‘TIME’
Magazine was wrong
Burmese nationalist monk Wirathu stands vindicated:
Shenali D Waduge
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
Monks in Myanmar protesting against Time magazine cover |
Six companies control 96 per cent 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.
http://www.freesangha.com/forums/news-current-events/1st-july-2013-%27-time-magazine
Asia is tomorrow’s future. Asia is still predominantly 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 among
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.
“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.”
Therefore on what grounds of truth and morality does Time Magazine or
Hannah Beech have to bring down the international condemnation gavel on
Burma, monk Wirathu or Buddhists of the world?
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.
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 razed to the ground by Islamic hordes
even as 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 desist from defending
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 per cent of
today's 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
against terrorism because when any group take up arms as the Rohingyas
have proved by the numerous armed rebel movements currently receiving
training, weapons and financial support, Myanmar has every right to
defend itself and monk Wirathu has every right to warn his people of the
impending dangers.
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. |