‘I am proud to be called a radical Buddhist’: More Burmese embracing anti-Muslim violence

[xchrom]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2013/06/21/i-am-proud-to-be-called-a-radical-buddhist-more-burmese-buddhists-embracing-anti-muslim-violence/


Extremist Ashin Wirathu speaks with fellow monks during a national Buddhist clergy assembly in Hmawbi, Burma. (AP Photo/Gemunu Amarasinghe)

Members of Burma’s Buddhist majority, including some of its much-respected monks, are increasingly persecuting the country’s long-suffering Muslim minority and adopting an ideology that encourages religious violence. It seems a far way from the Buddhism typically associated with stoic monks and the Lama – who has condemned the violence – and more akin to the sectarian extremism prevalent in troubled corners of the Middle East. The violence has already left nearly 250 Burmese Muslim civilians dead, forced 150,000 from their homes and is getting worse.

“You can be full of kindness and love, but you cannot sleep next to a mad dog,” Ashin Wirathu, a spiritual leader of the movement and very popular figure in Burma, said of the country’s Muslims, whom he called “the enemy.” He told the New York Times, “I am proud to be called a radical Buddhist.”

Wirathu calls himself “the Burmese bin Laden” and was recently labeled on the cover of Time magazine as “the face of Burmese terror.” A prominent Burmese human rights activist, after a lifetime of fighting government oppression, now warns that Wirathu’s movement is promoting an ideology akin to neo-Nazism.

Already, the movement has expanded beyond this one self-styled radical Buddhist monk. It’s now expanding across Burma (also known as Myanmar) according to the Times article. The anti-Muslim sentiment has spread with alarming speed over just the last year, as Burma – which is finally opening up after years of military dictatorship – loosened its strict speech laws. It has prompted boycotts and sermons that can sound an awful lot like calls for violence against Muslims. Monasteries associated with the movement have enrolled 60,000 Burmese children into Sunday school programs.

[vlyons]

1. Maybe if the Moslem Jihadists had not fomented war on everyone else

and lived in peace with their non-Moslem neighbors, they would not have brought this violence down on themselves.

[Douglas Carpenter]

2. how on earth did the Moslems of Burma bring this violence on themselves?

[Dorian Gray]

4. Yes

it's easy to blame jihadists for the problems in Burma. Sadly, I think it's human nature. Oppression is sadly a societal instinct.

[Dorian Gray]

3. Funny (as in ironic) that

an anti-Islamic Buddhist monk refers to himself as "The Burnese bin Laden."

That's pretty much all I have to say about that.

[cbayer]

5. Wow this seems the antithesis of Buddhism to me.

[dimbear]

6. I don't believe anyone in his right mind casts envious eyes on Bangladesh.

It's practically hell on earth. Surely inquiring minds wonder why.

[Marrah_G]

7. It all stems from fear

the fear turns to hate.

[Jim__]

8. Three key contributing factors namely, ‘Bangladesh Pan-Islam’, ‘Myanmar ultra-nationalism’, and ...

... ‘over-population’



A description of a book on this conflict from ( http://www.amazon.com/Muslim-Buddhist-War-Bangladesh-Myanmar-ebook/dp/B005GFJ3W0/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1372103088&sr=1-1-fkmr0&keywords=muslim+buudhist+war+of+bangladesh ) Amazon:

This ebook (ISBN 13: 978-1-928840-04-6) is the digital version of the physical book The Price of Silence: Muslim-Buddhist War of Bangladesh and Myanmar, 2005, ISBN-13: 978-1-928840-03-9, Library of Congress Control Number: 2005906134, Library of Congress Call Number: DS528.8.B3 S48 2005.

The objective of this book is to find ways and means to stop the on-going Muslim-Buddhist War of Bangladesh and Myanmar. In view of this objective the book examines and gives detailed accounts of the causal factors that fuel the Muslim-Buddhist War. Three key contributing factors namely, ‘Bangladesh Pan-Islam’, ‘Myanmar ultra-nationalism’, and ‘over-population’ are thoroughly investigated.

The author tediously traced the historical events of Muslim-Buddhist War and rightly pointed out that today the war is simmering at Bangladesh-Myanmar border. The global warming and rising sea is gradually inundated the over-populated Bangladesh destroying the human habitat along the rivers and coastal area everyday. The agriculture and human habitat dwindles but the population grows rapidly approaching to the point of saturation at two hundred millions. At this point, Bangladesh will be swallowed by the chaos born of poverty, famine, and displaced people. Amidst the chaos and political instability, the Islamic Communes will emerge, in a similar style of the 1871 Paris Commune, to tackle the situation. It will be the time when the chaotic movement of the people out of Bangladesh will take place, destabilizing the region and flaring up the Muslim-Buddhist War of Bangladesh and Myanmar.

The author supports his presentation with 31 tables, 21 figures, 15 maps, 8 charts, 112 illustrations, and 280 references. The reader can listen to his videos at amazon author page or at his website http://www.shwelumaung.org.