There is a common thread that runs
through the histories of Buddhist countries; they have all been the victim at
one time or the other of aggressive incursions made by people of Abrahamic
faiths i.e. Christians or Muslims. This process has not ended. It still
continues unabated and with greater ferocity. When prominence is given to
“reconciliation” their incursions have yet to be apologized or compensated.
One thousand years ago Buddhist Asia
ranged from Afghanistan to Japan. Today countries such as Afghanistan,
Pakistan, Bangladesh, Maldives, Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines, and South
Korea are no longer identified as Buddhist.
Several other traditional Theravada Buddhist countries such as Myanmar,
Thailand and Sri Lanka today find themselves besieged by forces more powerful
and predatory than their slender resources can match. Their appeal to the call
for Buddhist nationalism is a last resort to preserve their heritage, religion
and country to ensure history is not repeated.
The situation in Myanmar (Burma) must
be understood in such context. The latest issue of ‘Time’ Magazine (July 1,
2013) has got it all wrong when it accused the leading defenders of the
Buddhist heritage of Burma as terrorist. Western colonial countries and their
Islamic acolytes have never admired Buddhist heroes or those who resisted
European or Islamic conquests of Buddhist lands.
The Time magazine’s July 1 issue cover
story, “When Buddhists Go Bad,” depicting a photo of nationalist monk U Wirathu
with the headline “The Face of Buddhist Terror ” is easily explicable in the
context of Western imperialism and its unrelenting propaganda campaign to
demonise, denigrate and slander all those who stand in the way of their
territorial and economic conquests.
It is also an unspoken but sordid fact
that today Western media including big names like Time Magazine are at the
service of Saudi, Qatar, Turkish and OIC petro dollar funds to defame, distort
and spread vile propaganda against Buddhism and its defenders.
World’s Media – Held Captive by Oligarchies
Six companies control 96% of the
world’s media which has been criminally complicit in covering up the West’s war
crimes and functioned as propagandists for what we now know were lies to
facilitate Illegal Wars of Aggression.
Media is tasked to psychologically
manipulate people through various strategies; Time Inc is part of that global
media lie factory so when it christens its July cover as “Face of Buddhist
Terror” and gets its China bureau chief and East Asia correspondent to write an
article titled“When Buddhists Go Bad” it is nothing but unethical journalism
because monk Wirathu’s letter shows that Hanna Beech has violated media ethics
by incorporating statements that Wirathu had not made.
Time Magazine owes it to Burma to publish monk Wirathu’s letter on Time
and publicly apologize for misquoting monk Wirathu.
Asia is tomorrow’s future. Asia is
still pre -dominantly Buddhist. Buddhists are people internally motivated and
therefore the strategy is to use media to demonize Buddhists while using the
weapon of arms and ammunition with hired rebel movements to do the rest of the
dirty work.
Funded by Anglo-Americans and assisted
by Wahhabis, various strategies are now being used to denigrate, divide and
demoralize Buddhists amongst themselves and with the other communities around
them. Individuals who are nationalists and able to rally public opinion become
targets for rebuke.
We know the fate that befell Congo’s
Lumumba and Burma’s own martyr Gen. Aung San at the hands of these
Anglo-Americans because they were an obstacle to their overall objective.
Therefore, Buddhist monk Wirathu becoming the latest victim of media onslaughts
is nothing new. It is obvious that monk Wirathu’s “nationalism” is what the
West abhors and why he is being targeted in an internationally funded campaign
to discredit him.
Wirathu’s response
Hannah Beech’s article cannot be read
and accepted unless monk Wirathu’s response gains the same prominence given
that he accuses her of lying.
Dear Sister Ms. Hannah Beech,
I nationalist Buddhist Monk U Wira Thu is writing this letter to you. When you came to us, we had treated you and your photographer with hospitability. You know we had done our best to help you and your photographer to get what you want.
We had helped you only with the good volition that we want the media and correspondents get the true facts. We helped you because we respect western liberal media like Times and we expected you wouldn’t make lies to the people of the world.
And we did not think you wouldn’t break ethic and responsibility of media. Now I know that you are the worst visitors we have ever had.
I could not see the hatred behind your smiles. I could not see your ruthlessness under your tender actions. I could not see your deceit under your sweet words it is like blade covered by honey.
I did not think that a gentle and beautiful girl like you have the ruthless heart of performing savages attack on us to be heard all over the world. I could not think that because of my background may be as you said I was a vagabond.
I had told you that those names such as Shaved Head Nazi, Neo Nazi, Burmese Bin Laden were given by Muslims on Facebook.
And then liberal media like you dare use the word like “The Buddhist Monk, The Title "Burmese Binladen" I believe (think) you admit your dirty mind by deliberately using the word “The Buddhist Monk” then followed by the word “With the man in burgundy robes.”
You are not a lady with high moral ground and you are same as dirty minded as extremists all over the world. Muslims are also like you want me to strip of the robe. They do not revere me as a Monk and call me “the man in the robe.”
My preaching is not burning with hatred as you say. Only your writing is full of hate speech. We can forgive the misunderstanding. We can forgive wrong conclusion. But will you deny that your hatred words targeted me to tarnish my reputation.
Please recheck your words and the words that I preached.
“Now is not the time for calm.” “Now is the time to rise up to make your blood boil.”
These are your words. Now I show my words. 969 is for peace, We should preserve these noble reputations of Buddha, Dhamma and Sangha. For our National cause, our Culture and our Faith, We will avoid terror act. Upholding three gems (Buddha, Dhamma, Sangha) We will perform with honesty, diligence and determined attempts. For our national cause, We will carry out it warmly without ignorance.”
These are my words. It is clear that you made savage attack against me by comparing my words and your words.
I preach people not to react with lawlessness, but you accused me of terrorist. You tried to draw a picture of me as a person who aggravate the situation by hate speech and fuelling to make offensive attack, where I am preaching people to perform with honesty, diligence and determined attempts to preserve our value.
I preach people to carry out national cause warmly without ignorance, than you gave the world bad impression of me who is trying to boil the blood of people.You dare do that.
With sustained loving-kindness,
Ven. Wira Thu
Wednesday, June
26, 2013
Legacy of Western imperialism
It is obvious that Hanna Beech is
building up an argument that Buddhism has become a religion of violence
claiming that “Buddhism has largely escaped trial”.
She cites examples from Sri Lanka,
Malaysia and Thailand to project a notion of Buddhist chauvinism ill-forgetting
that it was the monks who protected the religion, race and State of these
Buddhist nations when they were faced with brutal onslaughts of Western
Christian Armies at the instigation of the Vatican, Dutch Reformed Church or
the Church of England.
And many of these countries have had
their Buddhist roots razed and Buddhists either killed or chased away – she
conveniently omits mention of Bangladesh and Maldives as once Buddhist nations
where Islamic invaders killed the Buddhist monks and destroyed Buddhist
artefacts, never mentioned too was how the world’s oldest university at Nalanda
was raised to the ground by Islamic hordes and the Buddhist monks who stood and
accepted their karmic fate were slaughtered in their hundreds.
Incidentally, the Islamic element has
become part of contemporary Islamic incursions alongside armed militant
elements that has got unarmed Buddhists worried of history being repeated.
Additionally, the invisible Christian element through conversions subtly taking
place again echoes a re-entry of colonialism. Preparedness for both these
Abrahamic incursions is the challenge that Buddhist Asia is now forced to gear
itself up to.
Thus, the formerly Buddhist lands are
no more and the dominos are certainly falling on the remaining Buddhist
hinterlands. Therefore, what is the crime for defending one’s hinterland?
Is Hannah Beech and Time Magazine
desiring that Buddhists in the remaining Buddhist nations simply remain passive
spectators because their religion denotes them to be compassionate without
defending what is theirs? The Buddha has said to be compassionate and kind but
he has not taught to not defend oneself or one’s country or Buddhist values and
heritage.
Given that Hannah’s arguments rests on
the logic of religion and violence we would like to remind Hannah that not a
single Offensive War has been fought by Buddhists. Buddhists have never invaded
other nations or usurped the rights of people’s religions by converting them by
deceitful means.
The histories of Africa, North and
South America, Middle – East, and Asia all reveal the wanton destruction
committed on the indigenous people by invading armies belonging to Abrahamic religious faiths. No amount
of indulgence in human rights rhetoric and peace studies cosmetics can erase or
whitewash the genocides, mass murders and crimes against humanity committed by
people of European Christian stock and Islamic conquerors in their drive for
world domination.
Media’s silence
Why does the media hesitate to clearly
identify the conflicts that have been based on religion combining with
political alliances, economic advantage and world supremacy?
What of these religious conflicts –
Northern Ireland (Roman Catholics vs Protestants), Rwanda genocide,
Bosnia-Herzegovina conflict between Muslims, Catholics and Serbian Orthodox,
Sudan (Christians-Muslims), Ivory Coast (Muslims-Christians), Cyprus
(Christians-Muslims), East Timor (Catholics-Muslims), Iraq (Muslims-Muslims),
Kosovo (Christians-Muslims), Kurdistan (Christians-Muslims), Macedonia
(Christians-Muslims), Middle East (Jews, Muslims, Christians), Nigeria
(Christians-Muslims), Pakistan (Muslims-Muslims), Philippines
(Christians-Muslims), Chechnya (Christians-Muslims), Somalia (Wahhabi-Sufi).
Over 50 of present day conflicts are
either between or because of Muslims or Christians. If Jesus or Allah has never
propagated to kill or annihilate people who are not their own why have these
Religious Wars taken place consecutively and continue to do so? Buddhists
cannot be put into the same basket as these for in defending one’s religion,
one’s race and one’s country there is nothing chauvinistic, racist or damning.
Stakes in Myanmar
Monk Wirathu has not asked his
followers to invade another nation like the Popes of the past did, nor has he
said to attack any people – he has only said to defend oneself and to be
prepared.
There is no crime that anyone can
attribute to such a warning. What he is doing is what any nation and patriot
would do under the circumstances that the Buddhists of Burma are now placed in
and that is to defend one’s nation and one’s people by warning them of foreign
incursions.
If the US after one single attack which
it cannot even prove was committed, applied Christian Just War Theory and
illegally invaded Afghanistan and continues to terrorise it after 12 years by
starting a War on Terror to defend the US against terrorism, why cannot other
nations also defend itself against terrorism because when any group take up
arms as the Rohingyas (Bengali-Muslim
illegals from Bangladesh) have proved by the numerous armed rebel movements
currently receiving training, weapons and financial support (from Saudi Arabai
and OIC), Myanmar has every right to defend itself and monk Wirathu has
every right to warn his people of the impending dangers.
1. Rohingya
Solidarity Organization (RSO)
2. Arakan Rohingya
Islamic Front (ARIF)
3. Rohingya Patriotic
Front (RPF)
4. Rohingya
Liberation Organization (RLO)
5. Itihadul Mozahadin of Arakan (IMA)
Buddhist pacifism and tendency to co-exist in peace with others is being
manipulated to their gross disadvantage. The challenge today is for Buddhists
particularly in besieged Buddhist countries like Myanmar, Sri Lanka and even
Thailand to unite and to read between the lines.
‘Time’ Magazine and Hannah Beech in particular owes Burma and monk
Wirathu a public apology. Monk Wirathu’s reply must feature in the next edition
of ‘Time’ Magazine alongside that apology.
Defaming and
demonising is a strategy used by media but Asians are today more enlightened as
to the dynamics that prevail in the international political scene and are also
aware of the diabolical machinations at play.
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She strongly advocates the belief that
all the countries of the world can live in peace if they only learn to respect
the space of others.