A Buddhist monk Wirathu
called himself Burmese bin Laden was recently labeled on the cover of Time
magazine as the Face of Buddhist Terror. He is the Buddhist monk accused of
stoking religious hatred across Burma, said NBC News contributor MacGregor.
Briefly describing
what’s in its printed version entitled “The Face of Buddhist Terror”, TIME says “His face as still and
serene as a statue's, the Buddhist monk who has taken the title ‘the Burmese
bin Laden’ begins his sermon. Hundreds of worshippers sit before him, palms
pressed together, sweat trickling silently down their sticky backs. On cue, the
crowd chants with the man in burgundy robes, the mantras drifting through the
sultry air of a temple in Mandalay, Burma's second biggest city after Rangoon.
It seems a peaceful scene, but Wirathu's message crackles with hate: Now is not
the time for calm.”
Sparked widespread
protests across the country, Burmese government banned the TIME
magazine portraying Ashin Wirathu as the Burmese bin Laden. Circa said
Wirathu leads the radical Buddhist group 969 which says that the country's
Muslim minority threatens national security and racial purity. Violence against
Muslims has resulted in 250 deaths and displaced 150,000 people in the past
year.
NBC News contributor Fiona MacGregor said Wirathu had
been accused of inciting violence against Myanmar's Muslim minority with fiery
sermons claiming the growth of Islam is putting Buddhism and Burmese culture at
risk. About 200 people have been killed by violence since religious riots
erupted in June 2012 and tens of thousands fled after homes owned were burned
by mobs. “I believe Islam is a threat not just for Buddhism, but for the people
and the country and the religion,” NBC said citing the monk. Wirathu laughed at
the TIME report branding him the Buddhist bin Laden. As cited by NBC he said
"People used to write things like that about me on Facebook, call me that,
and the 'bald Bin Laden,' all sorts of names," he said. "I ended up
calling myself that as a joke ... and it got reported from there."
Members of Burma’s
Buddhist majority, including some of its much-respected monks, are increasingly
persecuting the country’s long-suffering Muslim minority and adopting an
ideology that encourages religious violence, said Washington Post.
It seems a far away from
the Buddhism typically associated with stoic monks and the Lama, who has condemned
the violence, and more akin to the sectarian extremism prevalent in troubled
corners of the Middle East
Telling about the same
monk, the New York Time said that after a ritual prayer atoning for
past sins, Ashin Wirathu sat before an overflowing crowd of thousands of
devotees and launched into a rant against what he called the enemy — the
country’s Muslim minority. “You can be full of kindness and love, but you
cannot sleep next to a mad dog,” Ashin Wirathu said, referring to Muslims. “I
call them troublemakers, because they are troublemakers,” Ashin Wirathu told a
reporter after his two-hour sermon. “I am proud to be called a radical Buddhist.”
The world has grown
accustomed to a gentle image of Buddhism defined by the self-effacing words of
the Dalai Lama, the global popularity of Buddhist-inspired meditation and
postcard-perfect scenes from Southeast Asia and beyond of crimson-robed, barefoot
monks receiving alms from villagers at dawn. But over the past year, images of rampaging Burmese Buddhists carrying swords and the vituperative sermons
of monks like Ashin Wirathu have underlined the rise of extreme Buddhism in
Myanmar — and revealed a darker side of the country’s greater
freedoms after decades of military rule.
It was Wirathu who led a
rally of monks in Mandalay to defend President Thein Sein's controversial plan to send the Rohingya
to a third country, said the Guardian. One month later, more
violence broke out in Rakhine state. Thein Sein and opposition leader Aung San
Suu Kyi have been criticized for not taking a greater stand against the
violence that has racked Burma in recent months. Some have pointed to the seemingly
planned nature of many of the attacks; UN special envoy Vijay Nambiar said the
violence had a "brutal efficiency" and cited "incendiary
propaganda" as stirring up trouble
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