Myanmar Census Data Undercuts Buddhist Hardliner Claims

Fahad Shabbir (@FahadShabbir) Published July 21, 2016 | 01:36 PM

NAYPYIDAW, Myanmar, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 21st july,2016) - Muslims make up just over two percent of Myanmar's population, government census figures showed Thursday, undercutting claims by Buddhist hardliners that it was a threat to the dominance of their faith. Full details from the 2014 count, the first of its kind in decades, was withheld for almost a year to avoid stirring tensions in the Buddhist-majority nation. But the new data affirms that Buddhists make up 90 percent of the population of 51.

48 million. They are followed in number by Christians (6.3 percent) and Muslims (2.3 percent or over 1.1 million people). However, the survey does not include the one-million strong stateless Rohingya Muslim minority, who were banned from self-identifying during the census taking. Added together, their number doubles the country's share of Muslims to around four percent -- an estimate that has been in circulation since the last census in 1983.