In 1982, the government of Myanmar passed an anti-Muslim citizenship law that set things in motion. It officially recognized eight different races and 130 minority groups within Myanmar—but deliberately omitted the country’s one million Rohingya Muslims. Since the passage of the law, many people in that country have been subjected to propaganda designed to make them feel that Rohingya are Muslim “intruders” who were brought in by British colonialists from neighboring Bangladesh.

DEFINE: Clarifies the legal mechanism — the 1982 citizenship law — that formalized Rohingya exclusion and enabled subsequent propaganda.

DEFINE: Establishes the legal mechanism by which Rohingya were stripped of citizenship status in Myanmar.

Arsalan Iftikhar, Fear of a Muslim Planet_ Gl…, loc. 132