James Crabtree in Colombo and Michael Peel in Bangkok
December 28, 2014
Sri Lankan soldiers of the special task force patrol the
streets of Aluthgama, a town in the south of the country, following clashes
between Muslims and an extremist Buddhist group in June Shahabadeen Sahira had
a traumatic first-hand view of a new wave of militant Buddhist nationalist
groups, whose rise across parts of Asia has triggered growing international
alarm. Wearing a black headscarf, the elderly Muslim former schoolteacher
recalls her ordeal in June, when a gang burst into her home near the southern
Sri Lankan coastal town of Aluthgama, during the worst religiously inspired violence to hit the tropical
island nation in three decades.
“They came and took everything I had,” she recalls of the
men from the country’s largely Buddhist Sinhalese majority, who burned dozens
of homes in two days of clashes with Muslims. Three people were killed. “My
house was ruined. All my money, all my jewellery, was gone,” she says. “If I
could meet those responsible, I would ask: ‘Sir, does your Lord Buddha teach
this?’” The bloodshed was sparked by a street-corner disagreement between a
Buddhist monk and a young Muslim. But Alan Keenan, analyst at the International
Crisis Group think-tank, says it is part of a wider trend: the rise of a new
generation of militant anti-Muslim Buddhist organisations. The most prominent
in Sri Lanka is the Bodu Bala Sena (BBS), or Buddhist Power Force.......To Read More....
My Take: As I've said in the past, I've been
following this story with special interest. On July 10, 2013 I posted a link to
this story:
The Mad Monks of Myanmar
Myanmar is home to a growing wave of anti-Muslim
sentiment, as seen in the troubling 969 movement. The numerical significance of
the digits is rooted in Buddhism’s Three Jewels (Tiratana), which
comprise 24 attributes: nine special attributes of Lord Buddha, six core
Buddhist teachings, and nine attributes of monkhood. Co-opted by members of
Myanmar’s nationalistic Buddhist majority, the number has become a symbol of
religious division that has led to both discrimination and violence. Even the
government, under President Thein Sein, has taken controversial actions that seem
to align with its anti-Muslim stance, from its ongoing purge of the nation's Muslim minority Rohingyas to its highly
contentious two-child policy, applied solely to the same
group.
While the movement has infiltrated the country’s
mainstream over a long period of time, a prominent Buddhist monk, Ashin Wirathu, has
recently become its unofficial leader. A photograph of Wirathu in crimson
robes, with the words “The Face of Buddhist Terror”, made the cover of the July
issue of TIME Magazine, causing a furor in Myanmar and drawing
international attention to the country's heated religious tensions……To Read More…
My Take – I have been following this story
and my first link was on Thursday, April 18, 2013
with the article, Monks Gone Bad, …To Read More…. “My Take” at the time was;
“There is a question not answered, nor is it asked in
this article. Why? The author talks about poverty as a vehicle for inclusion
into the religious orders, but that isn't an explanation as to why this
particular group of monks she discusses have decided to be violent against
Muslims. There is much more to this story that isn't being told, and it is my
belief the right questions aren't being asked.
This article answers those unasked questions when a monk
named Wirathu says:
“Muslims are fundamentally bad. Mohammed allows them to
kill any creature. Islam is a religion of thieves, they do not want peace.”
I have stated in the past that at some point there is
going to be a backlash against Muslim violence. What I didn’t expect was to see
it started by Buddhists. What I also find interesting is how much the world
bemoans violence against Muslims, and yet those same voices seem to be silent
at violence perpetrated by Muslims. The world has gone nuts. This much is clear
though. When it starts it will become more unpleasant than anything we have
seen for a long time.
Further
Comments: I stand
by that prediction. This isn't going to be isolated. The West, and especially
Americans, finds the idea of a religious war anathema. We just won't accept
that concept. Well, much of the rest of the world, particularly the Muslim
world, views religion as the basis for war as a very real concept, and in the
case of Muslims it's a religious requirement.
Furthermore, they don't much care
what the West thinks, and in point of fact, they like the West's reticence. That
way they can use our own values against us and declare any effort to identify
Islam as a warmongering criminal organization disguising itself as a religion
as Islamophobia!
All done with the help of ideologically corrupt elite leftists
in government and the media. But reality will eventually overcome ideology.
This is going to grow worldwide and become more unpleasant than anyone ever
thought could happen in a modern world.