To many Americans, Buddhism is about attaining enlightenment, maybe even nirvana, through such peaceful methods as meditation and yoga.<\/p>\n
But in some parts of Asia, a more assertive, strident and militant Buddhism is emerging. In three countries where Buddhism is the majority faith, a form of religious nationalism has taken hold:<\/p>\n
Though fundamentalism is a term that has thus far been used mostly in relation to Christianity, Islam and Hinduism, some are beginning to use it to describe Buddhists as well.<\/p>\n
[TRANSCEND Member] Maung Zarni, an exiled Burmese who has written extensively on the ongoing violence in Myanmar and Sri Lanka, argues that there is no room for fundamentalism in Buddhism.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo Buddhist can be nationalistic,\u201d said Zarni, a visiting fellow at the London School of Economics. \u201cThere is no country for Buddhists. I mean, no such thing as \u2018me,\u2019 \u2018my\u2019 community, \u2018my\u2019 country, \u2018my\u2019 race or even \u2018my\u2019 faith.\u201d<\/p>\n
He views the demand for an anti-blasphemy law in Thailand also as a distortion of Buddhism, which doesn\u2019t allow any \u201corganization that polices or regulates the faithful\u2019s behavior or inner thoughts.\u201d<\/p>\n
But Acharawadee Wongsakon, the Buddhist teacher who founded the Knowing Buddha Foundation, insists Buddhism needs legal protections and society must follow certain prescribed do\u2019s and don\u2019ts.<\/p>\n
She and others see the new movements as providing \u201ctrue knowledge on Buddhism.\u201d<\/p>\n
Thailand\u2019s conflict between Muslim insurgents and local Buddhists, which reignited along the Malaysian border in 2004, is part of a long-standing feud pitting Buddhist monks and Muslim insurgents.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor sure, Thailand has its own brand of \u2018Buddhist\u2019 racism towards non-Buddhists,\u201d said Zarni. \u201cBut, I am not sure the Thai society will go the way of those two genocidal Theravada Buddhist societies (Sri Lanka and Myanmar) \u2014 where racism of genocidal nature has enveloped the mainstream \u2018Buddhist\u2019 society.\u201d<\/p>\n
Buddhist monk Phramaha Boonchuay Doojai, a senior lecturer at Chiang Mai Buddhist College in Thailand, said there are reasons why Theravada Buddhists see Islam as a threat. Among them, he cited the destruction of Nalanda University in India by Turkic military general Bakhtiyar Khilji in the early 13th century and attacks on Buddha statues in Bamiyan, Afghanistan, around the seventh century and more recently by the Taliban in 2001.<\/p>\n
\u201cThousands of monks were burned alive and thousands beheaded as Khilji tried his best to uproot Buddhism,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Zarni agrees there are links \u201camong what I really call anti-Dharma \u2018Buddhist\u2019 networks\u201d in Sri Lanka, Myanmar and Thailand, which are \u201ctoxic, cancerous and deeply harmful to all humans anywhere.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wirathu was recently labeled on the cover of Time magazine as \u201cThe Face of Buddhist Terror.\u201d The Myanmar government banned the edition. But Wirathu was quoted telling a reporter<\/a>, \u201cI am proud to be called a radical Buddhist.\u201d<\/p>\n _______________________<\/p>\n Maung Zarni<\/em>, Associate Fellow, the University of Malaya. Dr. Maung Zarni is a <\/em>member of the TRANSCEND Network for Peace, Development and Environment,<\/em>founder and director of the Free Burma Coalition (1995-2004), and a visiting fellow (2011-13) at the Civil Society and Human Security Research Unit, Department of International Development, London School of Economics. His forthcoming book on Burma will be published by Yale University Press.<\/em> He was educated in the US where he lived and worked for 17 years. Visit his website www.maungzarni.com<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n