Long anti-Islamic activities started in Burma since the era of Taungoo dynasty. The Burmese king Bayinnaung (1550–1581 AD) imposed restrictions upon his Muslim subjects, but not actual persecution.Yegar Muslims; p. 10, lines 11&12 In 1559 AD, after conquering Pegu (present-day Bago), Bayinnaung banned Islamic ritual slaughter, thereby prohibiting Muslims from consuming halal meals of goats and chicken. He also banned Eid al-Adha and Qurbani, regarding killing animals in the name of religion as a cruel custom.Yegar Muslims; p. 10, lines 10-16Hmanan Yazawin (The Glass Palace Chronicle) Vol II p.312 In the 17th century, Indian Muslims residing in Arakan were massacred, providing harmful and actual persecution. These Muslims had settled with Shah Shuja, who had fled India after losing the Mughal war of succession. Initially, the Arakan pirate Sandathudama (1652–1687 AD) who was the local pirate of Chittagong and Arakan, allowed Shuja and his followers to settle there. But a dispute arose between Sandatudama and Shuja, and Shuja unsuccessfully attempted to rebel. Sandathudama killed most of Shuja's followers, though Shuja himself escaped the massacre.Yegar Muslims; p. 21, paragraph 2; pp. 22-24.Colonel Ba Shin, Coming of Islam to Burma down to 1700 AD, Lecture at the Asia History Congress. New Delhi: Azad Bhavan 1961 Mimo.H. R. Spearman, British Burma Gazetteer (Rangoon, 1880); I, pp. 293-294.Hall, History of South East Asia, pp. 33-341.Desai, A Pageant of Burmese History, pp. 61-63.Harvey, G. E. "The fate of Shah Shuja", 1661, JBRS, XII (Aug 1922) pp. 107-112. King Alaungpaya (1752–1760) prohibited Muslims from practicing the Islamic method of slaughtering cattle.Yegar Muslims; p. 10, line 21 King Bodawpaya (1782–1819) arrested four prominent Burmese Muslim Imams from Myedu and killed them in Ava, the capital, after they refused to eat pork.Yegar Muslims; p. 12, paragraph 3 According to the Myedu Muslim and Burma Muslim version, Bodawpaya later apologised for the killings and recognised the Imams as saints.Siddiq Khan, M., "Captain George Sorrel's Mission to the court of Amarapura, 1793-4", Journal of the Asiatic Society of Pakistan (Dacca); II (1957), pp. 132-140
