Buddhist temples targeted in Bangladesh

B5C

Buddhist temples targeted in Bangladesh

rare outbreak of anti-Buddhist rioting in Bangladesh has left at least four temples and dozens of homes gutted by fire. Muslims had taken to the streets to protest against an internet photo they said defamed Islam.
Senior police officers in the Cox's Bazar coastal district said deployments of soldiers and border guards had helped quell the violence.
A young man accused of posting the photo was escorted to safety. At least 20 people were said to have been injured. Public gatherings had been temporarily banned, police said.
The rioters' targets were the town of Ramu and its adjourning villages, some 350 kilometers (216 miles) from the capital, Dhaka.

Rioting broke out in southeastern Bangladesh
"They became unruly and attacked Buddhist houses, torching and damaging their temples from midnight to Sunday morning," said district administrator Joinul Bari.
A police officer, Rumia Khatun, said thousands of Muslims first attacked a Buddhist hamlet in Ramu, torching centuries-old temples, and later stormed Buddhist villages outside the town.
A local journalist, Sunil Barua, himself a Buddhist, said two of the temples set ablaze during the rioting were 300 years old.
"They looted precious items and Buddha statues from the temples. Shops owned by Buddhists were also looted," Barua said.

In Myamar minority Rohingyas have faced protests by Buddhists
The Muslim head of the local council, Sohel Sarwar Kajal, said he was trying to mediate.
"We are doing everything possible to quell tension and restore peace between the communities," he said.
Buddhists make up less than one percent of Bangladesh's 153-million population and reside mainly in southeastern districts, close to the border with Buddhist-majority Myanmar.
Sectarian tensions have been running high in Myanmar since June when deadly clashes erupted between Buddhists and minority Muslim Rohingya in Myanmar's western Rakhine state."

http://www.dw.de/dw/article/0,,16274399,00.html

Vastmind

Very sad. Objects/Ideas/People treated with such dis-respect.

May we each practice the faith in which we hold close to
the heart, in a way that promotes success,liberty, and peace
to each human on the continents that we share.

It's a small world, and even smaller lifetime.

B5C

No what is REALLY sad? They burned down everything because of an post on Facebook.



They considered an burned copy of the Quarn blasphemous and a Buddhist kid was accedently tagged so they started attacking Buddhists.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/30/bangladesh-muslims-attack-buddhists-quran_n_1926544.html

RebeccaS

That's fuckin' stupid.

Arthurbodhi

OneLifeForm

A burned copy.. at first I thought a copy was burned, and well a copy was burned but what I thought was a book was burned with fire.

...

how

Thinking folks can just be that stupid doesn't really work for me.

This religious street thuggery look like an Islamic version of Roman gladiatorial Coliseum stimulation.

I wonder if it is tolerated because it gives the unhappy masses, a target of mis direction and release away from the governing contributions towards joblessness, poverty, and social constraints.

RebeccaS

You'd have to be stupid to find it acceptable to do things like that, especially because of something so innocuous.

I think stupid is an apt description

If you told me you were going to attack a bunch of people because of a facebook picture I'd call you stupid and I'd be correct.

Finding some other excuse or reason for it or an underlying issue like political unrest etc. etc. doesn't make it any less stupid.

It's stupid. That kind of thing is stupid. There's no escaping it.

Kevin

B5C said:

No what is REALLY sad? They burned down everything because of an post on Facebook.



They considered an burned copy of the Quarn blasphemous and a Buddhist kid was accedently tagged so they started attacking Buddhists.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/30/bangladesh-muslims-attack-buddhists-quran_n_1926544.html

You can't ignore the tension between Buddhists and Muslims in that region when looking at this event. It wasn't simply based just on a Facebook photo.

music

Apparently, Muslims seem to have tensions with just about everyone ... and everywhere.

pegembara

However, most of us are not free from all defilements yet, so how should we deal with abuse? Should we be a doormat or a punch-bag for others to use as they wish? I don’t think that this is the Buddha’s teaching. In the Dhammapada it says:

“Conquer anger by love. Conquer evil by good.
Conquer the stingy by giving. Conquer the liar by truth.” (Dhp v 223 )

When others tell lies about us, steal from us, or abuse us, we should defend ourselves. However, if we become angry, then that is a weakness in us that we should learn from. We should be long-sighted, not short-sighted. All beings are the owners of their kamma, and will inherit its results. The suffering that we are inheriting while being mistreated or abused is a result, but not all things are due to previous kamma. We can and should act in the present moment to deflect the fruition of past kamma as best we can. When we return anger with loving-kindness, stinginess with generosity, and speak the truth to expose lies, we are practising equanimity in the right way. If we do nothing, we are practising the equanimity of the water buffalo.
At one time, the Venerable Ajahn Chah asked a monk why he had not fixed the hole in the roof of his hut, from which water was coming inside. The monk replied that he was practising equanimity. Ajahn Chah said that that was the equanimity of the water buffalo.

If we practise that kind of equanimity, we may be strong, but we are behaving like a water buffalo. A human being should use wisdom to deal with problems that have arisen, using force if necessary, but not with anger.

http://www.aimwell.org/Books/Pesala/Error/error.html#WrongViews

B5C

Kevin said:

You can't ignore the tension between Buddhists and Muslims in that region when looking at this event. It wasn't simply based just on a Facebook photo.

We're not ignoring the tension between the two groups. There always be tension like the Hindus and Buddhists in Sir Lanka. The facebook was the trigger which let off the bullet.

vinlyn

http://www.cnn.com/2012/09/30/world/asia/bangladesh-muslim-buddhist-violence/index.html?hpt=hp_bn2

New news story on this issue.

Cinorjer

Take a weak local government, a small but organized minority of intolerant troublemakers looking for an excuse to "teach those people who's in charge" and this is what you get. Most of the Muslims would have wanted nothing to do with the violence, but they would have locked their doors and stayed at home.

Has nothing to do with religion. Has everything to do with tribal identity. If not religion, it would be skin color, language, or the funny way you dress.

karasti

To keep things clear, the photo was apparently actually a photo of a partially burned Quran book, not dvd burned, lol. They closed the boy's FB page (the boy who was tagged in the photo when the rioters saw it) and had to escort him and his family to safety. People really should understand what they are seeing before they react. Not that reacting in the way they did is at all acceptable, but it's even less so when you are reacting to the wrong thing/person.

Kevin

B5C said:

Kevin said:

You can't ignore the tension between Buddhists and Muslims in that region when looking at this event. It wasn't simply based just on a Facebook photo.

We're not ignoring the tension between the two groups. There always be tension like the Hindus and Buddhists in Sir Lanka. The facebook was the trigger which let off the bullet.

Yes, the Facebook post was the immediate trigger, but if that tension wasn't already there would this still have happened? We can only speculate, but I'm inclined to believe that the odds are much lower.

hermitwin

there are no winners.
the victims are suffering now.
the perpetrators will suffer in the future due to the bad karma.

B5C said:

Buddhist temples targeted in Bangladesh

rare outbreak of anti-Buddhist rioting in Bangladesh has left at least four temples and dozens of homes gutted by fire. Muslims had taken to the streets to protest against an internet photo they said defamed Islam.
Senior police officers in the Cox's Bazar coastal district said deployments of soldiers and border guards had helped quell the violence.
A young man accused of posting the photo was escorted to safety. At least 20 people were said to have been injured. Public gatherings had been temporarily banned, police said.
The rioters' targets were the town of Ramu and its adjourning villages, some 350 kilometers (216 miles) from the capital, Dhaka.

Rioting broke out in southeastern Bangladesh
"They became unruly and attacked Buddhist houses, torching and damaging their temples from midnight to Sunday morning," said district administrator Joinul Bari.
A police officer, Rumia Khatun, said thousands of Muslims first attacked a Buddhist hamlet in Ramu, torching centuries-old temples, and later stormed Buddhist villages outside the town.
A local journalist, Sunil Barua, himself a Buddhist, said two of the temples set ablaze during the rioting were 300 years old.
"They looted precious items and Buddha statues from the temples. Shops owned by Buddhists were also looted," Barua said.

In Myamar minority Rohingyas have faced protests by Buddhists
The Muslim head of the local council, Sohel Sarwar Kajal, said he was trying to mediate.
"We are doing everything possible to quell tension and restore peace between the communities," he said.
Buddhists make up less than one percent of Bangladesh's 153-million population and reside mainly in southeastern districts, close to the border with Buddhist-majority Myanmar.
Sectarian tensions have been running high in Myanmar since June when deadly clashes erupted between Buddhists and minority Muslim Rohingya in Myanmar's western Rakhine state."

http://www.dw.de/dw/article/0,,16274399,00.html