Several motivators drove us to embark on this book project, the most important of which was the existential gap between what has happened to the Rohingyas for decades and what the global media depicted. By throwing light on gross human rights violations perpetrated on the Rohingya population, international media attention could help to mobilize and shape the position of the international community. As media coverage grows, international pressures will mount to halt the causes of the Rohingya influx and launch humanitarian actions aimed at protecting the human rights of Rohingyas in Myanmar.

Centuries of human rights violations against the Rohingyas have been disregarded and bitterly ignored by the world, regional, and local media. This has freed the Myanmar authorities to commit atrocities against the Rohingyas without being challenge, question, or protest. Despite the series of Rohingya influxes since the 1970s, the international community has largely kept silent. As a result, the media cannot escape accountability for the continued crimes. This has prompted us to investigate why this has happened to them.

One prevalent criticism levelled at the media's handling of the Rohingya crisis is that the story had been overlooked until lately. The outbreak of unrest in Myanmar's Rakhine state occurred in 2016 and 2017, when a Rakhine (or Arakan) woman was raped and many Rohingya Muslims were murdered in retaliation. Following ethnic violence, around 90,000 individuals were displaced. In recent years, anti-Muslim and anti-Rohingya hate speech has proliferated in Myanmar, contributing to increasing Islamophobia. The situation raged on, and it became evident that hardline Buddhist monks in Myanmar were fuelling anti-Rohingya (and anti-Muslim) prejudice and hatred. In the midst of this violence, Time Magazine decided to draw attention to this Buddhist-fuelled anti-Muslim animosity by featuring Ashin Wirathu on its July 2013 cover. Wirathu, known as the ‘Buddhist Bin Laden’, is one of Myanmar's most outspoken Buddhist leaders, asking for the annihilation of all Rohingyas in Myanmar.

Before embarking on this project, we read hundreds of stories, columns, and books about the Rohingyas’ history and their days of sorrow in their own land, which prompted us to take on such a project. As we continued to consider writing, we began to approach respected publishers who might also be interested.