http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/21/world/asia/extremism-rises-among-myanmar-buddhists-wary-of-muslim-minority.html?src=me&_r=1&http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/21/world/asia/extremism-rises-among-myanmar-buddhists-wary-of-muslim-minority.html?src=me&_r=0TAUNGGYI, Myanmar — After a ritual prayer atoning for past sins, Ashin Wirathu, a Buddhist monk with a rock-star following in Myanmar, 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. Buddhist lynch mobs have killed more than 200 Muslims and forced more than 150,000 people, mostly Muslims, from their homes.
Ashin Wirathu denies any role in the riots. But his critics say that at the very least his anti-Muslim preaching is helping to inspire the violence.
What began last year on the fringes of Burmese society has grown into a nationwide movement whose agenda now includes boycotts of Muslim-made goods. Its message is spreading through regular sermons across the country that draw thousands of people and through widely distributed DVDs of those talks. Buddhist monasteries associated with the movement are also opening community centers and a Sunday school program for 60,000 Buddhist children nationwide.
The hate-filled speeches and violence have endangered Myanmar’s path to democracy, raising questions about the government’s ability to keep the country’s towns and cities safe and its willingness to krack down or prosecute Buddhists in a Buddhist-majority country. The killings have also reverberated in Muslim countries across the region, tarnishing what was almost universally seen abroad as a remarkable and rare peaceful transition from military rule to democracy. In May, the Indonesian authorities foiled what they said was a plot to bomb the Myanmar Embassy in Jakarta in retaliation for the assaults on Muslims.
Ashin Wirathu, the spiritual leader of the radical movement, skates a thin line between free speech and incitement, taking advantage of loosened restrictions on expression during a fragile time of transition. He was himself jailed for eight years by the now-defunct military junta for inciting hatred. Last year, as part of a release of hundreds of political prisoners, he was freed.
In his recent sermon, he described the reported massacre of schoolchildren and other Muslim inhabitants in the central city of Meiktila in March, documented by a human rights group, as a show of strength.
“If we are weak,” he said, “our land will become Muslim.”
Buddhism would seem to have a secure place in Myanmar. Nine in 10 people are Buddhist, as are nearly all the top leaders in the business world, the government, the military and the police. Estimates of the Muslim minority range from 4 percent to 8 percent of Myanmar’s roughly 55 million people while the rest are mostly Christian or Hindu.
But Ashin Wirathu, who describes himself as a nationalist, says Buddhism is under siege by Muslims who are having more children than Buddhists and buying up Buddhist-owned land. In part, he is tapping into historical grievances that date from British colonial days when Indians, many of them Muslims, were brought into the country as civil servants and soldiers.
The muscular and nationalist messages he has spread have alarmed Buddhists in other countries.
The Dalai Lama, after the riots in March, said killing in the name of religion was “unthinkable” and urged Myanmar’s Buddhists to contemplate the face of the Buddha for guidance.
Yangon, - Tulisan majalah Time mengenai seorang biksu Buddha terkemuka di Myanmar menuai kemarahan pemerintah dan publik negeri itu. Apalagi artikel itu disertai headline "The Face of Buddhist Terror".
Para pengguna media sosial juga mengungkapkan kemarahan mereka atas foto di sampul edisi Juli 2013 majalah ternama Amerika Serikat itu. Untuk sampul majalah, Time memasang foto biksu kontroversial Myanmar, Wirathu, yang telah melontarkan sejumlah pernyataan antimuslim menyusul serangkaian kekerasan sektarian antara warga muslim dan Buddha di negeri itu.
"Itu (tulisan Time) telah menimbulkan kesalahpahaman mengenai agama Buddha yang telah ada ribuan tahun dan merupakan agama mayoritas warga negara kami," demikian pernyataan kantor kepresidenan Myanmar yang diposting di situs resmi kepresidenan.
"Pemerintah saat ini sedang berjuang bersama para pemimpin agama, partai politik, media dan masyarakat untuk membersihkan Myanmar dari konflik-konflik yang tak diinginkan," demikian disampaikan seperti dilansir kantor berita AFP, Senin (24/6/2013).
Petisi online yang dimulai akhir pekan lalu untuk mengecam majalah Time, hingga hari ini telah berhasil mengumpulkan hampir 40 ribu nama pendukung. Dalam petisi itu disebutkan, penggunaan kata-kata "Buddhist" dan "Terror" dalam artikel yang menjadi cover story Times tersebut telah "membuat marah umat Buddha yang damai".
Sementara para pengguna Facebook menuding Time telah memperburuk perpecahan dan menghina agama utama Myanmar. "Menghina biksu Wirathu, seorang putra Buddha adalah sama dengan menghina agama Buddha," demikian bunyi postingan seorang pengguna Facebook bernama Wai Phyo.
"Apa yang dilakukan Wirathu saat ini adalah melindungi agama dan kebangsaan kami," tulis pengguna Facebook lainnya seraya mendesak Time untuk meminta maaf.
"Jelas sekali penulis ini tidak memahami Myanmar dan Buddha dengan baik," demikian bunyi postingan lainnya.
Pada Maret lalu kekerasan sektarian kembali terjadi di Myanmar tengah yang menewaskan sedikitnya 44 orang. Ribuan rumah dibakar dalam insiden tersebut. Menurut sejumlah saksi mata, sejumlah orang yang mengenakan jubah biksu terlibat dalam konflik sektarian antara warga muslim dan Buddha tersebut.
saya adalah umat awan yg hanya sedikit pengetahuann , mohon pencerahan saudara semua disini
Topic: Bhikkhu Wirathu Sebut Muslim Sebagai ‘Anjing Gila' (Read 13535 times)