The fault-lines of conflict are often spiritual, one religion chafing
against another and kindling bloodletting contrary to the values
girding each faith. Over the past year in parts of Asia, it is friction
between Buddhism and Islam that has killed hundreds, mostly Muslims. The
violence is being fanned by extremist Buddhist monks, who preach a
dangerous form of religious chauvinism to their followers.
Yet as this week’s TIME International cover story notes, Buddhism has tended to avoid a linkage in our minds to sectarian strife:
“In the reckoning of religious extremism—Hindu nationalists, Muslim
militants, fundamentalist Christians, ultra-Orthodox Jews—Buddhism has
largely escaped trial. To much of the world, it is synonymous with
nonviolence and loving kindness, concepts propagated by Siddhartha
Gautama, the Buddha, 2,500 years ago. But like adherents of any
religion, Buddhists and their holy men are not immune to politics and,
on occasion, the lure of sectarian chauvinism.
When Asia rose up against empire and oppression, Buddhist monks, with
their moral command and plentiful numbers, led anticolonial movements.
Some starved themselves for their cause, their sunken flesh and
protruding ribs underlining their sacrifice for the laity. Perhaps most
iconic is the image of Thich Quang Duc, a Vietnamese monk sitting in the
lotus position, wrapped in flames, as he burned to death in Saigon
while protesting the repressive South Vietnamese regime 50 years ago. In
2007, Buddhist monks led a foiled democratic uprising in Burma: images
of columns of clerics bearing upturned alms bowls, marching peacefully
in protest against the junta, earned sympathy around the world, if not
from the soldiers who slaughtered them. But where does social activism
end and political militancy begin? Every religion can be twisted into a
destructive force poisoned by ideas that are antithetical to its
foundations. Now it’s Buddhism’s turn.”
Over the past year in Buddhist-majority Burma, scores, if not
hundreds, have been killed in communal clashes, with Muslims suffering
the most casualties. Burmese monks were seen goading on Buddhist mobs,
while some suspect the authorities of having stoked the violence—a
charge the country’s new quasi-civilian government denies. In Sri Lanka,
where a conservative, pro-Buddhist government reigns, Buddhist
nationalist groups are operating with apparent impunity, looting Muslim
and Christian establishments and calling for restrictions to be placed
on the 9% of the country that is Muslim. Meanwhile in Thailand’s deep
south, where a Muslim insurgency has claimed some 5,000 lives since
2004, desperate Buddhist clerics are retreating into their temples with
Thai soldiers at their side. Their fear is understandable. But the close
relationship between temple and state is further dividing this already
anxious region.
As the violence mounts, will Buddhists draw inspiration from their
faith’s sutras of compassion and peace to counter religious chauvinism?
Or will they succumb to the hate speech of radical monks like Burma’s
Wirathu, who goads his followers to “rise up” against Islam? The world’s
judgment awaits.
Sources :
http://world.time.com/2013/06/20/extremist-buddhist-monks-fight-oppression-with-violence/
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