Sunday, January 12, 2014

Hardline Buddhist monks whip up anti-Muslim sentiment in Sri Lanka...

With a bloody civil war over and a cautious peace at hand, a group of hardline Buddhist monks is rallying Sri Lankans against what they say is a pernicious threat: Muslims.
In just over a year, the saffron-swathed monks of Bodu Bala Sena — or Buddhist Power Force — have amassed a huge following, drawing thousands of fist-pumping followers who rail against the country's Muslim minority.

Buddhists have attacked dozens of mosques and called for boycotts on Muslim-owned businesses and bans on headscarves and halal foods. At boisterous rallies, monks claim Muslims are out to recruit children, marry Buddhist women and divide the country.

“This is a Buddhist nation, so why are they trying to call it a multicultural society?” said Galagoda Atte Gnanasara, the 37-year-old pulpit-pounding monk who co-founded the group in 2012. “Not everyone can live under the umbrella of a Buddhist culture.”

 There have been few if any physical attacks on people, unlike in Myanmar, where Buddhist monks helped incite communal violence in 2012 and 2013 and even stood watch as Buddhist mobs slaughtered Rohingya Muslims. But many Sri Lankans and human rights workers are alarmed, saying the monks are creating communal divisions and giving Buddhism a bad name. Full story...

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  2. Sri Lankan Buddhists threaten to take the law into own hands...
  3. Sri Lanka: 'Sudden increase' in violence against Christians...
  4. Sri Lanka crowd attacks Muslim warehouse in Colombo...
  5. The hardline Buddhists targeting Sri Lanka's Muslims...
  6. Sri Lanka hardline group calls for halal boycott...
  7. Buddhists behaving badly: what zealotry is doing to Sri Lanka...

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