A lot of people are, quite rightly, pointing out the colonial origins of a lot of the problems facing the Buddhist and Muslim communities in Burma/Myanmar. The British colonial administration left a lot of social imbalances, power vacuums, and social inequity in its wake.
However ill relations, as a problem between Buddhists and Muslims, actually goes back much further in SE Asia. A lot of the predominantly Muslim areas in SE Asia used to practice an Indian form of fusional Vajrayāna Buddhism-Hinduism (syncretic observation of historical forms of Hinduism and Buddhism). Now this was late Indian Vajrayāna Buddhism, so it was not the same necessarily as Theravāda, or even postulated “Early Buddhism”, but I think we can all agree that there is at least a core part of the teachings that are more or less similar: impermanence, dependant origination, the emptiness of inherency (referring to existence), to name a few.
The success of Islam in the region caused a souring in the tone of relations between Buddhists and Muslims in that area. For instance, there is Tibetan sectarian literature that date from after mainstream conversion to Islam in SE Asia that have the Buddha and Buddhist figures engage in anti-Islamic polemic, so this unrest in Burma/Myanmar, although it is presenting itself in new social settings, is also a older conflict as well in the region, albeit with a different form of Buddhism involved.
I think thats a bit more historical context, but its only my own knowings as well, if something is misinformed please do correct me.
I actually feel like the problem doesn’t necessarily lie entirely with colonialism itself. E.g., the most problematic fundamentalist teaching, Wahhabism, arose in the middle of the 18th century in the Nejd area of the Arabian peninsula, far from Europe and long before the European colonial powers made their presence felt in the region. Among other reason could be the European culture and mindset projected on the Buddhism, old conflict with Islam, or - a media scientist here - the introduction of new media, e.g., typography, into the Theravada cultural context, so the developments in the Buddhist milieu ultimately parallelled those in Europe while being accelerated and exacerated by colonialism. The influence of book printing on the European civilization, philosophy and view of the world was enormous, so I feel like it would not be a huge stretch to assume it could leas to similar developments in SE Asia. That would not explain the rise of Wahhabism, of course, but then it is not what we are actually supposed to discuss here
Very sad that this is happening. There’s no such thing as a ‘Buddhist country’ IMO, just individuals practicing, more or less. The dhamma has no magical ability to transform people’s minds. I wonder if they have heard of this EBT- the Vipaka sutta:
"Monks, the taking of life — when indulged in, developed, & pursued — is something that leads to hell, leads to rebirth as a common animal, leads to the realm of the hungry shades. AN8.40.
We, who are Buddhists living in Indonesia, are currently facing protest from our fellow Muslims because of the Rohingya genocide in Myanmar. Some of them are planning to do protest and demonstration in Buddhist temples in our country including Borobudur temple, although police doesn’t permit it. It’s all because there are many hoaxes on social media saying that Buddhist monks killed Rohingya Muslims. This is a frustrating condition for our country religious tolerance…
I’ve defended Burma in the past, but I am finally sick of this. When is their Nobel prize winning leader going to do something about this chaos and murder?
I’ve finally realized that, as a Mahayana Buddhist in the United States, I am under no obligation to defend the actions or policies of Burmese Buddhists.
It would be like expecting American Protestants or Catholics to defend the pogroms against Jews during Tsarist Russia, just because the Tsar and his family claimed to be Christian, yet belonged to a different branch of Christianity in a different country.
I am sorry if I am being offensive in saying these things, but I have defended Burma in the past, and I will not do it again.
This is clearly a very touchy topic, and rightly, as people have been forced out of their houses to save their life and the life of their loved ones…
So let’s try not to add fuel to the fire (which really could be an un-official buddha motto).
Any statement that reads like “Buddhist kill Muslims” or “Muslims are terrrorists” (not related to Burma but rather on what we experience in Europe since a number of years) are much too broad to be a fair representation truth and are most likely the result of mental affliction (ill will, anger, delusion).
In such statement we’re falling short of simply stating that men are killing other men and oppressing women, or that men are committing terror attacks.
Which actually would probably still be better and more accurate (as a generalization - so long as we don’t go a step too far and start to imply that all men are killers or rapist…).
But why do we have to extract a few feature out of the complex human being that are committing those exactions and generalize that to a much wider population?
What is the underlying tendency in our mind (defilement?) that lead us there…
Anyhow, I guess there are more questions than answers here. But please, lets refrain from repeating outrageous claims and statement that are fueling the fire.
And let’s practice right speech together if we can (and I know it’s not always easy).
Rather than listening to people who have a sectarian religious interest, whether Muslim or Buddhist, I’d like to hear what humanitarian organizations like Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have to say about the situation in Burma, if at all possible.
Sorry, I don’t say like that, you misunderstand. I say hoaxes news that show pictures of Buddhist monks and many human corpses and it is captioned as “Buddhists kill Rohingya Muslims”, but the truth is the picture is showing some Buddhist monks were evacuating corpses of tsunami victims several years ago. Something like that is used by irresponsible people for framing hatred among our Buddhists and fellow Muslims harmonious life…
FYI ,
I’m sorry if offended any one , but ,
I just wanted Buddhists to realise something that we don’t want to know about and face now will not help us to confront it when we are put to it later.
I supposed we all knew what happened to the Buddhist monks of Nalanda !
Anyway , hope you understand I don’t have ill intention ! Just a Friendly reminder !
P/s : my previous post here was flags ,
Forgive me for my ignorant , can anyone highlights why the post was considered wrong or harbour hatreds ? !
I cried watching the movie Fiddler on the Roof, during the part when the Tsarist government carries out a pogrom against the Jews. I don’t want to stand idly by or even give my endorsement to Buddhists carrying out a pogrom against a Muslim minority, that has lived in their country for generations and knows no other home.
I’m going to get angry if Burma doesn’t get its act together. While there’s been some violence committed by Rohingya Muslims, it doesn’t justify committing genocide against an entire ethnic group. Should Aung San Suu Kyi give back her Nobel peace prize?
