In each and every organised religion there is an extremist preacher, priest, pastor and passenger (blind faith follower without thinking for the sake of humanity). Of those many such extremists I found in Buddhism, Ashin Wirathu (aged 46), a Burmese Buddhist monk, and the spiritual leader of the anti-Muslim movement in Burma, who has been described by The Economist as a notorious chauvinist for whom Buddhism equates with a narrow nationalism. He said, You can be full of kindness and love, but you cannot sleep next to a mad dog. Time magazine referred to me as the ‘Burmese Bin Laden. I told their reporter when they came and met me that it was the Muslims who gave me this name. I didnt refer to myself this way, but Time magazine used this name in the story. Muslims would like to occupy our country, but I won’t let them because we are historically Buddhist nation and we must keep Myanmar Buddhist. I call muslim troublemakers, because they are troublemakers. I am proud to be called a radical Buddhist. If we are weak our land will become Muslim. The hand that holds the pen,” not the sword, I don’t even like to respond rudely. I was described as a terrorist, which is really the opposite of what I stand for and how I act. The places where we [969 monks] have preached haven’t had any problems because we have made clear our policy—not to provoke [violence] and not to be aggressive. Some people describe 969 as a bad group. Perhaps they believe that Myanmar can be occupied if 969 is shut down. When the Rakhine problem erupted, I told Muslims who are close to me and live outside of Rakhine State to reject and condemn the violence by Bengali Rohingyas. By doing so, the public would understand that other Muslims in Myanmar are not the same as the Bengalis. If they refused, all Muslims could be considered enemies of the people that embrace violence. If today’s Muslims separate themselves from 786, founded many years ago by other Muslims as part of the motivation behind the conflict between the Buddhist and Muslim communities and the movement is abolished, the people of Myanmar won’t view 786 negatively, and if people no longer have the negative view against 786, we would have peace between the Buddhists and Muslims. Muslim and Buddhist leaders must collaborate to prevent this conflict from growing, and we must educate the people to solve their problems according to the law.”
Posted on: Tue, 03 Jun 2014 08:04:59 +0000
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