#Buddhism - About Burma, Buddhism, and the Rohingya Once again, Burma is in the spotlight thanks to an article by Nicholas Kristof of the The New York Times. He visited Burma recently, and wrote about what he calls the genocide and concentration camps in Burma. Unfortunately like most reporters covering this topic, his research was one sided and opinionated (for example, he completely leaves off the narrative about the Bangladesh Liberation War...when Bangladesh was East Pakistan...which resulted in a large population entering Burma). All of which is his right to write his opinion (op-ed) article, but there is more to the story which was conveniently left off. When the recent violence first escalated in 2012, I witnessed a truly appalling lack of any research by journalists, who instead salivated at the fact they could paint a purely religious conflict between Buddhists and Muslims. They had a field day with it, to which Nicholas Kristof unfortunately continues the tradition. I have two articles on this. 1) My article about the violence in Burma will give you the entire history, and plenty of supporting documents and articles (to include MANY by Muslims), which explains the situation. alanpeto/buddhism/violence-burma/ 2) My follow-up article was regarding violence in Buddhism. Because this is painted entirely as a Buddhist violence against Muslims, its important to note what exactly Buddhist Violence is. alanpeto/buddhism/violence-in-buddhism/ There is plenty to read between these two articles, which took me months to research and write, which you wont find elsewhere (to my knowledge). Is there more to this story we dont know? Like anything in life, of course. Life and conflicts are complicated. There is no doubt there is violence, conflict, and a myriad of serious issues going on in Burma regarding this issue, and many others. To paint broad strokes to paint this in one light is a disservice. I encourage you to make your own informed decision with additional facts, and...yes...my thoughts as well. Am I 100% perfect, and correct on this issue? I dont claim to be, but I do want to bring additional information into the mix. Ive always admired Kristofs reporting and coverage of many issues, and was saddened to see that he took the quick route in some sloppy (or at least one sided) research. You can read his article here: nytimes/2014/05/29/opinion/kristof-myanmars-appalling-apartheid.html
Posted on: Thu, 29 May 2014 06:43:53 +0000
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