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General Buddhism => General Buddhism => Topic started by: icy on October 01, 2013, 09:20:01 AM
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Fresh sectarian violence broke out in north-western Burma late on Saturday when Buddhist mobs burned down dozens of homes and shops following rumours that a young woman had been sexually assaulted by a Muslim man. There were no reports of injuries.
Myanmar's radical monk Wirathu, whose anti-Muslim rhetoric has placed him at the centre of rising religious violence, said on his Facebook page that hundreds of people took part in the riot on the outskirts of Kantbalu.
A crowd surrounded the police station demanding that the suspect be handed over, said a police officer from the area, who asked not to be named because he did not have authority to speak to the media.
When police refused, they started setting buildings on fire, he said.
About 35 houses and 12 shops, most belonging to Muslims, were destroyed before calm was restored, he said.
Predominantly Buddhist Burma has been grappling with sectarian violence since the country's military rulers handed over power to a nominally civilian government in 2011.
More than 250 people have been killed, most of them Muslims, and 140,000 others forced to flee their homes.
The unrest began last year in the western state of Rakhine, where Buddhists accuse Rohingya Muslims of illegally entering the country and encroaching on their land. The violence, on a smaller scale but still deadly, spread earlier this year to other parts of the country.
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Oct 2: The Myanmar government has vowed to cooperate fully with five faiths in the country to prevent recurrence of racial and religious conflicts, media reports said Wednesday.
In his message to the Conference of Leaders of Five Faiths in Yangon, President U Thein Sein said instability harms and delays the state reform and tarnishes the image of the nation internationally, Xinhua reported.
Citing the fundamental teachings of all faiths, he said the problem should be settled with truth, loving kindness and tolerance, calling for avoiding extremes.
He maintained that the constitution of Myanmar fully guarantees freedom of religion as the fundamental right of citizens, warning not to misuse the noble idea of the freedom of religion as a springboard for any kind of extremism and fuelling hatred.
The president expressed the belief that only an all-inclusive democracy can guarantee long-term progress and peace and stability of a country like Myanmar which is formed with numerous indigenous people of different races, religions and culture.
“This diversity must be a united force for our own interest,” he said.
There are mainly five faiths in Myanmar, namely Buddhism (89.2 percent), Christianity (5.0 percent), Islam (3.8 percent), Hinduism (0.5 percent), and Spiritualism (1.2 percent).
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The Worldwide Sangha Responds to Buddhist Violence in Burma Against Muslims.
The worldwide sangha is pleading with Burmese monks and layity alike to end the violence against Muslims, and other ethnic minority groups in their beautiful country. The Dalai Lama recently addressed the troubling situation thusly:
"Buddha always teaches us about forgiveness, tolerance, compassion. If from one corner of your mind, some emotion makes you want to hit, or want to kill, then please remember Buddha's faith. We are followers of Buddha." -ABC News (link).
He went on to say that there is, "Too much emphasis on 'we' and 'they'" in the world." -The Huffington Post (link).
The Dalai Lama's words echo those of other international Buddhist leaders who recently penned a joint-letter condemning the violence and calling for calm. The Buddhist magazine, Tricycle, published their remarks and I will quote some of it, but I urge you to read the entire letter at the Tricycle Blog (link):
Buddhist teaching is based on the precepts of refraining from killing and causing harm. Buddhist teaching is based on compassion and mutual care. Buddhist teaching offers respect to all, regardless of class, caste, race or creed. We are with you for courageously standing up for these Buddhist principles even when others would demonize or harm Muslims or other ethnic groups. It is only through mutual respect, harmony and tolerance that Myanmar can become a modern great nation benefiting all her people and a shining example to the world.
JAMES: One of the reasons that I am so passionate about the trouble in Burma is because I believe the foundation of Buddhism is non-violence. If they can not even refrain from violence and harm toward innocent people then I can't help but wonder, why they are Buddhists at all?
~i bow to the buddha within all beings~
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Are invisible forces orchestrating Myanmar's anti-Muslim violence?
The military has much to lose from democratic reforms and may be using the bloodshed as a way to reassert control.
Myanmar's president made his first trip to the violence-hit town of Thandwe last week, days after a 94-year-old Muslim woman was slain by Buddhists in a nearby village. Spurred on by an unrelated argument between a Muslim political leader and a Buddhist taxi driver two days prior, a mob approached her home in a nearby village on October 1. Her daughter managed to escape, but returned to find a charred house and a mother with cuts to her neck, head and stomach.
The state-run New Light of Myanmar later quoted President Thein Sein as saying that he had suspicions about the nature of the Thandwe attacks, where close to 100 houses were razed. "Ethnic Rakhine [Buddhists] and ethnic Kaman [Muslims] have been living here in peaceful co-existence for many years,” he said. "External motives instigated violence and conflicts. According to the evidence in hand, rioters who set fire to the villages are outsiders.”
For someone who has demonstrated such ineptness at confronting head-on the anti-Muslim violence over the past 16 months, the statement is surprising. In it, he finally appears to acknowledge that organised networks of Buddhist extremists are operating in Myanmar.
It's something that observers have long suspected: the method and style of attacks in Rakhine state, Mandalay region, Shan state and beyond, have been eerily similar, with small trigger events causing mobs to form quickly and descend on towns en masse, weapons already prepared. In most cases, police have stood by and watched, and often locals at the scene have claimed the mobs are formed of "outsiders". A photograph taken near Thandwe this week shows a truckload of armed men sporting red bandanas,which appears at odds with the idea that these groups are just rabbles of aggrieved local civilians.
The role of Buddhist monks in advocating violence against Muslims has also taken many by surprise, although monks were also involved in attacks on mosques during anti-Muslim violence in 1997.
Not a new phenomenon
If there is an organised element to this, then it raises the question of who, and why. There's no clear answer, but powerful forces in Myanmar, particularly the military, would benefit from this unrest. On several occasions in the past few decades, violent clashes directed at an ethnic minority group have coincided with political sensitivities in the country: the 1967 anti-Chinese riots, when the military orchestrated attacks on Chinese-owned properties, in part to distract from General Ne Win's damaging mismanagement of the economy; and in 1988, when attacks on Muslims broke out in Taunggyi and Prome as anti-regime protests swept the country. Many at the time believed the military had sought to inflame ethnic tensions in order to split what could have otherwise been a cohesive anti-regime front.
Can this theory be applied to Myanmar today? Thein Sein's democratic reforms will have unnerved the military, which receives more than one-fifth of the total state budget. With moves towards democratic rule, questions are asked of the colossal resources channeled to the armed forces, and whether its position as the patriarch of Myanmar society is still relevant. This week, the military-backed ruling Union Solidarity and Development Party warned that the country would be in "serious danger and face consequences beyond expectation” if the constitution was overhauled. One of the main reasons the opposition has for revising the junta-drafted 2008 constitution would be to dilute the power of the military.
Societal unrest, whether it be communal tensions or ongoing conflict with ethnic armies, provides a prime opportunity for any military to reassert its waning influence. Already this has worked to surprising effect in a country where ethnic and political divides run deep. Rakhine, who have long resisted military encroachment on their state, now ask for their protection against what they see as an Islamic tide sweeping the state. Prominent members of the pro-democracy movement have said they would join forces with the army to fight off "foreign invaders”, namely the Muslim Rohingya minority. The role of Buddhist monks in advocating violence against Muslims has also taken many by surprise, although monks were also involved in attacks on mosques during anti-Muslim violence in 1997.
Rohingya, an existential threat?
There's no smoking gun in all this, but the evolution of the conflict that began in Sittwe last June between the people of Rakhine and Rohingya suggests something beyond a localised tussle for ethnic or religious dominance. Importantly, the latest attacks in Thandwe were directed at Kaman Muslims, while the vast majority of the violence to hit Rakhine state since June last year has targeted the Rohingya, who are distinct from the Kaman. While the Kaman had until then lived peacefully in the state, the Rohingya were long seen by Rakhine as illegal Bengali immigrants, and their presence there considered an existential threat to the Buddhist population. Campaigns of violence against the Rohingya were therefore justified in the eyes of many Rakhine as a means of defending the land and preserving Buddhism.
That narrative shifted somewhat when violence broke out in Meiktila in central Myanmar in March this year. Meiktila has a Muslim population, but they are not Rohingya, as is the case in Lashio in Shan state, Oakkan in Yangon division and Hpakant in Kachin state, where subsequent deadly attacks on Muslims took place. Rather than an issue confined to one ethnic minority in western Myanmar, it has escalated to a campaign against Muslims in general.
As Myanmar academic Maung Zarni noted in a recent email, not every bout of inter-ethnic violence is state orchestrated. Genuine local grievances can and do result in fits of rage. But, says Zarni, there is a history of manufactured ethno-religious mobilisation "aimed at destablising the order in Burma since the British time”, something that independence hero General Aung San had warned of following the departure of the colonial power.
Can this anti-Muslim ideology really have spread across such vast geographical divides without the aid of an entity like the military, the only entity that can operate on a nationwide scale?
Various analysts have tried to rationalise the evolution of this latest anti-Muslim conflict by likening it to a Yugoslavia-style scenario, where ethnic tensions that were bottled for decades burst to the surface following a shift in the style of rule. This has likely played a role in Myanmar, given attempts by successive rulers since independence to undermine the legitimacy of Muslims as "real" countrymen. Fueled on by the rise of social media, the propaganda and provocation can spread like wildfire, so that Meiktila is now not so distant from Sittwe.
But there is something highly suspicious in the commonalities of attacks across the country. On Saturday, a mob gathered outside a police station in Kyaunggon, near Yangon, and demanded they hand over a Muslim man suspected of an attempting to rape a Buddhist girl a month ago. When the police refused, they torched five Muslim homes. A similar situation triggered the Thandwe riots, with police refusing to hand over the Kaman Muslim leader who was arrested in the wake of the argument.
Same tactics used by the junta?
It's a pattern that has played out across the country, across disparate ethnic states such as the Shan, Kachin and Rakhine. In Kachin state, anti-Muslim violenceis a new phenomenon. Yet the only common thread that unites these ethnic groups' nationalism is a resistance to Burman, and not Muslim, designs on their states.There are few other obvious synapses that bridge these vast ideological and geographical divides, and across which this anti-Muslim sentiment could pass with such speed. How then has this violent reaction to the presence of Muslims? The anti-Chinese riots of the 1960s and 1970s followed major influxes of Chinese into Myanmar, and were in part a reaction to local fears that jobs were going to immigrants. This pretext for the violence cannot be applied in the same way to Muslims.
It is not beyond reason to suspect that an entity that is able to operate on a nationwide scale (of which there are few in Myanmar) may have a hand in current events. Only two hold this position – the military, and the Sangha, the religious council that administers Buddhist institutions and which, given the historic importance of Buddhism to societal cohesion in Myanmar, has its own vested interests in stemming the growth of the country’s Muslim population. So rather than being particular to Thandwe, Thein Sein was echoing something that victims of anti-Muslim violence elsewhere have said, essentially that there is a seemingly invisible force orchestrating the early stages of these attacks.
Who, exactly, it isn't clear. The popular anti-Muslim 969 movement has been traced back to the religious affairs minister under the former junta, but the wider 969 sentiment is alive and well in government today: even Thein Sein, considered a comparative moderate, has publicly called for the removal of the Rohingya, and considers the 969 doctrine, despite its intrinsic links with the violence, to be a "symbol of peace". Last week, Shwe Mann, the powerful speaker of the Lower House, said: "I appreciate the attempts of the Rakhine people to protect Myanmar," which feeds the narrative that Bengalis are trying to take over the country's westernmost state, and must be repelled.
Consequently, it's not too giant a leap to suggest the government could at least be accommodating whatever forces are mobilising mobs to torch Muslim neighbourhoods. If that's the case, however, why would Thein Sein himself hint at this? Again, there's no clear-cut answer, but what's been a surprise to many observers is the disunity in government, with even the military-appointed MPs not always voting as one bloc. Thein Sein appears to want the country to move forward, but others in his cabinet evidently want to retain the control they had under military rule.
Some of the tactics seen in the anti-Muslim violence are similar to those used by the junta, with the "outsider" mobs reminiscent of the plain-clothed civilian militias like Swan Arr Shin, which were used so effectively by the generals to stir up violence and confuse allegiances during peaceful protests. Factor in the numerous reports of police inaction, and even instructions not to intervene until well into the second day of violence in Meiktila, and the picture grows murkier.
Rather than being a case of either/or, what may have occurred is a synthesis between two major interests – those of an embattled military-political elite with willing collaborators in the Sangha and in Rakhine political parties, and those of a civilian population indoctrinated to consider Muslims as lesser or non-citizens.
One feeds the other, and together work in perfect harmony: military or political leaders looking for a pretext to reassert control in a rapidly evolving country would see the undercurrent of anti-Muslim attitudes in Myanmar society as a classic divide and rule opportunity - help manufacture a threat, and jump in to save the day. It serves as both a PR coup in the face of domestic criticism of the security state in Myanmar, and helps split and weaken society - again a boon for the military. This tactic certainly has historical precedence in Myanmar, and may well have been reinvigorated by a military that today has much to lose from democratic reform.
The Buddhist Rakhine consider Muslim Rohingya to be Bengalis and have directed most of the sectarian bloodshed at them, writes Francis Wade [EPA].
Francis Wade is a Thailand-based freelance journalist and analyst covering Myanmar and Southeast Asia.
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Recent Muslim-Buddhist Clashes
The Burmese security forces have detained 78 people in connection with the recent spate of Muslim-Buddhist clashes in Arakan’s Sandoway township, state media announced on Monday.
It follows news that the death toll from the violence, which erupted after an argument between a Buddhist trishaw driver and a Muslim shop owner on 29 September, has risen to seven.
The bodies of two Buddhist men were reportedly discovered at a local cemetery near Sandoway on Friday.
According to a report by the BBC, the two men were among a group of five Buddhists and a Christian pastor travelling by taxi through Thabyuchaing village when they unwittingly ran into an angry mob wielding knives and sticks. Four escaped, while the two others went missing.
The lives of four Muslim men and a 94-year-old woman had already been claimed in the unrest.
Authorities have detained several suspects, many with links to local nationalist groups and political parties, for their alleged role in the unrest. The chairman of the local Rakhine Nationalities Development Party was taken into custody immediately after the violence, while at least a dozen members of the Organisation for the Protection of Race and Religion have since been held for questioning.
The government confirmed on Monday that a total of 112 houses, three mosques and one petrol warehouse were burned to the ground in the riots, making nearly 500 people homeless. The report again sought to pin blame on instigators within “some organisations” intent on causing unrest.
The report echoes closely the words of President Thein Sein who recently blamed “outsiders” for orchestrating the violence to coincide with his first visit to Arakan state, which has been wracked by communal violence since last year.
The Burmese government has come under fire for a perceived failure to prevent the spread of religious violence, which has increasingly targeted the country’s Muslim minority.
But Monday’s report, published in the state-run New Light of Myanmar, insisted that anyone found guilty of “manipulating, committing and abetting” the violence would be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.
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Most likely theses riots in Myanmar are incited by Western and Saudi Arabic Wahhabite sponsored terrorists, just like in Syria (and a long list of other countries), in order to destabilize the Government and justify Western military intervention.
The cover is sectarian or interfaith clashes, but the next step is American drones bombing the innocent (including the Muslim, as in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia etc.), in order to bring “democracy” and “prosperity” to the country (which they disrespectfully call by the colonial name of “Burman).
And of course the Dalai Lama, as a good professional Western puppet, immediately jumps in and plays his role in the farce, with his hypocritical discourse on religious tolerance. Plus Aung San Su Kyi, the widow of the colonialist spy Michael Aris.
This has hardly anything to do with interfaith clashes as Western hysteria-inducing propaganda wants us to believe, but just with the Western interventionist obsession ultimately aimed at establishing the “global government” of the paranoid dreams of the Western geopolitical mentor, the unequalled war criminal Henry Kissinger (http://www.dailysquib.co.uk/index.php?news=3089 (http://www.dailysquib.co.uk/index.php?news=3089)).
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This is definitely a very disturbing piece of news, especially when the media makes a headline of it. Buddhists are predominantly peace loving people and I have not heard of any wars or unrest ignited by Buddhists. The first thing that came to my mind is that perhaps there is more to it than what we know and situation is realy getting out of hand hence they have to do something drastic to put an end to it.
These Muslims are from the Rohingya minority that is a stateless people that have denied citizenship by Burma. They are Bengali but they are also not recognized as citizens of Bangladesh . They are descendants of people who brought in by the British to work in agriculture. Another of the mess the British left behind. There has been unrest in Rakhine state in Western Burma against them by Burmese Buddhists who simply want them gone.
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It is well known that the Islamic trend prevailing among the Rohingya is the extremist-terrorist Wahhabite sect, promoted by bloodthirsty tyrannic regimes such as Saudi Arabia, with the money of the oil they extract in partnership with US and UK.
This ultra-intolerant Wahhabite sect is itself known as a monster long since fed by British and Zionist strategists, to ensure control over the region and its oil. They are essentially friendly to US, UK, and Israel (irrespectively of the lack of official diplomatic relations with the latter).
The idea is ultimately to bring the chaos to Myanmar (which some frustrated ex-colonialists insist on disrespectfully calling “Burma”), in order to justify a Western military intervention, and subsequent destruction, fragmentation and full submission of the country. About the same they just did, do, or try to do, with Lybia, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Yemen.
This strategy is confessed with all the letters by the US longtime supreme geostrategist and psycopath Henry Kissinger, himself a US and Israeli citizen (http://www.dailysquib.co.uk/index.php?news=3089 (http://www.dailysquib.co.uk/index.php?news=3089)).
And what has Tibet to do with this? Absolutely everything. In case, not of course through Wahhabite terrorism, but through collaborationist Tibetans themselves, always ready to foment chaos in Tibet, nostalgic as they are of the Dalai Lama's intolerant feudal authocratic slavery, so reminiscent in many respects of the Wahhabite “monarchies”.
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No place for Islam? Buddhist nationalism in Myanmar
The continued violence against the broader Muslim community stains any democratic reforms in a country, writes author Harrison Akins.
Harrison Akins is the Ibn Khaldun Chair Research Fellow at American University's School of International Service and assisted Professor Akbar Ahmed on his study, The Thistle and the Drone: How America's War on Terror Became a Global War on Tribal Islam.
In Rakhine State in western Myanmar, during President Thein Sein's visit to the region earlier this month, a mob of hundreds of Buddhists descended on a Muslim village - more than 70 homes were burnt to the ground and a 94-year-old Muslim woman lay dead from stab wounds. This attack is just the latest in a series of clashes between the Buddhist and Muslim populations around the country.
Despite the democratic and economic reforms in Myanmar over the past year and a thaw in this once isolated authoritarian state's relations with the West, the growing violence against the Muslim population is a tragic reminder that Myanmar is still far from fully relinquishing the problems stemming from decades of military rule. For many Muslims, particularly the Rohingya people of Rakhine State, the hopeful talk of democracy and freedom as the dark shadows of the junta recede, is but empty rhetoric as the oppression and prejudice of the past half-century at the hands of the Burmese- and Buddhist-dominated military government continues unabated.
History of persecution
While many minority groups in Myanmar suffered at the hands of the government, the Rohingya, numbering roughly 2 million, face the denial of their identity and a threat to their mere existence. The BBC has referred to the stateless Rohingya as "one of the world's most persecuted minority groups”.
The Rohingya, the historical inhabitants of what was then Arakan State (which was renamed Rakhine State in 1989 at the same time Burma was renamed Myanmar), remained a part of Myanmar after independence from British rule in 1948, despite early discussions of joining the bordering East Pakistan. After the military junta under General Ne Win rose to power in 1962, the government started a process of establishing a nationalist identity based on the dominant ethnicity and religion - Burmese and Buddhist. This was a shift from the more inclusive vision of Myanmar's Founding Father, Aung San, who included representatives from minority ethnic and religious communities on the short-lived Executive Committee of his interim government, before he was assassinated in 1947.
The Muslim Rohingya, as both non-Burmese and non-Buddhist, were labeled foreigners and incorrectly called "illegal Bengali immigrants” who came to Myanmar under British rule. Beginning in the 1970s, the Burmese military embarked on campaigns to ethnically cleanse the nation of the Rohingya.
The Rohingya were subjected to widespread rape, arbitrary arrests, destruction of mosques and villages, and seizure of their lands. Rubble from mosques was often used to pave roads between military bases in the region.
The first of these, Operation Naga Min or King Dragon, was initiated in 1978 for the purpose of identifying "illegal immigrants” in the country and expelling them. The symbol of the King Dragon is an important aspect of Buddhist mythology. Naga, a mythological dragon, is originally an Indian motif and figures prominently in the legends of the Buddha. A Nagayon, or "sheltered by dragon", temple in Myanmar is closely tied with the idea of the dragon as protector. The temples carry a carving of this dragon, resembling a hooded cobra, protecting a Buddha image with its hood. Identification became the first step in this large scale ethnic cleansing operation of the military "protecting” the sanctity of Buddhism from the "foreigners” who posed a "threat”.
During this operation, the Rohingya were subjected to widespread rape, arbitrary arrests, destruction of mosques and villages, and seizure of their lands. Rubble from mosques was often used to pave roads between military bases in the region. A mass exodus of nearly a quarter-of-a-million Rohingya refugees fled across the Naaf River for neighbouring Bangladesh in a period of only three months. Many of these refugees were repatriated to Myanmar the following year.
In 1991, a second military operation, Operation Pyi Thaya or Operation Clean and Beautiful Nation, was launched for the same purpose of expelling the Rohingya population. Two-hundred-thousand Rohingya refugees fled again into Bangladesh. Nearly 300,000 refugees remain there today in makeshift refugee camps, many without food or medical assistance, with only 28,000 in officially recognised United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNCHR) camps. Bangladesh has rejected any proposal for local integration of the Rohingya, citing that the Rohingya are "environmental and economic burdens, social hazards in the village, and breeders of Islamic militancy.”
Bangladesh has impeded or rejected efforts to improve the camps and offer humanitarian aid as they fear this will serve as an incentive for refugees to remain in the country and for further Rohingya to cross the border from Myanmar. In 2011, they rejected a $33m aid package from the United Nations to be used for the Rohingya refugees.
They are treated with equal contempt by other countries in the region. There have been many media reports of the Rohingya "boat people”, fleeing by sea, being shot at by the Thai navy, being captured and sold by Thai officials to human traffickers, or being held indefinitely in immigration centres in Australia and resorting to suicide rather than continuing to face a hopeless situation.
Genocidal actions?
Within Myanmar, the Rohingya have consistently been denied their identity. Under the 1982 Citizenship Law, they were officially stripped of their citizenship which was reserved for the 135 officially recognised ethnic groups. As non-citizens, the Rohingya were required to have government permission to travel outside their villages, repair their mosques, get married, or even have children, all arrestable offenses if done without a permit. Government permission, however, is procured through bribes which few can afford.
Since 1994, a local policy was implemented for those Rohingya who do gain permission to marry to limit them to only two children, a policy which was given full government support in May 2013. If a woman becomes illegally pregnant, she is forced to either flee the country as a refugee or get a back-alley abortion under extremely unsanitary conditions. Many who choose to have an abortion die due to their inability to receive proper medical care as a result of the travel restrictions.
Many Rohingya have also been forced to labour on various construction projects as modern-day slaves, including building "model villages” intended to house the Burmese settlers encouraged to come to the region to displace the Rohingya. There have been reports of forced prostitution of Rohingya women by the local Burmese security forces.
It is well to remember Article 2 of the 1948 UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide which states: "Genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial, or religious group, as such: Killing members of the group; Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group.”
Myanmar needs to take a firm stand on the side of human rights, pluralism, and security for all of its citizens, promote the rule of law, and, at a more basic level, recognise the existence and the suffering of the Rohingya. Only then can a democratic Myanmar be recognised as legitimate in the eyes of the international community and its own people.
It was this tumultuous history which fed the June 2012 violence against the Rohingya at the hands of the neighbouring Buddhist Rakhine. While the official death toll was 192, Rohingya human rights groups claim that there were over 1,000 killed. Mobs of Rakhine burned entire villages to the ground with over 125,000 Rohingya forcibly displaced without any aid or assistance. A Human Rights Watch report called the incident state-supported "ethnic cleansing”, writing that the government security forces "assisted the killings by disarming the Rohingya of their sticks and other rudimentary weapons they carried to defend themselves”. Many media reports referred to this violence as "sectarian” implying that each party played an equal role in the violence.
President Thein Sein reiterated the following month that, in the eyes of the government, the Rohingya were not citizens of Myanmar and that he wished to hand over the entire ethnic group to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in order to settle them in a different country. Buddhist monks in Mandalay held protests against the Rohingya in which they supported the proposal of the President.
969 movement
In the past year, while the government has opened up to reform and relations with the West, there has been an expansion of the violence against other Muslim communities. The March riots in Meiktila in central Myanmar which burnt more than 1300 homes in Muslim neighbourhoods and killed 43 people were instigated by Buddhist monks who were part of the 969 movement. The movement, whose spiritual leader is a Buddhist monk named U Wirathu, encourages local people to boycott trade with Muslims and shop only at Buddhist-owned stores which display the number 969, a number which symbolises Buddha's teachings and Buddhist practices. They view Muslims as a threat to the nation. A demonstration in support of U Wirathu saw Buddhist monks carrying banners which read, "Not The Terrorist, But The Protector of Race, Language and The Religion.” The latest violence, in September, has implicated the Kaman Muslims in the Rakhine State, who are recognised as one of the official ethnic groups of Myanmar and granted full citizenship.
Aung San Suu Kyi, the heroine of democracy and human rights, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, and daughter of Aung San, has condemned the recent violence against the Muslim community but has remained curiously silent on the suffering of the Rohingya. During a November 2012 BBC interview, when questioned about the Rohingya, Suu Kyi answered, "I am urging tolerance but I do not think one should use one's moral leadership, if you want to call it that, to promote a particular cause without really looking at the sources of the problems." She continues to refer to the Rohingya as "Bengalis”. This is in contrast to remarks by US President Barack Obama at Yangon University during his official visit to Myanmar last November, where he acknowledged the "dignity" and suffering of the "innocent" Rohingya people, a position few inside of Myanmar have been willing to take.
The continued plight of the Rohingya, both in Myanmar and as refugees abroad, as well as the continued violence against the broader Muslim community stains any democratic reforms in a country which has known little but violence and civil war for the past half-century. The situation is desperate as the violence is only getting worse and expanding to new groups.
Myanmar needs to take a firm stand on the side of human rights, pluralism, and security for all of its citizens, promote the rule of law, and, at a more basic level, recognise the existence and the suffering of the Rohingya. Only then can a democratic Myanmar be recognised as legitimate in the eyes of the international community and its own people.
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Since the Rakhine Rohingya Muslims are mainly of the extremist-terrorist Saudi-Arabia financed Wahhabite trend, supported also by US, UK and Israel, it is natural that they are depicted as “victims” by Western war propaganda outlets (also known as “free press”), and by Western puppets such as the Dalai Lama and Aung San Suu Kyi.
This is not different from the Saudi Arabian sponsored and Western suppported takfiri terrorists and mass murderers acting in Syria, romantically described as “democratic opposition”, “freedom fighters” or the such by Western war propaganda.
In Syria and in Myanmar the idea is the same, to promote the chaos to justify Western or NATO intervention, and the subsequent destruction, fragmentation, and full submission of the country, strictly following the sinister script laid out by the senior master genocide, the psycopath Henry Kissinger (http://www.dailysquib.co.uk/index.php?news=3089 (http://www.dailysquib.co.uk/index.php?news=3089))
And since Myanmar is not far from Tibet (actually they share a not so short border), the Dalai Lama is seeing a golden opportunity to spread the chaos to Tibet as well, and is thus supporting the Rohingya Wahhabite tafkiris.
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Cause and effect is a vicious cycle. Can you imagine what will happen to these warlords masterminding war games to gain control of another country because of greed while causing so much deception, schism, violence and suffering among the innocents civilians. I shudder at the thought of the backlashes they would have to experience in their next life. I suppose ignorance is bliss. Om Mani Padme Hum.... may they be blessed to meet with Dharma.
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Forgiveness is our only weapon.
Forgiveness is the only potent weapon.
Forgiveness is the only way forward.
Forgiveness is the killer of vengeance, resentment, anger and war.
One cannot develop forgiveness and anger at the same time.
Forgiveness is like the water that extinguished the fire of anger.
True forgiveness is perennial.
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This type of act is not for religious reasons. It is out of discriminations between self and others. In this case, the word "Buddhist" is just an adjectives that describe the mob and so is the word "muslim" that describe the homes and shops of the victim. Human are so degenerate that we us religion as a discrimination between ourselves and others which is a paradox as any religion preach, love and compassion for others.
It is obvious that the motivations are jealousy, fear, pride, hatred, attachment/aversion and plain ignorance. It is really sad that this acts condemns the religion in the mindset of others.
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This type of act is not for religious reasons.
“This type of act” is not for any reason, religious or otherwise, simply because the supposed act of this type did not exist. It is just what war propaganda wants people to imagine and believe in, in order to justify the intended invasion, destruction, fragmentation and economic exploitation of Myanmar together with its rich resources and Buddhist tradition by Western barbarians.
The imagined “act of this type” is simply non-existent. Just like the “weapons of mass destruction” of Saddam Hussein. Just like the “chemical attacks” by the Syrian government. Just like the sanctity of Malala or of the Dalai Lama. Just war propaganda for the gullible.
Funny that when Tibetan Buddhist mobs did burn down Chinese homes and shops in Lhasa around the 10th March 2008, killing more than 100 Chinese innocent people, the same press which is now attacking Myanmarese monks said that they were acting legitimately, and the Dalai Lama explicitly and publicly refused to tell them to stop.
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It is really sad that this acts condemns the religion in the mindset of others.
These acts do not condemn anything, because they did not exist. But the imagination of the non-existent acts do condemn Buddhism in the mind of the gullible, which is precisely the intention (among others) of the Western barbarian war propaganda.
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Suu Kyi blames Burma violence on 'climate of fear'
Burma's opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi: "We cannot become a genuine democratic society with the [current] constitution"
Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi has blamed what she described as a "climate of fear" for exacerbating tensions between Muslims and Buddhists.
Asked about the fate of 140,000 Muslims who have been forced to leave their homes, she said that many Buddhists had also fled Burma, also known as Myanmar.
Ms Suu Kyi denied that Muslims had been subjected to ethnic cleansing.
She has been criticised for not defending Muslims since she emerged from house arrest two years ago.
Over the past two years, violence between Buddhists and Rohingya Muslims has broken out in the state of Rakhine. There have also been clashes between Buddhists and Muslims in central Burma.
Muslims have borne the worst of the violence, with hundreds killed, often by mobs armed with knives and sticks.
People assume too readily that on a path to democracy - that we are democratising at a fast rate - but it is not happening like that at all”
"I think the problem is due to the fear felt by both sides," she told the BBC's Mishal Husain.
"Muslims have been targeted but Buddhists have also been subjected to violence.
"This fear is what is leading to all this trouble."
She said tensions had also been inflamed by a worldwide perception - also felt in Burma - that global Muslim power was "very great".
She said that it was down to the government to bring an end to the violence and the return of Buddhist refugees who had been forced to leave the country in recent years to escape political persecution.
"This is the result of our sufferings under a dictatorial regime. I think that if you live under a dictatorship for many years people do not like to trust one another - a dictatorship generates a climate of mistrust," she said.
Ms Suu Kyi said that the effective implementation of the rule of law was essential.
"Before people can sit down and sort out their differences they have to feel safe. If they feel that they are going to be killed in their beds they are not going to talk about harmony or learn to understand one another."
She said that Burma still had a long way to go before becoming fully democratic.
"People assume too readily that on a path to democracy - that we are democratising at a fast rate - but it is not happening like that at all."
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Suu Kyi rejects allegations of ethnic cleansing in Burma. She wants to learn from Northern Ireland peace process.
Aung San Suu Kyi said Northern Ireland’s peace process could help reconciliation in Burma, as the Nobel peace laureate visited the British province on Thursday.
The Burma opposition leader said she wanted to learn lessons about how Protestants and Catholics ended three decades of sectarian bloodshed and formed a power-sharing administration.
Burma has recently been rocked by anti-Muslim bloodshed and is also trying to overcome the legacy of decades of rampant human rights violations and conflict between the government and various ethnic groups.
Suu Kyi met politicians, police and schoolchildren during her visit to the province.
“The main reason I have come to Northern Ireland is to learn about how you managed to negotiate a peace process in spite of all the difficulties,” she said at WellingtonCollege in Belfast.
“It is very useful, what we have learned here I think will help us a great deal back in Burma.
“I want to see from you how you see your present-day problems because I am told the work is not done.”
She said the divisions in Northern Ireland were more deep-seated than in Burma, though the problem in her country was more complex, with many different ethnicities and the challenges of integrating civilian and military politics.
Suu Kyi toured the Northern Irish capital and visited the Titanic Belfast visitor attraction, based on the doomed ocean liner built in the city.
On Wednesday in London she met Britain’s heir to the throne Prince Charles, shortly before the christening of his grandson Prince George.
The Nobel peace laureate also met Prime Minister David Cameron, who said he would help build international pressure on Burma to lift its ban on people whose spouses or children are foreign nationals — including Suu Kyi — from running for president.
Suu Kyi spent 15 years under house arrest under military rule in Burma, before she was freed after controversial elections in 2010.
The democracy icon is now an opposition lawmaker as part of sweeping reforms under a new quasi-civilian regime that took office in 2011.
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It is distressing to read news of believers of one religion causing harm and damage to worshipers of another faith. In this case, the Buddhist mobs destroyed the homes and shops of some Muslims. Although what set of their anger was started by the Muslims, the mobs should allow the police to execute their duties instead of taking the law in their hands. Its real sad when people of different religions could not live in harmony with each other.
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UN warns of Myanmar boat people
Published: 1 Nov 2013 at 22.12Online news: Asia
GENEVA - The UN refugee agency warned Friday of growing signs of a fresh exodus of boat people from Myanmar amid the latest outbreak of violence between Buddhist and Muslim communities in Rakhine State.
During just four days last week, more than 1,500 people left Rakhine by boat, with some reportedly drowning off the coast over the weekend, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees told a press conference in Geneva.
"We are concerned that the trend does seem to be increasing," UNHCR spokesman Dan McNorton said, adding that Rohingyas are often forced to travel by boat because they have no citizenship or valid documents, making crossing overland difficult.
Over 24,000 people, the majority being Rohingyas, have left Myanmar and Bangladesh during the first eight months of the year hoping to reach countries like Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia.
According to interviews of migrants undertaken by UNHCR staff members, protection concerns and the general instability in Rakhine State are the main factors driving people out of the country, McNorton said.
Tension between Buddhist and Muslim communities has increased over the last few months in Rakhine State, resulting in human casualties and property lootings and destruction.
Some 140,000 people are still internally displaced a year after a wave of inter-communal violence first erupted in Rakhine in June 2012.
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Now, we do have an actual picture of what is happening in Burma of Buddhists killing Muslims? Is the strong bilateral trade ties between Burma and China, a powerful force for petroleum money causing the chaos in Burma, a petroleum-induced genocide? Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi denied the claim of a political motivated cleansing of the Muslim in Burma.
BURMA: OPEN FOR BUSINESS OF GENOCIDE
Features
by Burkely Hermann, World War 4 Report
It's not ethnic cleansing. The world needs to understand that the fear is not just on the side of the Muslims, but on the side of the Buddhists as well. No high-ranking US State Department official spoke these words. It was Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi, in an interview with BBC, dismissing credible claims of the genocide of Burma's Muslim Rohingya people, put forward by Genocide Watch, Foreign Policy in Focus, UN Dispatch, Der Spiegel writer Jürgen Kremb, the Kassandra Project, Ramzy Baroud of the Pakistani publication The Nation, and many others. Suu Kyi continued, saying that she condemns "any movement that is based on hatred and extremism," that "the reaction of Buddhists is also based on fear," that the government should deal with these extremists so it isn't her responsibility, and finally that "Burma now needs real change…a democratic society." These comments are deeply disturbing coming from someone given the Nobel prize in 1991 for "her non-violent struggle for democracy and human rights." Some have even asked if she should be stripped of her Peace Prize for statements such as this one.
The struggle of the two stateless peoples in Burma—the Rohingya and Shan—and broader geopolitical issues such as the race for dirty energy tie into one central question: is Burma really open for the business of exploitation and genocide?
The situation for these two stateless groups of people is dire. For the over two million stateless persons in Burma, no official recognition means "they have limited or no access to education, employment and healthcare, and their right to travel, marriage, reproduction and communication is severely restricted," according to a study by India's Gateway House.
The Rohingya, who number over 3.6 million spread across Southeast Asia, have faced discrimination for years, with the "Rohingya conflict" beginning in 1947, and continuing to the present. While denying the Rohingya citizenship in Burma, regime after regime has also cracked down on any initiative to make the state where they live, Arakan, sovereign and independent. Authorities have kept a stranglehold on their lives with campaigns like Operation King Dragon in 1978—which had an official intention of checking the status of undocumented immigrants living in the country. In the past two years there has been a renewed state terror campaign against the Rohingya, who are still called "Bengalis" by the government. This has created the atmosphere for the supposedly spontaneous Buddhist attacks on Rohingya villages over the past year, which has now left 100,000 displaced.
The Shan, mostly in the country's northern Shan State, number around 4 million. Numerous sources including IRIN News, and the International Observatory on Statelessness, consider the Shan to be a stateless—among the 808,075 stateless people in Burma listed in a database of the UN High Commissioner on Refugees. Whether the Shan are part of the conflict in their mountainous region or not, they are indefinitely conscripted into the Burmese Army; the Burmese military raids their villages and there is restriction of movement according to independent journalist Preethi Nallu writing for Al Jazeera. Since their independence was declared in 2005 by exiled leaders, the move has been rejected by other ethnic minorities in the country along with the opposition party led by Suu Kyi, the National League of Democracy. All of this is in violation of the 1947 Panglong Agreement which stated that all ethnic groups will have "equal right and status," that there will be "full autonomy for the Shan and other ethnic states… financial autonomy vested in the Federated Shan State shall be maintained [allowing] citizens of the Frontier Areas [to] enjoy rights and privileges which are regarded as fundamental in democratic countries and…the right to secede from the Federation at any time after the attainment of Independence [in 1948]."
Then, there are reports that American missionaries have sterilized 20,000 people in Shan state. All of this causes many young Shan males to flee to Thailand, where they may find low-paid construction jobs. Since 2011, in Shan and Kachin states there has been "limited to no humanitarian access for these displaced communities which are primarily composed of women, children, and the elderly," as noted by the Open Society Foundation.
These horrible conditions are tied into a resource that makes the world go round: oil, the black gold. It seems Burma is buying into what Daniel Plainview says in the movie, There will be Blood: "…I assure you ladies and gentlemen, that if we do find oil here, and I think there's a very good chance that we will, this community of yours will not only survive, it will flourish."
That is exactly the pitch international capital is making to the government of Burma. As World War 4 Report wrote in a March 2013 analysis of the Rohingya crisis: "Much of the violence has been in the port of Sittwe, which is to be the starting point for the new Shwe pipeline project due to open later this year. The Shwe pipeline will allow oil from the Persian Gulf states and Africa to be pumped to China… Potentially lucrative oil and gas blocs which have previously been off limits due to sanctions are also at stake in Arakan…[with possible future] bids from majors such as Chevron, Total and ConocoPhillips."
An article on Hermann View linked the plight of the Rohingya to Burma's vast mineral resources—which the military had already kicked people off their land for. Obama had allowed US companies to invest in the country, including in the gas and oil sector dominated by the state-owned Myanmar Oil and Gas Enterprise or MOGE. Seemingly, the genocide was sparked first by "an oil rush in the country; secondly, twenty offshore auctions of oil and gas fields and thirdly, big companies flocking to tap oil & gas fields. This is complimented by the fact that US companies are becoming more invested in the country as we speak."
Hermann View also notes that Chuck Hagel was on the board of directors of Chevron before he became Defense Secretary. The US-ASEAN Business Council is working to promote "economic development" in Burma, with a special focus on "energy resources."
Additionally, China's state-owned oil company has signed a deal for "sale and transport of the Shwe gas" that will have "adverse impacts" on the local people" thanks to the construction of a pipeline, according to Earth Rights International.
Rohingya
In an article that dug into the "oil angle" of the Rohingya genocide, UK-based human rights activist Jamila Hanan said that Chinese companies are "trying to clear out the Rohingya to make way for the money." The new oil pipeline would reduce China's dependence on Malacca Straits choke point, while the 2,800-kilometer gas pipeline could cover 22% of Chinese gas imports. The gas pipeline was inaugurated in July this year, BBC reports, highlighting "strong bilateral ties" between Burma and China. Hanan calls the cleansing of the Rohingya a "petroleum-induced genocide."
At the same time, a senior political scientist of the Rand Corporation, closely linked to the US military establishment, finds that "the Obama administration has staked significant political capital on the wager that Myanmar's promise may finally bear fruit… [T]he rate of change in Myanmar over the last two years has been nothing short of remarkable."
But, who benefits from this "change"? Not most people in the country. A recent BBC article notes that while "the economy of Burma…has got an overwhelmingly positive response from investors…[and there is more] availability of mobile phones… the majority of Burmese have yet to feel any material benefits from the reforms… ome traditional businesses have suffered due to the influx of foreign goods [and] some…say they are being pressured by authorities to give up their land."
The European Union and Burma are teaming up to "promote political and social development" and have a "comprehensive program to help promote economic development," including a Task Force that will focus on "reform of state administrative institutions, ensuring transparency and accountability in extractive industries, and assistance to promote trade and private sector development..." Human rights activists say this is being improperly prioritized above issues such as "the theft of land and property without compensation wherever there are business developments," says a report in Irrawady.
The US Chamber of Commerce is setting up a Myanmar Business Chapter which Irrawady calls "another signal that businesses from the United States are showing a greater interest" in Burma. It will be fully announced at an event that will be "co-hosted by the US Embassy in Burma, with backing from Chevron, the US energy giant that has operated in Burma since acquiring Unocal." The 25 member companies include "a mix of big brands, small and medium enterprises and Burmese businesses partnering with American companies [with] American investors in these sectors include Coca-Cola, GE, Pepsi and Cisco."
A page on the website of the American Chamber of Commerce in Thailand that has a directory of all their corporate members in Burma includes PricewaterhouseCoopers, Ernst & Young, Deloitte, Monsanto, Cargill, Boeing, Veolia Water, Bank of America, Citigroup, Wells Fargo, Google, TimeWarner, and many others.
All of this seems to signal that the US supports the Burmese regime. This pleases the Washington Post's Max Fisher, who says there has been a "major positive change" in US relations with Burma, that "foreign investment flows into the country and its political system opens…. Burma now appears to be throwing its lot in with the West and particularly the United States."
Despite this, the US is still blacklisting Burma for military aid. Voice of America noted that Burm remained one of five countries thusly blocked, along with Syria, Rwanda, Sudan and the Central African Republic, Rwanda and Sudan. This could change; the US has already waived requirements prohibiting aid going to countries with child soldiers. AP reports "the Obama administration wants to restart U.S. defense training for Myanmar…assistance [that] would be nonlethal."
And outside of military aid, ties are indeed deepening. In February, the Center for Strategic and International Studies reported that "the US Treasury Department eased sanctions on four Myanmar banks, allowing them to do business with US companies… U.S. officials said that increased access to Myanmar banks by US companies would help promote social and economic development and serve as a model for responsible investing in the country." The Treasury Department has also issued an order allowing US citizens to deal with banks that are run by former military junta figures, Reuters reports.
At the same time, President Obama declared a "national emergency" in regard to Burma that "prohibits the importation into the United States of any jadeite or rubies mined or extracted from Burma and any articles of jewelry containing jadeite or rubies mined or extracted from Burma," but seemingly allows other articles that are "a product of Burma" into the country.
In May, Obama met with President Thein Sein of Burma at the White House, hailing him as implementing "political and economic reform" and remarking that "as a consequence of these changes in policy inside of Myanmar, the United States has been able to relax sanctions that had been placed on Myanmar… [T]his has also allowed…the prospect of increasing trade and investment in Myanmar… [T]he United States will make every effort to assist you on what I know is a long, and sometimes difficult, but ultimately correct path to follow."
Months earlier, in November 2012, Obama had been the first US president to visit Burma, praising reform and telling an audience at the University of Yangoon that the US cares about oppressed minorities like the Rohingya, while emphasizing: "[P]reliminary cease-fires have been reached with ethnic armies, and new laws allow for a more open economy… sanctions have been eased, and we will help rebuild an economy that can offer opportunity for its people, and serve as an engine of growth for the world...." He said "reforms must ensure that the people of this nation can have that most fundamental of possessions—the right to own the title to the land on which you live and on which you work." Nonetheless, he assured that "America is lifting our ban on companies doing business here, and your government has….taken steps to open up your economy… I was proud to reestablish our USAID mission in this country, which is our lead development agency…" He even said that Burma's "natural resources…must be protected against exploitation" (but not extraction, presumably). He concluded: "The United States of America is a Pacific nation, and we see our future as bound to those nations and peoples to our West…this is where we believe we will find enormous growth…. I want to send a message across Asia: We don’t need to be defined by the prisons of the past. We need to look forward to the future."
Bertil Lintner writes in Asia Times that "Myanmar has emerged as the frontline of the Obama administration's ''pivot'' towards Asia" and the new "China containment policy," noting that "naval cooperation [with Burma] would undoubtedly put the US on a collision course with China."
Special US partner Britain also has deepening ties with Burma. On the site of the Democratic Voice of Burma, funded in part by the US-backed National Endowment for Democracy (as noted by ProPublica), it is noted that "the British government has defended its plans to offer military training to the Burmese army… The British government has repeatedly insisted that it will only focus on human rights and democratic accountability. But a prospectus of the course available online lists modules on the art and science of war, border security and challenges to state sovereignty, while making no mention of human rights mechanisms… The US and Australia have also offered military training to Burma as part of their diplomatic re-engagement with the former pariah state."
Finally, Burma is gaining a key role by leading the Association of Southeast Asian Nations or ASEAN. Rappler writes tha "the country also known as Burma steps into the global stage as it symbolically accepts chairmanship of the Association of the Southeast Asian Nations for 2014. The honor is part of international recognition of political and economic reforms after 50 years of brutal military rule."
This means that Burma will be heading an organization that was founded on anti-communist principles during the Cold War. ASEAN's founding Bangkok Declaration anticipates among member nations "greater utilization of their agriculture and industries, the expansion of their trade... the improvement of their transportation and communications facilities and the raising of the living standards of their peoples."
This deeply connects to the Obama administration's stated goal. The administrations boasts it "has actively supported…in developing countries and emerging markets, entrepreneurship…as the key to unlocking economic potential and lifting people out of poverty… In 2013, the United States Government led a high-tech delegation to Burma to explore joint opportunities to bring affordable access to the Internet and improve workforce training programs… In Burma, the United States Government is bringing together Indiana University's Kelley School of Business with Hewlett Packard to establish an Entrepreneurship Center of Excellence at Yangon Institute of Economics."
It seems abundantly clear that Burma is open for the business of exploitation—and the ongoing genocide of stateless peoples is closely linked to this. Activists and artists are fighting to bring this connection to the world's attention—as in the mashup Rohingya Now by DJ Burkels. The first of the Nuremberg Principles states that: "Any person who commits an act which constitutes a crime under international law is responsible, and therefore liable to punishment."
Amid all the celebration of Burma's opening, we need to at least start a conversation about this.
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While Western “free press” keeps people busy with concerns about the human rights of extremist-terrorist-Wahhabite-Saudi-Arabian-sponsored Muslims creating chaos in Myamar (as in Syria), very little is said by the same Western war-propaganda press about the oppression suffered by innocent Muslims inside the “model-democracy” of US (an oppression itself reminiscent of the suffering of exiled Tibetans devoted to the deity Dorje Shugden under the oppressive rule of the Dalai Lama).
http://presstv.com/detail/2013/11/07/333526/muslims-definitely-feel-oppressed-in-us/ (http://presstv.com/detail/2013/11/07/333526/muslims-definitely-feel-oppressed-in-us/)
A Muslim American activist says the Muslims are oppressed in the United States due to the government’s strict policies on the community.
“The Muslims definitely feel oppressed inside the United States,” Imam of Masjid Al-Islam Abdul Alim Musa in Washington, DC told Press TV on Thursday.
He added that “the United States government used the 9/11 as a pretext to declare open warfare on Islam and Muslims worldwide but especially here in the United States.”
Following the September 11, 2001 attacks in the US, the New York City Police Department has mapped Muslim communities and their religious, educational and social institutions and businesses in New York City and other cities.
The NYPD has riddled communities with undercover officers and informants.
“The whole atmosphere of Islam and Muslim life in America is changed quite a bit,” Musa said.
“The Muslims don’t trust each other anymore. They don’t feel comfortable going to the Masajid (mosques) because there are so many government informants from the agencies, from the FBI, from the NSA, and from Homeland Security,” he added.
Muslim New Yorkers have protested against NYPD activities.
http://presstv.com/detail/2013/11/07/333526/muslims-definitely-feel-oppressed-in-us/ (http://presstv.com/detail/2013/11/07/333526/muslims-definitely-feel-oppressed-in-us/)
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How sad that this is still happening and getting worse. I am very sure that Buddhism did not teach any of these. To hurt another being. What happened to the most important teachings? Compassion, forgiveness, love and kindness? How can we use religion to be something to hurt or kill another? The authorities should do much more than what they are doing. Why not separate them into different parts of the country where all can live in their comfort zones and not be disturbed with each other.
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Tic for Tac
ALARMING CONFLICTS: Indonesian bomber’s trial raises spectre of Muslim-Buddhist conflict
THE trial of Separiano, the young Indonesian man who was caught attempting to blow up the Myanmar embassy in Jakarta, has raised questions about the future of Muslim-Buddhist relations in Indonesia and across the wider Asean region.
Coming so close to the formation of the Asean Community in 2015, incidents such as these put a damper on the spirits of those who had hoped that greater and closer Asean integration would also lead to better understanding, cooperation and friendship between the various ethnic and religious communities in the region.
But as we have seen of late, those hopes and dreams may well be dashed upon the hard surface of present day political realities, where right-wing ethno-nationalist movements seem to be gaining ground all round.
That a young Indonesian man and his accomplices would contemplate to blow up the Myanmar embassy in Jakarta in this day and age points us to the fact that globalisation has become a reality in our part of the world.
Separiano's motive was to avenge what he regarded as the wanton destruction of Muslim-owned property and businesses in Myanmar at the hands of Burman-Buddhist agitators and rioters, who had themselves been overcome by the right-wing hyperbole and rhetoric of their leaders.
Of course, part of the analysis of the problem has to look at Myanmar as well, where increasingly, we see the rise of Burman nationalism couched in religious, i.e. Buddhist terms. This has, thus far, had a negative effect on non-Buddhist minorities, including Muslims, Hindus and Christians in the country, who are now being cast as "outsiders" and "foreigners" who are told to "go back" to where they belong.
The problem, however, is that many Muslims and Christians in Myanmar happen to be native Burmans, too, or like the Rohingya, have been living in Arakan for centuries. A Burman who happens to be a Christian is no less Burman compared with his Buddhist brethren, and that is the fact that seems to have been lost in the heat of the moment.
But Separiano and his ilk also have to look at themselves and acknowledge that even if Muslims have been persecuted and victimised in Myanmar, the same can be said of non-Muslim minorities in Indonesia today.
Over the past few years, West Java, in particular, has witnessed a spate of Church burnings with alarming regularity and Muslim-Christian antagonism has not truly subsided. Separiano may feel angered by the treatment of Muslims in Myanmar but as a Muslim, he also needs to extend his humanitarian concerns in a universal manner and look at how other minorities are being treated in his own country.
In the medium- to long-term however, we need to monitor these developments closely for we see a dangerous fault line appearing at present.
Buddhist-Muslim conflict in Myanmar cannot and will not stop at the border of that country for it also impacts Muslim-Buddhist relations elsewhere across Asean: Thailand, for instance, is a Buddhist majority country with a Muslim minority in the south, while Malaysia and Indonesia are Muslim-majority countries with significant Buddhist minorities in their midst.
What has happened to Asean's much-lauded dream of presenting itself as a region of stability and prosperity for all, and where all religions and religious communities are protected by the rule of law and not victimised by the rule of the mob?
Complicating matters further is the communicative infrastructure that we have created that brings Asean and its people together. This has facilitated more movement of peoples, goods and ideas, but it also entails having borders that are more porous and inter-penetrable.
The anger of Muslims in Indonesia was sparked by what they saw on the Internet. But during my research in Myanmar, I also noted that Burmese Buddhists are also angered by what they see on the same Internet that feeds them images and stories of violence meted out upon Buddhists elsewhere.
If this overflow of information is not managed well and with an even hand, we are likely to see more data overload that in turn creates the fertile ground whereupon radicals and extremists may feed.
Now, above all, there is the need for Muslim and Buddhist intellectuals, activists and community leaders to come forward to play their role as mediators, educators and, crucially, circuit-breakers in times of crisis.
It has to be stated again that Asean integration is due any day now, by 2015. So much effort and investment has been put into this process, to lay down the working parameters and guidelines for what may become a successful multi-state assemble of nations that can and will guarantee a conflict-free Southeast Asia for generations to come.
But if this dream is to become a reality, then policymakers, analysts and security experts had better begin focusing on the simmering tensions we see around us today and put out the embers before they turn into a bonfire. That would render all the work of the past in vain and signal a moral failure on the part of the leaders of today.
Read more: Pacify tensions before they boil over - Columnist - New Straits Times
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While the article posted just above is interesting and reasonably impartial, it fails to mention an important factor of the Muslim-Buddhist conflict, to wit, the external interference, specifically the fundamentalist terrorist Muslim Wahhabite interference, sponsored by Saudi Arabia and other Persian Gulf “monarchies”, fueling religious and political conflicts with the incendiary combination of their extremist ideology and big oil money.
This type of interference, by the way, is not targeted uniquely at Myanmar, Indonesia, or other ASEAN area countries. Rather, it seems to be a widespread global movement marking our era, stretching from Lybia to Egypt, to Somalia, to Yemen, to Syria, to Chechnya and Daguestan in Russia, to Iraq, to Pakistan, to Afghanistan, to Xinjiang in China, to Kashmir in India, and then down south to ASEAN countries such as Myanmar and Indonesia.
A detail which should not be missed, however, is the accomplicity of Western countries in this worldwide barbaric process. Not only it is common knowledge the collaboration between Western countries such as UK, France, and US, with Wahhabite terrorist operatives in Lybia, Syria, Afghanistan or Chechnya, but also these very same countries are highly supportive of Saudi Arabia and the other so-called Persian Gulf “monarchies”, keeping in power their bloody tyrants in exchange for big oil contracts.
This is relevant in a Tibetan Buddhist oriented forum, among other things because these very same Western countries, together with their war propaganda outlets (which they call the “free press”), are always pointing the finger to supposed violations of human rights in countries such as China and Myanmar, while themselves supporting the most horrid tyrannies and terrorist atrocities around the world, thus not only trying to cover their own violations, but also to expand them to other countries still out of their control, such as China and Myanmar -- of course, with the enthusiastic support of the gullible masses fooled by the non-stop war propaganda “free press”.
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In the light of Burmese Buddhists attacking Muslim in Burma, Dr Paul Fuller who has taught Religious Studies at Universities in Southeast Asia, the University of Sydney in Australia and at Bath Spa University in the UK wrote this article throwing lights on what Lord Buddha had said about racism.
There has been some debate recently about the place of racism in Buddhism. This debate is in part based upon ideas expressed by some members of the Burmese Sangha and others involved in the 969 movement. I would like to make some observations. I am primarily concerned with the question of whether discrimination in terms of race, colour or religion is mentioned within the Pali Canon.
In the Madhupindika-sutta, the Buddha is asked by Dandap?ni: “What is the doctrine of the recluse, what does he proclaim?” The Buddha replies that “I assert and proclaim such a doctrine that one does not quarrel with anyone in the world … detached from sense pleasures, without perplexity, remorse cut off.” Dandap?ni, not a little confused, shakes his head, raises his eye-brows, grimaces three times, and walks away, leaning on his stick. It seems to me that this is the kind of response we can expect to a religious doctrine which ultimately leads to the abandoning of all positions. Religious doctrines are meant to be the object of religious beliefs, but clearly, the Buddha’s religious doctrine, as expressed here, is not meant to lead to a form of religious belief which causes conflict with other religious doctrines and beliefs.
The Buddha’s doctrine, his religious teaching, is based upon the notion that it does not cause conflict. No opinion should be “obstinately adhered to” with the thought “only this is true, anything else is wrong.” For this would lead to quarrels (viv?da) trouble (vigh?ta) and vexation (vihesa). This theme is found throughout Buddhist history. Racist views go against the basic premises of Buddhism. They are clearly unwholesome mental acts. Not to know what is wholesome and unwholesome, kusala and akusala, is itself a misguided mental position. Being based upon greed, hatred and delusion, discrimination leads to unwholesome consequences. It might be argued that the premise that overrides this is the idea that there is a higher good, the defense of the Dhamma, of the teachings of the Buddha.
However, most commentators would note that the unwholesome mental consequences of greed, hatred and delusion cannot be averted, even if justified by the idea of the protection of the religion or the nation. Clearly, action is central. It is not birth which causes a person to be worthy, it is actions of body, speech and mind. These are the three headings under which much Buddhist ethical discourse takes place in the teaching of the ten wholesome and unwholesome courses of action. Under these headings much of the racist rhetoric and it outcomes can be put into focus and the negative consequences or racist rhetoric and actions are condemned.
Much of the racist discourse can also be summarised and understood to be based upon greed, hatred and delusion. To these three can be added the idea of fear about the preservation of the nation. Indeed, the ideas of nation, language and religion (amyo, barthar, thar-tha-nar), when taken to encompass one’s identity can be taken to be fuelled by the most unwholesome mental factors. It is not only then as a form of mental rigidity, as a form of psychological attachment, that racism would be negative within Buddhism, but also in understanding society and what makes a good person within society. Is it one’s birth, race or colour that make a person a worthy member of society, a worthy member of a nation? Or is it the conduct of the individual? On this the Pali Canon is clear. Whoever is “angry, harbours hatred, and is reluctant to speak well of others … whosoever debased by his pride, exalts himself and belittles others” is not to be esteemed. Not because of their birth, colour, nationality should one be esteemed or condemned, but because of their conduct.
This leads us then to question whether the recent racist discourses and uprising of anger against minority groups has any place at all in Buddhist culture. It appears that, however justified, such actions, whether verbal or physical, would have to be condemned. Rather than worrying that other groups are hastening the decline of the Dhamma, one would have to conclude that it is in fact racist discourse that is in fact accomplishing this.
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Ethnic Cleansing Just Went From Bad to Worse in Burma
BY GRAEME WOOD
The ethnic cleansing in Burma's northwest has followed a jerky rhythm, coming in fits and starts since the first Buddhist-on-Muslim attacks in the middle of 2012. I visited the area for an article in the current issue of the magazine, and found it in a dangerous lull, with many Burmese Buddhists thrilled by the prospect of driving out the remaining Muslims and killing those who resisted.
The lull has broken over the last two weeks, according to reports gathered by a Bangkok-based human-rights group. On January 9, eight Muslims were kidnapped, and soon after, others "discovered a fresh grave with visible body parts." In subsequent attacks, forty Muslims were killed and many more forced from their homes. The Burmese government has responded in part by ignoring the issue: The lead story in a state-run newspaper today is an urgent report about advances in organic farming. When asked directly, government spokesmen are propagating the story that Buddhists are blameless but Muslims murdered a Buddhist policeman on January 14. The implication is that even if the Muslims were attacked, they kinda had it coming.
In the past, the central government of Burma has intermittently played a stabilizing role, for example by averting the 2012 mass burning of Muslim residents of Myebon township after they were rounded up and (the displaced residents told me) sprayed with gasoline. But now, according to the report by Fortify Rights, the state and national government are dealing with the problem in ways that all but ensure more attacks. Police have rounded up Muslim men over the age of ten, prevented Muslims from returning to their homes, and done nothing to stop the anti-Muslim violence they deny happened in the first place. That means the Muslims of Arakan are weaker and more isolated than before, and Buddhists more confident they can sack Muslim villages and murder their inhabitants with impunity.
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Buddha's teachings have gone unheeded and a stray in Burma. Is there a misinterpretation of Buddha's doctrine or are there political agendas hidden behind Buddhist monks robe?
THE "BURMESE BIN LADEN" SWEARS HE'S A GOOD GUY
By Danny Gold
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The Buddhist monk many people hold responsible for Myanmar riots that have killed hundreds of Muslims and displaced thousands more is sitting in front of me, calmly sipping a fruit shake. His name is Ashin Wirathu, and he’s telling VICE News that he is entirely dedicated to peaceful coexistence with the Muslim minority he has so often preached against. “I’m educating people not to launch counterattacks [against the Muslims],” he begins, “and preaching to them to live peacefully with people of different faiths.” He takes another sip of shake.
Wirathu has just finished a sermon at the sprawling Masoeyein monastery—home to more than 2,500 monks—he heads in Mandalay, the country's second-largest city. Hundreds of men clad in orange and maroon robes walk the grounds, their occasional chanting reverberating around the small, wood-paneled room that serves as Wirathu's office. Just outside the door, several monks gather to read a large collection of newspapers. Apparently, Ashin Wirathu understands the power of the press.
In fact, when I meet him in late August, he is already well-versed in dealing with the international media. Though supposedly a tough interview to get, nearly every journalist I know who has tried to speak to Wirathu has succeeded. A local fixer, hesitant to promise he could arrange an interview, was able to secure one for VICE News in a single day. As I leave Wirathu’s office and walk past the mass of monks reading the papers, another journalist makes her way inside.
Though Wirathu often claims that his message is misrepresented in the press, he seems quite pleased both with the attention he has received from the international media, and with the fact that he has become a symbol for Buddhist chauvinism. He even makes frequent jokes about Hannah Beech, the journalist who wrote a June 2013 cover story for Time in which she called Wirathu the “face of Buddhist terror.” He later posted an admonishment that reads kind of like a love letter from a jilted lover.
As we begin the interview, two of Wirathu’s monks point video cameras at us. Many people say this kind of behavior is meant to be a form of intimidation, but it feels to me more like a reality show. Our translator, a local Buddhist who disagrees with Wirathu, nevertheless appears reverent in the monk’s presence, and I’m not sure why. It may simply be because of the respect typically given to a Buddhist monk in this country. Or it may be due to fear.
Sitting in front of a wall covered with photos of himself, Wirathu, who has been dubbed the “Burmese bin Laden,” makes sure that I am served hibiscus tea and a plate of fresh melon before we begin. Though he is soft spoken and quick with a laugh, human rights groups say he has the potential to tear Myanmar, the southeast Asian country many refer to as Burma, apart and stall the country’s tentative transition to democracy.
969 Problems
Last week, Wirathu organized a conference in Mandalay for thousands of monks from all over Myanmar. His mission: to rally support for his proposed "Law for the Protection of Race, Religion, and Language." The law would require any Buddhist woman who wants to marry a Muslim to receive permission from her parents and local government officials. It would also require any Muslim man who marries a Buddhist to convert to Buddhism. If not adhered to, the groom could face up to 10 years in jail and the loss of his property. Human Rights Watch reports that Lower House representative Thein Nyunt is expected to submit the amendment to parliament.
Wirathu and his followers in the grassroots nationalist Buddhist group he leads, known as the 969 Movement, believe that Myanmar is under threat from what they claim is a dangerous, rapidly growing Muslim population. (The country is about 90 percent Buddhist.) They blame this growth on illegal immigration from Bangladesh and high birthrates. During his virulent anti-Islam sermons, Wirathu often describes Muslims as tireless proselytizers looking to take over Buddhist land with force or money, and displays graphic images of Buddhists killed by Muslims in southern Thailand and other areas of the world.
In Myanmar, where up until recently all forms of media were heavily censored, Wirathu’s sermons have become viral sensations, quickly spreading all over the country and accepted by some as gospel truth.
“Wirathu and the 969 Movement have drastically increased tensions between Muslims and Buddhists,” says Bill Davis of Physicians for Human Rights (PHR). Davis is the author of numerous reports on the violence in Myanmar, and the former head of PHR’s Burma project. “Violence against Muslims in Burma took place before Wirathu, but his speeches are contributing to the anti-Muslim sentiment resurfacing across the country.”
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Last week, harrowing reports of violence against the long-oppressed Muslim Rohingya minority, including massacres and mutilations of women and children, emerged from the restricted district of Maungdaw. Chris Lewa of the Arakan project, a human rights group that documents abuses against the Rohingya, said members of the 969 Movement had toured the area a month before, calling for the expulsion of Rohingya Muslims.
Sporadic outbreaks of anti-Muslim mob violence in Myanmar began in 2012, not long after the new quasi-civilian government took power and eased the military junta’s restrictions on free speech. Violence first broke out in the southwestern state of Rakhine, but it eventually spread throughout the country. The rampages are often triggered by arguments or crimes involving individual Buddhists and Muslims, which then quickly spiral out of control.
While tensions go back generations in areas like Rakhine, the recent spate of violence against Muslims prompted Physicians for Human Rights to declare that, “If these conditions go unaddressed, Burma may very well face countrywide violence on a catastrophic level, including potential crimes against humanity and/or genocide.”
Since the downfall of the junta, Wirathu has become a symbol of Buddhist extremism. Though he has never been shown to have an active role in the violence, riots have repeatedly broken out in towns shortly after he delivered a sermon in them.
A prolific speaker, Wirathu is a fierce promoter of his own work, producing DVDs and pamphlets that flood marketplaces and social media. They all feature anti-Islam propaganda that casts Muslims as interlopers hell-bent on invading and colonizing Myanmar in order to turn it into a Muslim state.
“[Before I began preaching], most people didn’t realize these things,” Wirathu assures me.
Rising Star
Born in 1968 in Kyaukse, a small town near Mandalay, Wirathu says he was inspired to be a monk from a young age; he joined an order in 1985. He says he had a passion for reading and writing, but didn’t have a desire to give sermons until 2001, when he was moved to preach and open a cultural school in a small town. There, he began teaching children.
In one of his lesson plans, Wirathu says he drew a map of Myanmar and told the children the history of the Bengalis, the term Buddhists in the country use to describe the Rohingya. (“Bengali” implies that all of the Rohingya are recent illegal immigrants, though many of them have lived in Myanmar for generations). In his history, Wirathu also focused on militant Rohingya separatist movements that hadn’t been active for decades.
He would tell students how Muslims had traveled to Myanmar in order to trade, and then ended up staying in the country permanently. Muslims in Mandalay and other cities have tended to do relatively well for themselves financially, and Wirathu and 969 have advocated boycotts of all shops that are Muslim-owned. They’ve also urged Buddhists to avoid socializing with Muslims.
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His lessons for children turned into sermons for all, and Wirathu grew more and more popular. Within a couple of years he became known throughout Myanmar. At the time, however, the military junta still ruled with an iron fist, imprisoning anyone who appeared capable of causing any kind of disturbance. Wirathu was jailed in 2003 for inciting violence against Muslims and was forced to give up being a monk. “As soon as I was defrocked, I felt so low,” he tells me. He also says he was tortured and humiliated while in jail.
In 2010, as Myanmar’s transition to democracy began to move forward, Wirathu was released under a general amnesty. He was allowed to return to the monastery and continued sermonizing and preaching, taking advantage of the government’s loosened restrictions on free speech. In 2012, the first of several widespread riots against Rohingya Muslims broke out in Rakhine state, and Wirathu’s profile began to grow internationally.
Critics claim that the focus on Wirathu distracts from the bigger problem—that members of the government and security forces at least condone the violence, and may very well encourage it. Punya Wontha, another well-known monk and a hero of the Saffron revolution, agrees. At his decidedly smaller and more dilapidated monastery next to a train yard in Yangon, he tells me that in shadowy elements of the government, hardliners still aligned with the junta have helped manufacture the conflicts in order to push the country away from democratic reforms and back toward military rule.
Punya Wontha is also upset that Wirathu has become Myanmar's face of Buddhism. While Punya Wontha blames Wirathu for some facets of the conflict, he also believes Wirathu is merely a pawn in the government’s strategic game to sabotage the election hopes of Aung San Suu Kyi, the longtime democratic activist, political prisoner, and Nobel Peace Prize winner.
Suu Kyi heads the National League for Democracy (NLD), the main opposition party that seeks to continue Myanmar’s movement toward unfettered democracy. The NLD, which was severely repressed prior to 2011, had an extremely strong showing in the 2012 by-elections.
The interfaith clashes put Suu Kyi in a difficult political spot, according to Punya Wontha. If she speaks up for Muslim rights, she stands to lose a significant number of votes. If she doesn’t, her sterling reputation with the human rights community—and, possibly, with the West in general—is threatened.
In an interview with the BBC in October, Suu Kyi once again failed to unequivocally condemn the anti-Muslim violence that has gripped Myanmar. David Blair, chief foreign correspondent for the Telegraph, called her response, or lack thereof, “deeply disturbing.”
Punya Wontha says holdovers from the military regime were frightened by the NLD’s triumphant election results in 2012, which is why they’re so eager to use Wirathu as a tool. It’s a commonly held belief in Myanmar, where conspiracy theories abound. As one human rights worker who has been in the country for years told me, “These people haven’t had television for 60 years. This is their entertainment.”
Punya Wontha goes even further, however, accusing the government of training Wirathu to incite violence while he was imprisoned. Why, Punya Wontha asks me, was Wirathu released during an amnesty for political prisoners when he was originally sentenced for hate speech and inciting violence? And why, when other monks are banned from traveling if they so much as insult the military once, can Wirathu continue to travel at will?
“They give permission for his sermons to go everywhere,” Punya Wontha says.
This, despite the fact Wirathu criticizes the new government. He says that the people need more freedom. And he complains about the government's around-the-clock surveillance of him, though he admits it's for his own protection. “I’ve been threatened by the Islamic people,” he tells me. “They’re going to try to kill me every chance until I die.”
"Trying To Educate People"
A few weeks before I met with Wirathu, a small car bomb had exploded near a spot where he was delivering a sermon, injuring five people. Wirathu blamed Islamic militants, but some people pointed the finger at Wirathu himself, believing he’d planned the bombing so he could blame it on Muslims.
In our interview, however, Wirathu speaks in almost relentlessly conciliatory tones. He says he is a peaceful man, and that he is focused on spreading love and harmony between all people. “[The fighting] won’t happen anymore,” he says. “I’m going to give lessons to educate the whole people to stop the violence.”
Wirathu blames Muslims for initiating the skirmishes, and says that Buddhists simply retaliate when they can no longer take any more abuse. “I’m trying to educate the people not to [retaliate],” he says, “but these aggressive Muslims must be brought to justice.”
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He is adamant that he preaches peaceful coexistence, and that he doesn’t support ethnic cleansing or the calls to remove Muslims from Myanmar entirely. He warns of Rohingya extremists coming from Bangladesh. Curiously, he blames the Rohingya Solidarity Organization, a small militant group that took shape in the 1980s in Bangladesh—and which has done very little of note since. But Wirathu tells me that they want to cause unrest so they can take over the Rakhine state.
Wirathu also blames the international media and the human rights community for accepting a narrative he says is entirely false. “The world believes the made-up stories of the Muslim people. The Muslims make other people offer bribes to make up a story, to fabricate the news,” he says. “Their sole intention is to occupy the Rakhine state forever. They hide behind the masks of human rights.”
Yet Wirathu says he’s trying to create a plan for everyone to live in peace and harmony. I tell him it sounds like he’s softened his views, and he replies that he does not believe in one nationality or faith.
But what of his "Law for the Protection of Race, Religion, and Language"? What’s more representative of peace and harmony than two people from different faiths marrying?
“It is okay until Muslims force them to convert,” he explains. Wirathu says that this is always the case when Muslims and Buddhists intermarry. “I think they are violating the freedom of religion.”
On one of the DVDs he hands me before I leave, Wirathu tells the story of a Buddhist woman who marries a Muslim man and is forced to convert. She continues to pray secretly, and he catches her doing so while she is pregnant. He beats her, causing her to have a miscarriage.
Even a monk like Punya Wontha, who has spoken out about violence against Muslims and organized aid convoys to help those who have been affected by it, says he feels Muslims need to accept their place in a Buddhist society. “The Muslim people have little knowledge and are uneducated. It is very easy for elements in the government to create problems with these people,” he says, adding that the Muslim and Buddhist tensions festering in Myanmar could spread to the rest of the world.
Since my meeting with Wirathu, more violence against Muslims broke out in both Rakhine and central Myanmar. In October, the International Crisis Group (ICG) released a report speculating that anti-Muslim attacks would continue unless the government acted more effectively to contain tensions. The ICG also expressed concerns that inter-communal violence could spread throughout Southeast Asia unless the situation in Myanmar is improved.
As I walk away from Wirathu’s office, he calls out to me. He has one last thing he wants me to know. “When the story comes to an end,” he says, “the world will know who are the bad guys and who are the good guys.”
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One may observe that Ven. Wirathu and his movement are demonized by the Western press in a very similar way that the great and glorious Pabongkha Rinpoche (and therefore the practice of Dorje Shugden) is demonized by Western scholars. Neither did absolutely anything wrong (as even the article above recognizes with respect to Ven. Wirathu), but both refused to serve Western colonialist interests.
Meanwhile, criminals such as the Western puppet, the current evil “dalai“, who supports political nepotistic corruption, bloody riots, gruesome self-immolations, and medieval witch-hunts, and the great traitor the 13th “dalai“, who gave away a huge chunk of Tibet (now Arunachal Pradesh) as a gift to the British colonizers, are pictured as great heroes by the very same press and scholars. Both Western puppets suppressed the practice of Dorje Shugden
Since Buddhism is about liberation, a good start would be to liberate oneself from being deceived by Western anti-Buddhist propaganda.
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It is very sad to hear news like this :( I cannot imagine how "Buddhist" and "mob" can be associated to each other. In many religions, the teachings are being twisted and we hear many accounts of "holy war" and "human bomb". It is really sad to start hearing twisted teachings in Buddhism now. To me, it is very clear that the monk has twisted the teaching.
If Myanmar is a Buddhist country, the Myanmar government should consider intervene is matter and started to create peace within the country BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE. If there is no intervention, this issue will snowball.. :(
I urge all to be patient and practice kindness to all sentient beings..
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As the issue moves on more and more variations and false / true claims will emerge as many attention seekers want to be a part of this scandal for their own self interests. Be it the government of Burma or western government or the media ; the "heroes" or the "terrorists" ,all have their own agendas.
The victims and their families are the ones suffering from this. How many have real concerns over their welfare and their future ? Who can they turn to for help ? who is going to stop their nightmare ? Not much is spoken on these matters. I really hope all the differences can come to an end quickly. Too many lives have been sacrificed for all these unnecessary in humane actions. It's just so sad !
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It is very sad to hear news like this :( I cannot imagine how "Buddhist" and "mob" can be associated to each other.
In the mouth of Western colonialist anti-Buddhist and anti-Myanmar hatred propaganda you will see this kind of associations, but never about the crimes perpetrated by Western terrorists themselves together with their allies, the extremist Saudi Arabian-sponsored Wahhabite terrorists acting in Myanmar.
In many religions, the teachings are being twisted and we hear many accounts of "holy war" and "human bomb".
Actually, in the three Abrahamic religions (Judaism, Christianity and Islam) there is no need to “twist” any teaching, as violence and intolerance are essential to them according to their own scriptures. Jews, Christians and Muslims have an absolute need to justify their violent teachings and actions and intentions, which they do by accusing others such as Buddhists of their own crimes.
It is really sad to start hearing twisted teachings in Buddhism now.
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Where did you hear “twisted Buddhist teachings”? Except of course for the twisted character, the evil dalai, who made himself a puppet of Western Jewish-Christian colonialists, and receives monthly allowances from his Jewish master George Soros.
To me, it is very clear that the monk has twisted the teaching.
If it is so “clear” that the monk “has twisted the teaching”, why don't you show which teaching was “twisted” and how. Since you cannot show anything, it is clear that it is your mind that has been twisted by Western Abrahamic anti-Buddhist hatred propaganda.
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(Just reposted the previous message because of incorrect formatting, the text is the same):
It is very sad to hear news like this :( I cannot imagine how "Buddhist" and "mob" can be associated to each other.
In the mouth of Western colonialist anti-Buddhist and anti-Myanmar hatred propaganda you will see this kind of associations, but never about the crimes perpetrated by Western terrorists themselves together with their allies, the extremist Saudi Arabian-sponsored Wahhabite terrorists acting in Myanmar.
In many religions, the teachings are being twisted and we hear many accounts of "holy war" and "human bomb".
Actually, in the three Abrahamic religions (Judaism, Christianity and Islam) there is no need to “twist” any teaching, as violence and intolerance are essential to them according to their own scriptures. Jews, Christians and Muslims have an absolute need to justify their violent teachings and actions and intentions, which they do by accusing others such as Buddhists of their own crimes.
It is really sad to start hearing twisted teachings in Buddhism now.
Where did you hear “twisted Buddhist teachings”? Except of course for the twisted character, the evil dalai, who made himself a puppet of Western Jewish-Christian colonialists, and receives monthly allowances from his Jewish master George Soros.
To me, it is very clear that the monk has twisted the teaching.
If it is so “clear” that the monk “has twisted the teaching”, why don't you show which teaching was “twisted” and how. Since you cannot show anything, it is clear that it is your mind that has been twisted by Western Abrahamic anti-Buddhist hatred propaganda.
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As the issue moves on more and more variations and false / true claims will emerge as many attention seekers want to be a part of this scandal for their own self interests.
Then, according to your logic, Dorje Shugden practitioners, who try to expose denounce the abuses and persecution they suffer, are now just “attention seekers wanting to be a part of this scandal for their own self interests”, right?
Besides, since the very purpose of this website is precisely to call attention to such abuses and persecutions, then may I assume that, in your view, it is run by “attention seekers wanting to be a part of this scandal for their own self interests”, right?
If so, may I ask you, what are you doing in this website? Are you presumably just “seeking attention and wanting to be a part of this scandal for your own self interests”?
Indeed, just as the Myanmarese Buddhists, Dorje Shiugden practitioners suffer every kind of abuse from Western “mainstream” press and scholars, but if another version is given, different from such hatred propaganda, then according to you this is just the action of “attention seekers wanting to be a part of this scandal for their own self interests.”
Be it the government of Burma or western government or the media ; the "heroes" or the "terrorists" ,all have their own agendas.
It is possible. But then why do you only complain when the Western pro-Wahhabite terrorist agenda is denounced, but never against the Western pro-Wahhabite terrorist agenda itself? Do you, who see so much “agendas” in others, have your own agenda, should I assume? Or, more likely, you are just brainwashed by the Western propaganda, thus becoming an unwitting slave of its agenda.
By the way, the very naming of Myanmar by its name as a British colony, “Burma”, is itself a sign of a pro-colonialist agenda, or of being deceived by it.
The victims and their families are the ones suffering from this. How many have real concerns over their welfare and their future ?
The funny thing here is that, while showing so much compassion for the “victims“ claimed by Western press, you show little to no concern to the helpless victims of Western and Saudi Arabia-sponsored Wahhabite terrorists perpetrating the most unimaginable atrocious actions against innocent people from Russia to Syria, to Lebanon, to Iraq, to Yemen, to Pakistan, to Afghanistan, to Indonesia, to China, to Sri Lanka and other countries, including Myanmar itself.
Who can they turn to for help ? who is going to stop their nightmare ?
Are you waiting for the “hero”, such as US or other Western colonialist and terrorism-supporting countries such as France and Britain? And who is going to save the victims from their “hero”?
Not much is spoken on these matters.
What a false statement! Day and night the Western war and hatred propaganda press has no other subject than “intervention” here and “regime change there”, so that such countries as Myanmar go back to the control of their old unscrupulous, bloodsucking colonizers.
I really hope all the differences can come to an end quickly. Too many lives have been sacrificed for all these unnecessary in humane actions. It's just so sad !
What about opposing terrorism supported by your own country before being so much concerned with “differences“ in other countries, by coincidence always the same avidly targeted by greedy Western colonizers?