"Disturbing images and reports of decrepit vessels crammed with Rohingya people from Myanmar adrift in the Andaman Sea have featured prominently in Western newspapers and media websites of late. In April, a Thai government crackdown on human trafficking prompted smugglers to abandon their human cargoes at sea, leaving dozens of boats packed with migrants drifting aimlessly for weeks. Almost without missing a beat, media and rights groups condemned Myanmar for creating this humanitarian crisis ? in the process reviving the old narrative of the pariah state. The perpetual refrain about desperate attempts by Rohingya (or ?Bengalis,” as they are widely called in Myanmar) to flee persecution by powerful Buddhists does not give the full picture ? in fact, this narrative of one-sided victimhood will help neither readers who wish to understand the roots of the crisis nor the Rohingya themselves. The people who call themselves Rohingya are a Muslim minority originally from Bangladesh but with a longstanding presence in Myanmar?s western Rakhine state. Some Muslim families can trace their history in Rakhine to the 16th century. When Mughals invaded Bengal in 1575, many Muslim Bengalis sought refuge in neighboring territory, where ethnic Rakhine people had been living and reigning independently for more than three thousand years..."