Recently there was an uproar between Acehnese students attacking Rohingya refugees, sparking debate among netizens. Some even say that the people of Aceh are experiencing xenophobia, what is that condition?

The moment Acehnese students called out about Rohingya refugee shelters went viral on Twitter. As shared by the @herricahyadi account, seen on Saturday (30/12/2023), students with green alma maters were seen attacking a group of refugees consisting of women and children.

Seeing this invasion, quite a few women and children cried at this behavior and felt frightened. Luckily the police managed to intercept the students, so they didn’t end up hurting the refugees.

On the other hand, seeing the actions of these students, many people tried to understand, and many also regretted this behavior because they thought they had been consumed by hoaxes and Rohingya hatred. There are even those who say that Acehnese people experience xenophobia.

“Those who are still eating hoaxes and xenophobia about the Rohingya, please read. Response from the Palestinian Muslim journalist: @Hebh_Jamal,” wrote the account @margianta which attached a message from the Palestinian journalist, asking the Indonesian people not to spread hatred towards the Rohingya refugees, who are a vulnerable group.

What is Xenophobia?

The Britannica site, states that xenophobia is a feeling of fear and an attitude of contempt towards foreigners who are considered foreigners.

Xenophobia is also described as a person’s belief that foreign individuals or cultures are a threat to their national identity, so that foreigners will not be able to unite with local society peacefully.

Xenophobia comes from Ancient Greek, consisting of xenos which means stranger and phobos which means fear. So it is concluded that foreigners threaten the unity of the community.

The characteristics of xenophobia can take various forms, from discrimination, violence against religion, ethnic groups, racism, hate speech to genocide.

The oldest and most well-known form of xenophobia is anti-Semitism which places the Jewish people as a religious and ethnic group as the target of systematic genocide at the hands of the Nazi government.