Muslims Victims of Buddhist Violence?!
October 10, 2007
Kind of sounds strange, doesn’t it? Especially given the image of these two religions many of us get through Western media. Brother AbdulHaq of Brixton sent me the following link to a rather interesting blog post by an anthropologist studying Muslim communities. His name’s Dr. Gabriele Marranci and he’s given a pretty interesting look into the situation being experienced by my Muslim brothers and sisters in Burma; thanks to Dr. Marranci for the insight, and thanks to AbdulHaq for directing me to the Dr.’s post. From the article:
Since the revolt of the monks against the military junta in Burma, all the western mass media have focused on the long history of oppression of this South Asian country, which, I suppose, few of us really know about. While in Italy, I saw people wearing purple T-shirts in the streets, at the universities, and organised protests at the Burmese embassies in support of the ‘Buddhist monks’. This struggle for freedom has seen recently its first victims, and there is a general fear that the new protest can be as unsuccessful as the attempted revolution in 1988. Yet the attention is very much focused upon the courage of the ‘peaceful’ monks.
Read on … The Other, Invisible Suffering of Burma.
I also came across this collection of links concerning Buddhist inspired violence: Buddhism: Violence and War. I have yet to go through them, but they do look interesting to say the least. From the disclaimer at the top of this particular page:
Not unlike other religions Buddhism also has “skeletons in its’ closet” which it carefully conceals in the Western world. There are dark aspects in this “philosophy of compassion, non-violence and tolerance”. Zen-Buddhism for example influenced the most sophisticated warrior philosophy of the East: the extremely brutal and suicidal Samurai Ethics. In Tibetan Buddhism one can find believes in spirits and demons, in secret sexual practices, in war gods, in occultism. Lamas search to influence their retinue and the world with all sorts of magical rituals. In Sri Lanka Buddhist violence and Buddhist racism are the order of the day. In Burma and in Kashmir Buddhist armies are fighting. And yet the Dalai Lama has another face that peeks out from behind the mask of goodness, charity and kindness, which gives one pause to think more deeply about the shadow sides of this “man of peace.” Why is Buddhist fundamentalism so dangerous – because it shows a tendency to religious Fascism! It’s not well known that the brain trust of the SS in Nazi Germany was extremely interested in Vedic- and Buddhist- teachings, in the Lamaist culture, and in Zen-Meditation with the goal to construct with elements of these eastern believes its own Nazi-Religion. (See: www.trimondi.de/H-B-K/inhalt.hi.en.htm ) Buddhism – if it will become congruent with western values like democracy, human rights, equality of gender etc. must be “reinvented”. The condition therefore is an open, critical and honest debate.
October 11, 2007 at 10:12 am
Intersting article…..different from the norm. Keep up the good work :)
October 17, 2007 at 10:25 am
As-salam alaikum,
In order to try & TRULY understand the nature of a created object, we must look at it from different angles. You have gone past the lazy one dimensional perspective to give a greater depth of understanding to the subject. I am sure that many will be surprised & benefit from the clearing of the stereotypical propaganda fog. For that may Allah (SWT) reward you insha’Allah.
April 9, 2008 at 1:42 pm
[...] Muslims Victims of Buddhist Violence?! Posted by Rasheed Gonzales Filed in Comparative Religion, Current Events, Islam, Misconceptions, Orientalism, Random Thoughts, Worldly Affairs Tags: Buddhists, Covering Islam, generalizations, media coverage, terrorism, violence [...]
November 30, 2008 at 10:09 am
Muslims have been victims of violence by “peaceful” Buddhists for centuries. Buddhist Vietnam and Khmer Empires repeatedly attacked Champa, ultimately destroying it. Buddhist Japan attacked much of Asia, including Indonesia, Malaysia. Today, Buddhist Thailand attacks Pattani Muslims. In Sri Lanka, Buddhists attack peaceful Muslims. Don’t forget Buddhists aggressive attacks against fellow Buddhists. Read up on the Emerald Buddha’s wars. It’s all over history.
February 24, 2009 at 10:34 am
[...] Originally Posted by Out of the Box What I find remarkable, is that hatred seems to be very common in Abrahamic religions (Judaism, Christianity and Islam) but not so in other religions. Can anyone offer examples of Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism, Shinto, Asatru or other non-Abrahamic religions being used as an excuse for hate? I’d say you’ve been misinformed: The co-existence of violence and non-violence in Hinduism | Ecumenical Review, The | Find Articles at BNET Hindu Fascist Violence Against Christians Pak Alert Press Worthy Christian News India Christians Injured As Hindu Violence Rocks State Now Buddhism becomes a religion of violence Muslims Victims of Buddhist Violence?! Rasheed Gonzales [...]
April 27, 2009 at 11:02 pm
Dear Rasheed,
It is sad to hear of violence incited by any religion. However, your claim of Buddhism as a religion/belief based on occult and that itself inspires violence is a pure misinformation or a bigoted statement. Please check the facts first before posting on the Internet.
There has not been any killing of innocent civilians esp. children and women in the name of the religion.
Samurai is a Japanese warrior culture with no relevance to the religion.
Thailand – is a case of armed so-called Muslim militant against Buddhist civilians and Thai soldiers.
I don’t know about Sri Lanka, could be an attempt to defame Buddhism by linking political action with the religion, or to inflame religious hatred.
During WW2, Japan had attack much of East and South East Asia. It was inspired by fanatical patriotism, not religion. The aristocracies in Malaya (Not Malaysia then), Indonesia … and massacre in China were directed to different races, not religion.
So my dear friend, you could have post something that promotes religious tolerance rather than hatred, a disservice to humanity.
April 28, 2009 at 10:39 am
Hello “Casual Bud”, and welcome to my blog.
Buddhism is based on occult? Where did I say that? Where did I also make the claim that Buddhism itself inspires violence? What I did in this blog post was give two links to articles and sites that give another perspective into the topic: Buddhist violence against other faiths.
I never made the claim that Buddhists are killing others in the name of their religion. But to deny that there are Buddhists that kill others, despite the evidence showing that there are (as provided by Dr. Marranci), is turning a blind eye to reality.
I don’t mean this in a hostile way or anything at all, just being frank, but we’re not friends, let alone dear friends, so please don’t patronize me. As for what I posted, as mentioned I posted this information to give another perspective on things. You don’t agree with it, that’s fine. You’re entitled to your own opinion. Dr. Marranci’s article, however, does show that contrary to the public perception, Muslims are sometimes actually the victims, not the perpetrators, of religious violence.
July 25, 2009 at 2:27 pm
[...] [...]
October 3, 2009 at 7:01 pm
Thank you for the “information”. I believe some of the details in your article are accurate; but, I also believe several of your conclusions are fallacious. For starters, your writing suffers from hasty generalizations or slothful inductions (depending on motivation), because you attempt to make a point by using insular events and arguing your point as if these are a representative of the whole. Also, your argument suffers from a slippery-slope fallacy (common in conjunction with generalizations and slothful inductions), because it attempts to emphasize a point using hyperbole. These slippery-slope fallacies are usually easy to spot since they frequently compare/contrast a person or organization with Hitler and/or Nazism.
While there are horrific events which have involved people who practice Buddhism, their actions (in most cases) were not done to expand Buddhism. In many cases, these events occurred because others wanted to impose their will on the Buddhists. (Islamic and Christian history is replete with events of the adherents trying to enforce their beliefs on others.) In others, the conflict (usually racial) preceded the arrival of Buddhist teachings; and, the culture, while embracing the teachings, was not able to overcome the conflict immediately. I will also admit that there were a few regrettable cases of violence in the name of Buddhism, which was the source of my original search; however, these appear to be isolated.
Like Casual Bud stated, I believe the predominant cause of most of the violence you cite is/was racial. And I can assure you that the Dahlai Lama, and Buddhists around the world condemn the violence.
The teachings of the Dahlai Lama, and most Buddhists, advocate peace, acceptance, and tranquility. However, it does not mean that we have to just accept fallacies or oppression. In fact, fallacies are the antithesis of enlightenment, which is (as most people know) the ultimate goal of Buddhism.
Best regards,
Steve
October 3, 2009 at 8:34 pm
Hello Steve in Allen, TX and welcome to my blog.
Thank you for your input and criticisms, but I’m afraid you need to direct them to the actual authors of the articles I linked to, the first of whom is Dr. Marranci, whose blog is linked to in the main post. Please feel free to visit his blog and leave your comments under the appropriate post. The authors for the bit I quoted with the Nazi reference, Victor and Victoria Trimondi, can be contacted with the info found here. Thanks.
October 28, 2009 at 2:52 pm
Rasheed,
I really commend your even-tempered responses to the commentators who disagreed with the conclusions in the articles you referenced.
Personally, I ascribe to most (Chan, or Zen) Buddhist beliefs. I found this blog post of yours when, after a friend said there has been violence in Buddhism just like any other religion, I began searching for more information, because this idea was upsetting to me.
I have a few comments on the subject of Buddhist violence, though:
1. I certainly believe that people are capable of using whatever justifications they like for their actions. In that light, Buddhism certainly cannot be immune from such a use.
2. I would contend that in at least some, though not all, cases of Buddhist violence, there was a more mundane understanding of the Dharma, or just plain wrong understanding or even ignorance.
3. Finally, although with my understanding of the Dharma I would never participate in or help a violent act, I can definitely empathize (in some cases) with the thought processes of Buddhist monks and others who truly believe they are doing the right thing. However, on the whole it is my perception, although I am certainly not extremely widely informed, that Buddhism has been tolerant and nonviolent to an extent that most other major religions have not been.
Thank you very much for turning peoples’ attention to these ideas, and especially for spreading Dr. Marranci’s article, which i believe is balanced and logical on the whole. It is a great discredit to oversimplify anyone’s belief system, and even more so to perpetuate a stereotype of “aggressive and violent” to a religion to which many intelligent, thoughtful, and compassionate people ascribe to. I hope that we can all work together to create a worldwide culture of thoughtfulness, compassion, and tolerance.
October 31, 2009 at 8:23 am
Hello Elisabeth and welcome to my blog.
Thank you for dropping by and commenting on the article seeing it for what it is. Much appreciated.