Here’s a disgusting item. Trigger warning, and all that. Video from Burma, in which police look on while Buddhists trash shops owned by Muslims and kill a Muslim boy.
The footage, apparently shot by police officers, shows Buddhist crowds looting and ransacking a Muslim jewellery shop, cheering when Muslims are attacked, and setting fire to mosques and houses. Later, a man who has been set alight and is believed to be Muslim can be seen lying in the road, surrounded by a crowd of people. “Pour water on him,” a man in the crowd commands. “Let him die,” shouts another. “No water for him.”
Both Buddhist monks and police can be seen through much of the footage – the monks often taking part in the violence, the police watching immobile as it progresses.
Dear dear human beings. How we do disgrace ourselves.
I thought Buddhism was known for its strong emphasis on pacifism? What with the 4 noble truths… Obviously no one religion or ethnic group has the corner on violence – alas! – There is plenty to go around.
Buddhists are pacifistic as long as they’ve attained a majority and can impose their will on the people in the areas they control. In that, they’re like all religions. If anyone wants a live demonstration of that principle, they can look to Sri Lanka, where the flip side of the LTTE’s terrorism is persecution and violence perpetuated by the Buddhist majority. The LTTE didn’t come out of nowhere with no history and no grievances. Nor are they exclusively Hindu, although the founder was a Tamil Hindu. Catholics and Muslims are also part of the Tamil community and the Buddhists have been just as assiduous in attacking them as they have the Hindus.
Buddhism has as many sects as Christianity, so it’s no surprise that some of them are as virulent as our own Christian Reich.
Chalk it up as yet another datapoint for the hypothesis that the content of people’s scriptures generally has no real bearing on their actual beliefs or actions.
I keep telling myself that people aren’t like that. But people are like that. It’s shit.