Secularism is a Women’s IssueMuslims and Buddhists who recently lived with each other peacefully now squat on opposite sides of barbed-wire fences and plot each other’s elimination. With Aung Suu Kyi silent, and the international community collectively golf-clapping as Burma edges toward freedom, the Rohingya are nearly friendless in their displaced-person camps and grim ghettos, with few real champions other than a handful of Muslim countries (Saudi Arabia, Malaysia) not known for their capacity to deal with humanitarian crises. Recent Burmese history has been a series of tragedies and crimes—most of them Buddhist-on-Buddhist. But this narrative of Burma as a Buddhist country, governed by competing Buddhists, elides a bitter history of rivalry between Buddhists and Muslims. There are notoriously vicious Buddhist security force patrols. Violent Buddhist wack-jobbery is real—just ask the victims of Japanese fascism, which the Japanese Buddhist clergy supported rabidly—and in Burma it is flourishing.
Home > Keywords > Themes > Buddhist Religious Right
Buddhist Religious Right
Articles
-
A Countryside of Concentration Camps, Burma could be the site of the world’s next genocide
27 January 2014, by siawi3 -
Bangladesh: when states give space to extremists
27 November 2009, by siawi2It would do well for the mainstream political parties to remember that extremism thrives because of political space they are afforded, wittingly nor unwittingly. Preventing that must be the top priority.
-
Sri Lanka: Terror on Easter Sunday: A Look at Sri Lanka’s Ethno-Religious Oppression
23 April 2019, by siawi3Buddhist monks at the forefront of violations against Christians and Muslims.
-
The Unwanted: A Haunting Look at the Rohingya Who Escaped Ethnic Cleansing
25 August 2018, by siawi3Stranded, stateless, unwanted, they are citizens of no country. Myanmar and Bangladesh toss their fate back and forth, even as Myanmar’s army makes one thing clear to every Rohingya they aren’t raping, murdering, burning, or shooting: “Get out and don’t come back.” Since the 1970s, with each successive onslaught of violence, the Rohingya have fled to Bangladesh, where they are also given no rights and often sent back.
-
Political and Economic situation in Sri Lanka
3 August 2016, by siawi3The new government has miserably failed to keep any of the promises that was listed in the pre-election. It brutally suppressed student protests against many burning issues including privatization and commodification of education. The employers initiated a campaign to toughen the labor laws making hiring and firing easier. National question was once again put into the back burner. It is interesting and sad to not[e] that some of the left groupings have been openly or tacitly backing the new government and its policies. They seem to justify their defense on the ground that the government would resolve the protracted national question and it would stand against Sinhala-Buddhist chauvinist forces. This is an illusion. The success of the left and democratic forces ( all the forces that oppose the neoliberal fundamentalist economic program of the government and the IMF) depends on how they could unite all these dispersed and scattered struggles and new institutional structures they can form in the process of fighting.
-
India has declined to be a part of an international parliamentary conference’s declaration that expressed concern over the ongoing violence in the Rakhine state of Myanmar.
17 December 2017, by siawi3“The reasons for Modi’s silence in Myanmar are not hard to discern: first and foremost is that the march towards Hindutva will be diluted by accommodating largely Muslim Rohingyas. Second is geopolitical: India would not want to push the Myanmar regime into China’s arms by a tough stance on the refugees,”
-
Secularizing Sri Lanka; Paradox Of Sovereignty
13 April 2016, by siawi3Shallow identities created by the neo-liberal economic policies play a major role in democracy making the ‘ethno-religious’ majority powerful. According to the Article 9 of Sri Lankan Constitution, ‘The Republic of Sri Lanka shall give to Buddhism the foremost place and accordingly it shall be the duty of the State to protect and foster the Buddha Sasana, while assuring to all religions the rights granted by Articles 10 and 14(1) (e)’. By giving the foremost place to Buddhism, state which is responsible for its citizen’s protection discriminate against the minority ethno-religious groups who are also citizens of the country. The article 9 of the Constitution provides an invisible power to Buddhist religious institutions.
-
Sri Lanka: Taking legal action against Buddhist fundamentalists
9 March 2018, by siawi3We are outraged by the blatant Police inaction and the complacency of the State towards the culture of impunity which prevails around the continuing trend of Buddhist monk-led violent attacks on ethnic and religious numerical minorities. “We, as a country and a people have clearly not learnt from history, and continue to be manipulated by politicians and religious leaders to reinforce and uphold the Chauvanist Sinhala Buddhist agenda of the State.”
-
Sri Lanka: Women’s Rights Activists statement on Anti-Muslim Violence
17 March 2018, by siawi3Women’s rights activists condemn violence and question State response “We call for zero tolerance of hate speech, instigation and violence against any and all minorities.”
-
Sri Lanka: Reframing the riots
17 March 2018, by siawi3The recent riots targeting Muslims in Kandy have provoked accusations on many sides. While mainstream conversations focus on what the riots entail in terms of immediate political consequences for the current Government and its tepid response, progressives have also had to reckon with the growing presence of anti-Muslim rhetoric and violence as a feature of contemporary Sri Lankan life. The resistance of a Muslim community under siege may not necessarily be expressed in the form of territorial separatism. The spectre of Salafist terrorism dominates the global imagination, but in the case of Sri Lanka, Muslim responses could involve demands for inclusion and egalitarianism. This process depends on debates that are happening within the community, and whether those concerns are incorporated into a wider progressive campaign.
