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Why Buddhists are targeting Muslims across Asia.

Maarkhoor

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Rise of violent Buddhist rhetoric in Asia defies stereotypes

HIGHLIGHTS
  • Buddhist mobs in Sri Lanka last week led anti-Muslim riots that left at least three dead.
  • In Myanmar, ultra-nationalist monks are cheering a military crackdown against Rohingyas.
  • In many recent cases around Asia, this Buddhist aggression has been targeted toward Muslims.
HONG KONG: Buddhism may be touted in the West as an inherently peaceful philosophy, but a surge in violent rhetoric from small but increasingly influential groups of hardline monks in parts of Asia is upending the religion's tolerant image.

Buddhist mobs in Sri Lanka + last week led anti-Muslim riots that left at least three dead and more than 200 Muslim-owned establishments in ruins, just the latest bout of communal violence there stoked by Buddhist nationalists.

In Myanmar, ultra-nationalist monks led by firebrand preacher Wirathu have poured vitriol on the country's small Muslim population, cheering a military crackdown forcing nearly 7,00,000 Rohingya into Bangladesh + .

And in neighbouring Thailand, a prominent monk found himself in hot water for calling on followers to burn down mosques.

What has prompted this surge in aggressive rhetoric from followers of a faith that is so often equated, rightly or wrongly, with non-violence?

For many in the West, schooled in Buddhism via the beatniks, Hollywood, meditation classes, tropical holidays and inspirational Dalai Lama quotes, the visceral response of these monks can be a shock.

But Michael Jerryson, an expert on religion at Youngstown State University who has just completed a book exploring Buddhism and violence, says throughout history some Buddhists — like any faith — have used religion to justify violence.

"There's a common mindset, whether it's Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Thailand... that Buddhism is somehow under threat," he said, describing the latest incarnation of violent Buddhist rhetoric.

"Each area has its own history, its own causes and instigators, but these instigators are also interlinked."

In many recent cases around Asia, this aggression has been targeted toward Muslims.

After the Taliban's destruction of the Bamiyan Buddha statues in Afghanistan and the "war on terror" rhetoric, Jerryson says, warped historical grievances have "collided with recent Islamophobia".

Despite centuries of largely peaceful co-existence and trading, Buddhist fundamentalist groups portray Islam as invasive, toppling ancient Buddhist empires in Malaysia and Indonesia and now threatening the same for modern Buddhist nations through jihad or high birth rates.

Myanmar's Wirathu has built a following railing against Muslims in incendiary sermons both in person and on Facebook — which closed down his page in January.

While Muslims make up less than four percent of Myanmar's population, Wirathu paints a millenarian portrait of an Islamic plot to eradicate Buddhism.

His Ma Ba Tha group was instrumental in pushing laws to restrict interfaith marriages and changing religion.

In Sri Lanka, Buddhist militancy has gone mainstream, with clergy seen clashing with riot police and leading anti-government protests.

During the brutal 26-year civil war, the ire of ultra-nationalists among the mainly Buddhist Sinhalese majority was focused on the island's Tamil Hindus.

But after the Tamil Tigers were beaten in 2009, hardliners turned on Muslims, who make up some 10 percent of the population.

Monk Galagodaatte Gnanasara, the movement's most prominent leader, is on bail facing hate speech charges and insulting the Koran.

"The Koran should be banned in the country," he said recently. "If you don't, we will go from house to house and campaign till it is banned."

His movement BBS — Buddhist Force — hosted Wirathu and his followers in September 2014.

In Thailand, anti-Muslim hardliners have had less success.

Thai columnist Sanitsuda Ekachai says years of corruption scandals have undermined faith in the clergy.

"Subsequently, local monks' ethnic prejudices carry far less weight with the public and state authorities than their counterparts in Myanmar and Sri Lanka," she told AFP.

But there have been flashes of tension such as in the country's Malay Muslim-majority south, where a brutal insurgency has killed more than 6,500 civilians in the last decade.

Most of the dead are Muslim civilians, but Buddhist monks have also been targeted by militants, fuelling animosity towards Islam.

Maha Apichat, a young and influential ex-monk, used Facebook to call on followers to burn down a mosque for every monk. He was later defrocked.

Experts say Buddhist clergy can trigger violence without directly participating.

"With a couple of very rare exceptions Buddhist monastic groups don't carry out the violence themselves," explains Iselin Frydenlund, from the Norwegian School of Theology, who has written extensively about what she dubs "Buddhist protectionist" movements in Myanmar and Sri Lanka.

"But what they will do is provide the justification for the use of violence carried out by others, be they vigilante groups, civilians, police or soldiers."

It is not just global Islamophobia fuelling these groups, she adds — colonial history, globalisation and the advance of secularism play their part.

"People feel they are losing their traditions."

Puangthong Pawakapan, a politics expert at Bangkok's Chulalongkorn University, points to an earlier threat to monks from the recent past — communism.

During the height of the Cold War in the 1970s, one of Thailand's most prominent right-wing monks — Kittiwuttho — famously told followers it was "no sin to kill communists".


Jerryson says he fears the recent religious communalism could spread to vulnerable minorities, such as Buddhists in Bangladesh's Chittagong Hill Tracts.

"By labelling Muslims as adversaries to Buddhism, which historically has not been true, it solidifies the perception that the relationship is adversarial," he warns.




"The damage is being done, there is a breakdown of trust, a building of fears."
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com...a-defies-stereotypes/articleshow/63263720.cms
 
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Lol, dumb Buddhists picking on the weakest and tiniest of Muslim minorities far away from the borders of global Islamic civilization spanning continents. May God protect Muslim minorities in jungles of Thailands, Myanmar, and Srilanka.

Pakistan military, an Islamic Army, helped Srilankan Buddhists to defeat Tamil Tigers..and in return Srilankan Buddhists are turning on Muslim minority now? How pathetic.

Srilankan government needs to bud these idiots soon or else they might lose the peace of entire Island
 
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Simple buddist extremism against small minorities

Buddhists can be extremists too all this buddah was peaceful and buddists follow the path is just nonsense

They got a chance to whip up sentiment against a small unarmed minority and they took it

Self defence needs to be in your own hands you can outsource it to government and security forces that either are incompetent or don't care about you

Myanmar, sri lanka, even india with its rise in hindutva

Whats more is there arent any large buddists communities in our countries that would fear the consequences of a back lash

The countries as direct neighbours like Bangladesh are useless
 
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Most of this violence has nothing to do with Buddha’s concepts but they too have ideas that can be used to incite violence , not as such different to other religions.

At the end religion(not faith) is a problem for humanity as the organized nature of it constricts its ability to be introspective and evolved.
 
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Most of this violence has nothing to do with Buddha’s concepts but they too have ideas that can be used to incite violence , not as such different to other religions.

At the end religion(not faith) is a problem for humanity as the organized nature of it constricts its ability to be introspective and evolved.

I guess Buddhist monks will be on the look out for further riots from now on. Some monks organized Mobs to protect mosques within their villages but Monks around SL joined to protest against the riots after things ended(Govt limited the flow of info and pretty much closed off riot-hit areas to avoid riots from spreading and to stop the rioters from bringing in more people as well as to stop as many rioters from escaping but this also resulted in a delayed action )
https://roar.media/english/life/in-...ndness-and-solidarity-during-the-kandy-riots/

SL government doesn't pay much attention to outside influence and it is not a good policy and our laws can't corner groups who create trouble from the sides while avoiding trouble. As you know the Thawheed Jammath from India has opened offices in SL and has been creating trouble. They tried to bring a radical preacher to SL to unveil a Sinhala Quran which was met by heavy opposition from the larger Muslim community including the accusation that their "translation" has several inaccuracies, however they continue to hand out these Qurans and act like Jehovah's Witnesses. What pissed off the rest of the Sri Lankans was the protest against Sri Lankan Government trying to add a minimum marriage age of 16 to the Muslim Marriage and Divorce act(which I believe shouldn't exist in the first place as it encourages HR violations and creates more divisions). The committee which was created by the Government consisted of Muslim judges and politicians.
What the Thawheed Jammath did was do a protest in the middle of Colombo in Daylight with banners saying "Minimum age of marriage is not practical" to "Lets condemn the good governance that touches the Muslim Law' etc. And the reactions were predictable, the moderates condemned the protests but not everyone is going just condemn Thawheed Jammath and radical mullahs alone. While the police arrested the Thawheed Jammath organizer keeping him in jail was hard and bail was granted. (The arrest only happened because the Bodu Bala Sena started shouting and govt feared tensions to increase)

On the other side in 2014 the Bodu Bala Sena invited Ashin Wirathu for a conference where their signed an agreement to cooperate against "Islamic Jihadists" which is a thinly veiled attempt at spreading Islamophobia. The Bodu Bala Sena always claims to the media that their are only against radical islam but Gnanasara thera's speeches during BBS meetings are pure hatred.

Sri Lankan Governments do not act against the real issue and think keeping the symptoms under control will cure the disease
 
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Buddhists were always violent.. just read the history of China, Korea, Japan..

You are correct, many people forget that the Imperial Japanese Army during WW2 were Buddhists (as a part of Shintoism).

Most of this violence has nothing to do with Buddha’s concepts but they too have ideas that can be used to incite violence , not as such different to other religions.

At the end religion(not faith) is a problem for humanity as the organized nature of it constricts its ability to be introspective and evolved.

Buddhism is dying. My parents were Chinese Buddhists (a part of Chinese folk religion), but me and my brother are both non-religious.

This pattern is repeating itself all over the world, I think it's natural for the children of Buddhists to become non-religious, especially in China which holds the majority of the world's Buddhists.

As their numbers shrink, their fear grows.
 
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You are correct, many people forget that the Imperial Japanese Army during WW2 were Buddhists (as a part of Shintoism).

I have no dogs in this fight, but just for the record, Shintoism has NOTHING to do with Buddhism. Some Japanese follow both together.

Buddhism is dying. My parents were Chinese Buddhists (a part of Chinese folk religion), but me and my brother are both non-religious.

What does that mean? Chinese Buddhists - a part of Chinese folk religion? Buddhism is certainly not part of any folk religion, unless you are Tibetan and follow Bon practices. Please explain this; I am puzzled.

This pattern is repeating itself all over the world, I think it's natural for the children of Buddhists to become non-religious, especially in China which holds the majority of the world's Buddhists.

As their numbers shrink, their fear grows.

I think this applies to all religions. Some permit recusancy and recantation more easily than others. Only in Islam is there a death sentence for leaving Islam; no other religion forbids it on pain of death. Most Hindus, and Christians, and many others practise their religion casually.
 
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1. The same reason Hindus are and that is because there is so much anti Muslim sentiment created by western media (for economic reasons off course), no every lalu khera who was afraid of muslim for centuries comes out chest thumping.

2. to wake up Muslims and create some unity among them, not happening yet because Arabs are still making money and that money is being used by anti-muslim forces to further the divide but when that money runs out and all those arab dictators are thrown out in the gutter then we might see some.
 
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You are correct, many people forget that the Imperial Japanese Army during WW2 were Buddhists (as a part of Shintoism).

Actually Buddhism is much closer to non-theistic sects of Hinduism than Shintoism as the concepts of Dharma, Karma and Nirvana are shared with slight differences.
Buddhism is dying. My parents were Chinese Buddhists (a part of Chinese folk religion), but me and my brother are both non-religious.

This pattern is repeating itself all over the world, I think it's natural for the children of Buddhists to become non-religious, especially in China which holds the majority of the world's Buddhists.

As their numbers shrink, their fear grows.

Nope. There is no such fear in SL, its more of Sinhalese nationalism combined with extreme Islamophobia.
Instead of Buddhism dying phobia its more of "Muslims breeding like rabbits and overtaking other races"-phobia.
There is no issue with major Christian churches and the Bodu Bala Sena leader even praised the Cardinal and the Catholic Church in SL.
The issue is entirely Islamophobia
 
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What does that mean? Chinese Buddhists - a part of Chinese folk religion? Buddhism is certainly not part of any folk religion, unless you are Tibetan and follow Bon practices. Please explain this; I am puzzled.

Chinese folk religion is a mix of Taoism, Confucianism and Buddhism. The deity Guanyin for example is a mixture of both Taoism and Buddhism.

Similar to how Japanese will follow both Shintoism and Buddhism at the same time.

Statue of Guanyin:

35dca7aeb22200675dbd6545b1ec23a6.jpg
 
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Chinese folk religion is a mix of Taoism, Confucianism and Buddhism. The deity Guanyin for example is a mixture of both Taoism and Buddhism.

Similar to how Japanese will follow both Shintoism and Buddhism at the same time.

Statue of Guanyin:

35dca7aeb22200675dbd6545b1ec23a6.jpg


That is a nice statue though. Where is it located?
 
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Lol, dumb Buddhists picking on the weakest and tiniest of Muslim minorities far away from the borders of global Islamic civilization spanning continents. May God protect Muslim minorities in jungles of Thailands, Myanmar, and Srilanka.

Pakistan military, an Islamic Army, helped Srilankan Buddhists to defeat Tamil Tigers..and in return Srilankan Buddhists are turning on Muslim minority now? How pathetic.

Srilankan government needs to bud these idiots soon or else they might lose the peace of entire Island
And that's why China has taken Tibet from them and shoved a dunda up the dali lama
 
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