Extremism Rises Among Myanmar Buddhists

[Ensapa]

Oh no, this is sad news indeed.

Buddhist monasteries associated with the fundamentalist movement, which calls itself 969, have opened community centers and a Sunday school program for children nationwide. More Photos »

TAUNGGYI, Myanmar — After a ritual prayer atoning for past sins, Ashin Wirathu, a Buddhist monk with a rock-star following in Myanmar, sat before an overflowing crowd of thousands of devotees and launched into a rant against what he called “the enemy” — the country’s Muslim minority.
“You can be full of kindness and love, but you cannot sleep next to a mad dog,” Ashin Wirathu said, referring to Muslims.

“I call them troublemakers, because they are troublemakers,” Ashin Wirathu told a reporter after his two-hour sermon. “I am proud to be called a radical Buddhist.”

The world has grown accustomed to a gentle image of Buddhism defined by the self-effacing words of the Dalai Lama, the global popularity of Buddhist-inspired meditation and postcard-perfect scenes from Southeast Asia and beyond of crimson-robed, barefoot monks receiving alms from villagers at dawn.

But over the past year, images of rampaging Burmese Buddhists carrying swords and the vituperative sermons of monks like Ashin Wirathu have underlined the rise of extreme Buddhism in Myanmar — and revealed a darker side of the country’s greater freedoms after decades of military rule. Buddhist lynch mobs have killed more than 200 Muslims and forced more than 150,000 people, mostly Muslims, from their homes.

Ashin Wirathu denies any role in the riots. But his critics say that at the very least his anti-Muslim preaching is helping to inspire the violence.

What began last year on the fringes of Burmese society has grown into a nationwide movement whose agenda now includes boycotts of Muslim-made goods. Its message is spreading through regular sermons across the country that draw thousands of people and through widely distributed DVDs of those talks. Buddhist monasteries associated with the movement are also opening community centers and a Sunday school program for 60,000 Buddhist children nationwide.

The hate-filled speeches and violence have endangered Myanmar’s path to democracy, raising questions about the government’s ability to keep the country’s towns and cities safe and its willingness to crack down or prosecute Buddhists in a Buddhist-majority country. The killings have also reverberated in Muslim countries across the region, tarnishing what was almost universally seen abroad as a remarkable and rare peaceful transition from military rule to democracy. In May, the Indonesian authorities foiled what they said was a plot to bomb the Myanmar Embassy in Jakarta in retaliation for the assaults on Muslims.

Ashin Wirathu, the spiritual leader of the radical movement, skates a thin line between free speech and incitement, taking advantage of loosened restrictions on expression during a fragile time of transition. He was himself jailed for eight years by the now-defunct military junta for inciting hatred. Last year, as part of a release of hundreds of political prisoners, he was freed.

In his recent sermon, he described the reported massacre of schoolchildren and other Muslim inhabitants in the central city of Meiktila in March, documented by a human rights group, as a show of strength.

“If we are weak,” he said, “our land will become Muslim.”

Buddhism would seem to have a secure place in Myanmar. Nine in 10 people are Buddhist, as are nearly all the top leaders in the business world, the government, the military and the police. Estimates of the Muslim minority range from 4 percent to 8 percent of Myanmar’s roughly 55 million people while the rest are mostly Christian or Hindu.

But Ashin Wirathu, who describes himself as a nationalist, says Buddhism is under siege by Muslims who are having more children than Buddhists and buying up Buddhist-owned land. In part, he is tapping into historical grievances that date from British colonial days when Indians, many of them Muslims, were brought into the country as civil servants and soldiers.

The muscular and nationalist messages he has spread have alarmed Buddhists in other countries.

The Dalai Lama, after the riots in March, said killing in the name of religion was “unthinkable” and urged Myanmar’s Buddhists to contemplate the face of the Buddha for guidance.

Phra Paisal Visalo, a Buddhist scholar and prominent monk in neighboring Thailand, says the notion of “us and them” promoted by Myanmar’s radical monks is anathema to Buddhism. But he lamented that his criticism and that of other leading Buddhists outside the country have had “very little impact.”

“Myanmar monks are quite isolated and have a thin relationship with Buddhists in other parts of the world,” Phra Paisal said. One exception is Sri Lanka, another country historically bedeviled by ethnic strife. Burmese monks have been inspired by the assertive political role played by monks from Sri Lanka’s Sinhalese majority.

As Myanmar has grown more polarized, there have been nascent signs of a backlash against the anti-Muslim preaching.

Among the most disappointed with the outbreaks of violence and hateful rhetoric are some of the leaders of the 2007 Saffron Revolution, a peaceful uprising led by Buddhist monks against military rule.

“We were not expecting this violence when we chanted for peace and reconciliation in 2007,” said the abbot of Pauk Jadi monastery, Ashin Nyana Nika, 55, who attended a meeting earlier this month sponsored by Muslim groups to discuss the issue. (Ashin is the honorific for Burmese monks.) Ashin Sanda Wara, the head of a monastic school in Yangon, says the monks in the country are divided nearly equally between moderates and extremists.

He considers himself in the moderate camp. But as a measure of the deeply ingrained suspicions toward Muslims in the society, he said he was “afraid of Muslims because their population is increasing so rapidly.”

Ashin Wirathu has tapped into that anxiety, which some describe as the “demographic pressures” coming from neighboring Bangladesh. There is wide disdain in Myanmar for a group of about one million stateless Muslims, who call themselves Rohingya, some of whom migrated from Bangladesh. Clashes between the Rohingya and Buddhists last year in western Myanmar roiled the Buddhist community and appear to have played a role in later outbreaks of violence throughout the country. Ashin Wirathu said they served as his inspiration to spread his teachings.

The theme song to Ashin Wirathu’s movement speaks of people who “live in our land, drink our water, and are ungrateful to us.”

“We will build a fence with our bones if necessary,” runs the song’s refrain. Muslims are not explicitly mentioned in the song but Ashin Wirathu said the lyrics refer to them. Pamphlets handed out at his sermon demonizing Muslims said that “Myanmar is currently facing a most dangerous and fearful poison that is severe enough to eradicate all civilization.”

Many in Myanmar speculate, without offering proof, that Ashin Wirathu is allied with hard-line Buddhist elements in the country who want to harness the nationalism of his movement to rally support ahead of elections in 2015. Ashin Wirathu denies any such links.

But the government has done little to rein him in. During Ashin Wirathu’s visit here in Taunggyi, traffic policemen cleared intersections for his motorcade.

Once inside the monastery, as part of a highly choreographed visit, his followers led a procession through crowds of followers who prostrated themselves as he passed.

Ashin Wirathu’s movement calls itself 969, three digits that monks say symbolize the virtues of the Buddha, Buddhist practices and the Buddhist community.

Stickers with the movement’s logo are now ubiquitous nationwide on cars, motorcycles and shops. The movement has also begun a signature campaign calling for a ban on interfaith marriages, and pamphlets are distributed at sermons listing Muslim brands and shops to be avoided.

In Mawlamyine, a multicultural city southeast of Yangon, a monastery linked to the 969 movement has established the courses of Buddhist instruction for children, which it calls “Sunday dhamma schools.” Leaders of the monasteries there seek to portray their campaign as a sort of Buddhist revivalist movement.

“The main thing is that our religion and our nationality don’t disappear,” said Ashin Zadila, a senior monk at the Myazedi Nanoo monastery outside the city.

Yet despite efforts at describing the movement as nonthreatening, many Muslims are worried.

Two hours before Ashin Wirathu rolled into Taunggyi in a motorcade that included 60 honking motorcycles, Tun Tun Naing, a Muslim vendor in the city’s central market, spoke of the visit in a whisper.

“I’m really frightened,” he said, stopping in midsentence when customers entered his shop. “We tell the children not to go outside unless absolutely necessary.”

I dread to think the negative karma that results from this..and the backlash against Buddhists around the world

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/21/world/asia/extremism-rises-among-myanmar-buddhists-wary-of-muslim-minority.html?pagewanted=1&_r=0

[Ensapa]

Sigh, the voice of an extremist monk..

Extremist Myanmar monk lashes out at Time after being called Buddhism's 'face of terror'
Published June 21, 2013
Associated Press
YANGON, Myanmar –  A monk accused of inciting violence against Myanmar's minority Muslim community is lashing back at Time magazine after seeing his image splashed across the cover with the words "Face of Buddhist Terror."
Wirathu told the daily newspaper, The Messenger, on Friday his reputation would not be tarnished by the "biased" story.
He said: "You can put mud on a ruby, but that doesn't take away its shine."
The wave of religious violence that has ripped through this predominantly Buddhist nation since it began its transition to a quasi-civilian government in 2011 following decades of military rule has left around 250 people dead — most of them Muslims.
Wirathu is one of the most vocal spreaders of hate speech and has called on Buddhists to unite against "a growing Muslim threat."


Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/world/2013/06/21/extremist-myanmar-monk-lashes-out-at-time-after-being-called-buddhism-face/#ixzz2Wr58qeyh

[kris]

This is indeed very sad news in the Myanmar Buddhist community... not only there are more and more monks not showing the Buddhist quality, many of them even started violence against the minority Muslim community. This is unheard off in the history that Buddhist ever started violence against others.

HH Dala Lama did to right thing to ask the monks to stop such un-Buddhist acts (though a bit late). We need to have some governing body to stop this violence...

[Ensapa]

This is indeed very sad news in the Myanmar Buddhist community... not only there are more and more monks not showing the Buddhist quality, many of them even started violence against the minority Muslim community. This is unheard off in the history that Buddhist ever started violence against others.

HH Dala Lama did to right thing to ask the monks to stop such un-Buddhist acts (though a bit late). We need to have some governing body to stop this violence...

It is the rise of a Buddhist extremist group there in Myanmar that is propitiating this idea that another religion is threatening Buddhism and that the people should rise up against them. Is it not strangely familiar with the Dorje Shugden ban, where Dorje Shugden is discriminated against by the Tibetans because Nechung/Dalai Lama said that he works against the Tibetan independence? Harm and violence in order to protect "buddhism" does not work that way at all no matter what the reason is.

[Ensapa]

Oh no, even Time has highlighted this issue.

Straying From the Middle Way: Extremist Buddhist Monks Target Religious Minorities

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.”

(PHOTOS: In Burma, Religious Riots Flare Up Again)

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.


Read more: http://world.time.com/2013/06/20/extremist-buddhist-monks-fight-oppression-with-violence/#ixzz2Wzvte1FV

[RedLantern]

I do believe they acted this way because they feel they are being attacked and they need to defend themselves.It is well known that religions or ethnic minorities (in this case commonly both) have never in history been scapegoated,especially in times of political or economical turmoil.
The fanatism should be condemned thoroughly,people must learn to respect other's faith.All religion teaches the same principle.What is the difference?Whether Buddhist,Hindus,Christians,or Muslims let us live in peace.

[bonfire]

I do not think that the government of Myanmar will take lightly that a monk is threatening the stability of the country by inciting multi-religious violence.

Myanmar is opening up for business right now, and there are many projects about to start, businesses, trades, hotels, shopping complexes, cinemas, etc... Businesses from all Asian countries around are coming to Myanmar to invest.

Yet, everyone has the same worry: will the political opening and stability remain?
The political stability is paramount for the economical strength the country needs in this time of political shift. The economical growth depends directly upon the trust that foreign investors have in the country's political future.
Without the foreign investor, the economy is crippled as it would only remain within the Oil and Gas industry. This is not enough.

All what is needed for the foreign investors to loose trust is a retaliation of the extreme wing from the muslim side of this issue.
The speech from Ashin Wirathu is putting oil on branches that are not lit, all it needs now is a spark.

I sincerely wish that Myanmar, such an important landmark in the world's Buddhist landscape, will show the world how Buddhist leaders can lead by example.
May there be peace in Myanmar and the world.
May monks and clergy refrain from doing politics, in this day and age, there is no need for religion to mix with politics, but there is a need for religion to reach to the human minds and all suffering beings.
May Buddhists open up to Muslims and followers of other faiths so that the karma for peace is set in motion.

[DS Star]

The backlash against Buddhists by Muslims worldwide will be the main concern here... for this issue will not be merely Myanmar's internal politics or society issue within Myanmar's territory, instead it is fast becoming the clash of 2 religions or rather the clash of worldwide followers of these 2 religions.

For thousands of years since the great Lord Buddha turned the Dharma Wheel, Buddhists are regarded as the most peaceful religion followers. Buddha had never started any war against anyone or any nation during his lifetime nor were any of the great Buddhist Masters.

The core teachings of Buddha are compassion and wisdom. Hatred is labelled as one of the 3 major poisons to cause us suffering.

As such, this act of promoting "hate" towards Muslims is against the most basic of Buddha's core teachings. This so-called movement to 'fight' Muslims is actually un-Buddhistic. So, if it is instigated by a so-called Sangha member, then I would say that this particular monk may have broken his Monk's Vows; the Pratimoksha Vows.

[samayakeeper]

I think violence is not the method to use to solve any misunderstanding or unhappiness between two or more parties. The law of the land should intervene when violent acts had been committed and citizens of the land should not rise up in arms and not be vigilantes.

[Benny]

Lets just hope that the surrounding Muslim states around the region , especially Indonesia does not allow for their own religious fanatics to ship themselves over in the thousands to declare a Jihad or holy war , to defend their muslim brothers and sisters ! That would be a disaster , like in Afganistan . All because of one fanatical man , i wont even call him a monk ! What he is aiming to achieve is the ethnic cleansing and murder of an entire minority race , the muslims . He is no different from other mad men , such as Hitler . This is also a clear sign of the neglect and incompetence of the Burmese Government in its failure to take immediate action to arrest this mad man and put a stop to such violence . Violence only begets violence , dont wait anymore , before its too late .........before the mujahideens arrive on your shores to exact revenge for the murdered muslims .

[dondrup]

From the article, Ashin Wirathu does not appear to be what a fully ordained monk should be.  Calling the Muslims as mad dog and troublemaker is very unbecoming!  Furthermore he claimed that the reported massacre of schoolchildren and other Muslim inhabitants in Meiktila as a show of strength of the Buddhists in Myanmar.  He was even proud to be a radical Buddhist.   Ashin Wirathu had been giving sermons to Myanmarese  spreading suspicion and hatred towards the Muslims in Mynmar. 

All the above characteristics are totally non-Buddhistic! Ashin Wirathu is an extremist!

[Ensapa]

And he is proud of what he has done...

‘I am proud to be called a radical Buddhist’: More Burmese embracing anti-Muslim violence
By Max Fisher, Published: June 21, 2013 at 12:32 pm


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

Members of Burma’s Buddhist majority, including some of its much-respected monks, are increasingly persecuting the country’s long-suffering Muslim minority and adopting an ideology that encourages religious violence. It seems a far way from the Buddhism typically associated with stoic monks and the  Lama – who has condemned the violence – and more akin to the sectarian extremism prevalent in troubled corners of the Middle East. The violence has already left nearly 250 Burmese Muslim civilians dead, forced 150,000 from their homes and is getting worse.
“You can be full of kindness and love, but you cannot sleep next to a mad dog,” Ashin Wirathu, a spiritual leader of the movement and very popular figure in Burma, said of the country’s Muslims, whom he called “the enemy.” He told the New York Times, “I am proud to be called a radical Buddhist.”
Wirathu calls himself “the Burmese bin Laden” and was recently labeled on the cover of Time magazine as “the face of Burmese terror.” A prominent Burmese human rights activist, after a lifetime of fighting government oppression, now warns that Wirathu’s movement is promoting an ideology akin to neo-Nazism.
Already, the movement has expanded beyond this one self-styled radical Buddhist monk. It’s now expanding across Burma (also known as Myanmar) according to the Times article. The anti-Muslim sentiment has spread with alarming speed over just the last year, as Burma – which is finally opening up after years of military dictatorship – loosened its strict speech laws. It has prompted boycotts and sermons that can sound an awful lot like calls for violence against Muslims. Monasteries associated with the movement have enrolled 60,000 Burmese children into Sunday school programs.

By far the worst attack so far was in late March in the central Burmese city of Meiktila. Tellingly, the attack was not let by a single leader or religious figure but carried out by mobs of Buddhists, a worrying sign that Wirathu’s violent ideas may have taken hold in the city. A minor dispute at an outdoor jewelry stall between a Buddhist customer and a Muslim vendor escalated rapidly out of control. Buddhist rioters razed entire Muslim neighborhoods, burned several civilians alive and killed up to 200 more Muslims until, after three long days in which the army was conspicuously absent, troops intervened to stop the killing.
Here, from Human Rights Watch, is a set of before-and-after satellite images of one of the neighborhoods attacked, where Buddhist mobs destroyed a staggering 442 Muslim homes.

Heightening the fear is that none of Burma’s leaders has stepped in to end the bloodshed. The military rulers, though they once jailed Wirathu, have held back, perhaps reluctant to risk the backlash at a time when they are willingly abandoning much of their power.
Aung San Suu Kyi, the longtime democracy activist who became an international cause as a political prisoner, is so beloved in Burma that she may well become its first democratically elected president. But the Nobel Prize winner has also failed to fully condemn the violence. This has been typically seen as a political choice, meant to avoid angering too many Burmese voters if she wants to maintain national support. As the Economist points out, many Burmese were angered when Suu Kyi criticized a draconian new law that forbids some Burmese Muslims from having more than two children.
Unchecked, though, Burma’s self-declared radical Buddhists may show no interest in ending their campaign against the country’s Muslim minority.

[Ensapa]

Myanmar should clamp down on him rather than making statements like these

Time magazine 'Buddhist Terror' headline irks Myanmar
AFP | Jun 24, 2013, 03.46 PM IST

Social media users in the former junta-ruled nation also voiced dismay at the US magazine's July front page, which shows a photograph of controversial Mandalay monk Wirathu, whose anti-Muslim remarks have come under scrutiny following a wave of deadly religious violence.

The Time report "creates a misunderstanding of Buddhism which has existed for thousands of years and is the religion of the majority of our citizens," said a statement posted on the presidential office website late Sunday.

"The government is currently striving with religious leaders, political parties, media and the people to rid Myanmar of unwanted conflicts," it said, adding that the issue of religion should be handled respectfully by the media.

In a sign of the strength of feeling, one online petition started over the weekend to condemn the magazine had collected almost 40,000 names by Monday.

The use of the words "Buddhist" and "Terror" upset all followers of the faith, which is peaceful "and not for terrorists," a message accompanying the petition said.

Eye-witnesses to violence which flared in March in central Myanmar said people dressed in monks' robes were involved in the unrest, which left scores dead, mainly Muslims.

Radical monks have led a campaign to shun shops owned by Muslims. Wirathu has also called for a law to restrict marriages between Buddhist women and men of other faiths.

Senior monks, however, have accused foreign media of one-sided reporting of the Buddhist-Muslim conflict.

Facebook users accused Time of deepening divisions and defaming Myanmar's main religion.

"Insulting the monk Wirathu, a son of Buddha, is the same as insulting Buddhism," said one post by Wai Phyo.

"What Wirathu is doing now is to protect our own nationality and religion," the Facebook user wrote, urging the magazine to apologise.

"Obviously this writer doesn't understand Myanmar and Buddhism well," another post said.

Several episodes of religious fighting have exposed deep rifts in the Buddhist-majority country and cast a shadow over widely praised political reforms since military rule ended two years ago.

In March at least 44 people were killed in sectarian strife in central Myanmar with thousands of homes set ablaze.

Communal unrest last year in the western state of Rakhine left about 200 people dead and up to 140,000 displaced, mainly Rohingya Muslims.

[brian]

oh dear, this is like forming a cult to me. Promoting hatred among the public and raging war against the Rohingyas?? This is not Buddhism for me and this is even bringing a bad name to Buddhism let alone promoting Buddha's teachings to the people. Buddhism does not promote hatred to another even though we are clearly offended or harmed. I don't really understand what is going on with the current situation in Myanmar but it is certainly not a good news for the Muslims in Myanmar.

[rossoneri]

Sigh, let's hope they would eventually find peace among each other in Myanmar. At times we do intend to do things that we know is wrong and yet still perform it due to the situation. I am not sure why did the negative karma of these group people manifested in such a way but i am really glad that i am be able to practice Dharma peacefully without worrying about my neighbour knocking on my door and started accusing me. Let's just hope whatever is happening in Myanmar will be rectify soon in a peaceful manner.