanmar government. From 2012 onwards, the situation has become worst. The Rohingya peoples villages were burned, the people were tortured including the women and the children, and to some extent, the people were beaten and burned to death.
Students are welcome to donate and for any donation enquiries, you may contact any member of the Rohingya Students Association.
The Al-Aqsa Friends Society will conduct their next forum on the topic “Al Ghazali: Imam of Intelligence” which will be featuring Dr Isham Pawan. It will be held on 12 March at the Experimental Hall, IIUM.***
Picture credited to Hanis Azizi