My View Only. Cannot generalize to other Thai. But many Bhuddist Thai shares my view.
@
Nihonjin1051
BIG NO NO NO NO NO for Bangladesh to join ASEAN.
I think Myanmar people is very likely to agree with me according to the news.
No Bangladesh in ASEAN. No No No.
Reason:
Do you see on going ethnic/religious conflict in Burma?
Do you know Rohingya news?
There was no Rohingya. Rohingya is actually ethnic Bangladesh in Burma. Simply as that. They are Muslim
According to Thai romors, these people are very lazy. They keep reproducing very fast. They can have many wives too, because of their religous. They can have 4 wifes.
Look at the news. Bangladesh Muslim burned Bhuddist temples.
http://www.komchadluek.net/detail/20121001/141247/สลด!เผาวัดพุทธบังคลาเทศวอด.html
From what I read on the net.
Ethnic Burmese in BD are under suppression. They are driven out from their land in BD by BD muslim people, and BD government just pretend to look at other direction. In return, ethnic BD who happened to be Muslim in Myanmar also has a conflict with Burmese Bhuddist in Myanmar. Therefore, population swap already occurring. It seems that Myanmar Bhuddist did the same, and drive out ethnic Bangladesh in Myanmar, and then invite those BD Bhuddist to stay the land of ethnic Bangladesh who happened to be Muslim in Myanmar.
BD is even nearer to Middle East. If we want to avoid middle east type of religious conflict, we need to stay away from BD. Soon ASEAN will be a single community. In long term, people can move regardless of country. Im afraid that some religious will use this opportunity to spread their religious. Islam religious came with islamic culture, which is very very very very different from western culture, or current Thai culture.
If Thailand & Myanmar falls under islam, the next will be Vietnam and China. The fire of middle east will reach all of us.
From my side, Im fully support Myanmar Bhuddist in this conflict. Fight Fight my Burmese friend.
Thailand is a key member of ASEAN and as a Thai citizen you have every right to voice your opposition about Bangladesh becoming a member of ASEAN. I agree with you that Myanmar people would have similar opinion. If there is opposition like this, then Bangladesh will not become a member of ASEAN.
But we have discussed this issue before. ASEAN itself is not a very effective group, ASEAN going for EU type integration will not happen any time soon. Like @
Nihonjin1051 mentioned in his post, your reservation about Muslims who are slightly less than 50% of ASEAN nations in the south, Indonesia and Malaysia, will prevent such an integration from happening.
As for some of the things you said about Bangladesh, I would like to correct some misconceptions, if I may:
There is no ethnic Bangladeshi, there is ethnic Bengali, but this ethnic group are also collection of smaller ethnic variations who came together under Muslim rule from 1204 to 1757. Rohingya is related to ethnic Chittagonians who are their neighbors in Chittagong, that borders present day Myanmar. Bengal and Arakan (Rakhine state) history:
Bengal Sultanate:
Places and Structures of Ancient Bengal: Paintings and Pictures
Arakan used to be a vassal of Bengal Sultanate for centuries, long before it was conquered by Burman king around 1785. This happened because of the fall of Bengal to British in 1757 and the British did not look after Bengal's Vassals, but after 41 years, it was taken over by the British in 1826. British in 1947 decided to give Arakan to Burma.
The Rise of Islam and the Bengal Frontier, 1204–1760
"The reigns of Sultan ‘Ala al-Din Husain Shah (1493–1519) and his son Nasir al-Din Nusrat Shah (1519–32) are generally regarded as the “golden age” of the Bengal sultanate.[
90] In Husain Shah’s reign, for example, Bengali Hindus participated in government to a considerable degree: his chief minister (
vazīr), his chief of bodyguards, his master of the mint, his governor of Chittagong, his private physician, and his private secretary (
dabīr-i khāṣ) were all Bengali Hindus.[
91] In terms of its physical power and territorial extent, too, this was the sultanate’s high tide. In the second year of his reign, 1494, Sultan Husain Shah extended the kingdom’s northern frontiers, invading and annexing both Kuch Bihar (“Kamata”) and western Assam (“Kamrup”).[
92] Writing around 1515, Tome Pires estimated this monarch’s armed forces at a hundred thousand cavalrymen. “He fights with heathen kings, great lords and greater than he,” wrote the Portuguese official, “but because the king of Bengal is nearer to the sea, he is more practised in war, and he prevails over them.”[
93]
The king thus managed to make a circle of vassals of his neighbors: Orissa to the southwest, 
Arakan to the southeast, and Tripura to the east.[94]
But the palmy days of independent Bengal were numbered. Even as the Husain Shahi dynasty was taking root, Babur, a brilliant Timurid prince, was rising to prominence in Central Asia and Afghanistan. In 1526, resolving to make a bid for empire in North India, Babur led his cavalry and cannon through the Khyber Pass and overthrew the Lodi dynasty of Afghans, the last rulers of a vastly shrunken and decayed Delhi sultanate. As a result of this triumph, defeated Afghans moved down the Gangetic plain and into the Bengal delta, where they were hospitably received by Nasir al-Din Nusrat Shah.[
95] Thus the span of a century from the death of Jalal al-Din Muhammad (d. 1432) to that of Nasir al-Din Nusrat Shah (d. 1532) witnessed a wholesale transformation of Bengal’s political fabric. In the reign of the former sultan, descendants of old Turkish families had still formed the kingdom’s dominant ruling group. But in the following century the scope of Bengali participation at all levels of government continually widened, while the throne itself passed from Indo-Turks, to East Africans, to an Arab house, and, finally, to Afghans."
Also from history of Chittagong:
"The excavation of
Neolithic fossils and tools in
Sitakunda,
Chittagong District indicate the presence of Stone Age settlements in the region as early as the third millennium BCE.
[19] The earliest historical records of the
Port of Chittagong date back to the 4th century BC, when sailors from the area embarked on voyages to Southeast Asia. The 2nd century Graeco-Roman geographer
Ptolemy mentioned the port on his map as one of the finest harbours in Asia and the eastern frontier of the Indian subcontinent.
[20] The 7th century traveling Chinese scholar and poet
Xuanzang described it as "a sleeping beauty emerging from mists and water".
[21][22]
The region was part of the ancient Bengali Buddhist kingdoms of
Harikela and
Samatata. According to Tibetan chronicles, the area was the capital of the Buddhist king
Govindachandra and the site of a major monastery called
Pandit Vihara.
Arab and
Persian traders arrived in the 8th century, and the region emerged as a major trading centre on the
maritime silk route, renowned for its pearls, rice, and textiles.
[23] Chittagong also attracted many Sufi missionaries who settled in the region and played an instrumental role in the spread of Islam.
[21][17] In 1231, Chittagong was seized by the
Deva dynasty under the reign of Damodaradeva.
[24]
Sultan
Fakhruddin Mubarak Shah of
Sonargaon conquered Chittagong in 1340.
[25] He constructed a highway from Chittagong to
Chandpur and ordered the construction of lavish mosques and tombs.
[26]The Moroccan explorer
Ibn Battuta visited the city in 1443 and sailed from the port to
Canton in
China.
[27] The Italian merchant
Niccolò de' Conti visited the city around the same time as Battuta.
[28] In the mid-15th century, the Chinese
Treasure Fleet of
Admiral Zheng He anchored in the port during numerous imperial missions to the
Sultanate of Bengal.
[29] The
Ottoman Empire utilized the shipyards of Chittagong to build its
naval forces.
[30] After the defeat of Mahmud Shah at the hands of Sher Shah in 1538, the Arakanese
Kingdom of Mrauk U conquered Chittagong. The Portuguese established
merchant communities on the banks of the Karnaphuli in 1528. In collusion with
Magh pirates and the Arakanese, Portuguese traders dominated the area for more than a century.
[31][32] The Mughal commander
Shayestha Khan and his son
Buzurg Umed Khan expelled the Arakanese from the area in 1666 and established Mughal rule there. After the Arakanese expulsion, Islamabad, as the area came to be known, economically progressed. This can mainly be attributed to an efficient system of land-grants to selected
diwans or
faujdars to clear massive areas of hinterland and start cultivation. The Mughals, similar to the Afghans who came earlier, also built mosques having a rich contribution to the architecture in the area.[
clarification needed] What is called Chittagong today also began to have improved connections with the rest of Mughal Bengal.
[7][28][31][32][33][34][35][36][37]
In 1685, the
British East India Company sent out an expedition under Admiral Nicholson with instructions to seize Chittagong and fortify it on behalf of the English but the expedition proved abortive. Two years later, the Court of Directors, determined to make Chittagong the headquarters of their Bengal trade, sent out a fleet of ten or eleven ships to seize it under Captain Heath. However, after reaching Chittagong in early 1689, they found the city too strongly held and abandoned the attempt. The city remained under the possession of the Mughals until 1760 when it was ceded to the East India Company by
Mir Qasim, the
Nawab of Bengal.
[38][39]"
This should give an idea how the history of Arakan was closely related to history of Bengal. That is why we have Buddhist Rakhines living in Bangladesh and Rohingya living in Arakan:
Rakhine people, Bangladesh - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
From 1826 to 1947, there was no border between Bengal and Arakan, as both were under British rule, so its possible that migration happened during that time in both directions, but the after the border was closed in 1947, there was very little possibility of migration, as then Pakistan was a much more prosperous state than Burma at the time.
About Buddhist temple burning, Indian agent Awami League workers did this incident, most probably to strain relationship between Buddhist majority countries and Bangladesh:
Minorities are no longer safe under Awami League’s rule
"Similar incident happened in Ramu, Cox’s Bazar, a district in South Eastern Bangladesh where Buddhist community came under attack from the members of Awami League. It is reported that a mob led by ruling party sitting MP of the region torched and vandalised a village of Buddhists in Cox’s Bazaar’s Ramu Upazila early on Sunday 30 September, in one of the worst religious attacks in Bangladesh apparently triggered by a Facebook posting allegedly defaming the Quran. Leader of the opposition party BNP Barrister Moudud Ahmad claimed that it was a preplanned attack to destroy country’s communal harmony, as this is unprecedented in Bangladesh’s history.
It had been alleged that the attack was launched as per government’s instruction to drive nation eyes away from its alleged corruption regarding Padma Bridge raised by the World Bank.
Daily Star, famous English daily in Bangladesh wrote that it has all the telltale signs of a preplanned attack. A very focused operation that targeted Buddhist homes and establishments. The Muslim houses nestled between the Buddhist houses were left untouched. The attack spanned over six hours. The attackers swept across Ramu, demolishing temples and houses neighbourhood after neighbourhood. And all this while, the role of the police and local administration remains veiled in mystery.
The daily also reported that angry people started gathering close to the Buddhist neighbourhood around 7:30pm and were openly threatening to attack the Buddhists. They marched down the roads chanting slogans and ultimately entered the neighbourhood to carry out the atrocities at around 10:30pm.
All this while, the OC did not send any policemen to guard against the attack. He came to Sima Bihar at 11:30pm and told the Buddhists to hand over Uttam, the man in question. He also assured them that nothing would happen to them and asked them to go to sleep. He promised to send his force and went away. He did not keep his promise."
Can you provide a link to show where Ethnic Burmese are being driven out of Bangladesh? There is no population swap happening between Bangladesh and Myanmar, please show a link for it.
Is India nearer to the Middle East? Bangladesh is to the east of India. If India is not Middle-east, then Bangladesh is also not part of Middle East.
