Sunday, October 28, 2012

Why do Muslims lead among others as the biggest persecutors of Buddhism in its history?

Some peculiar reasons, the biggest contributory factor in wiping out Buddhism from of its former strongholds is conveniently ignored when discussing about the dangers faced by the Buddhists at present. It's the persecution unleashed by the Muslims that contributed the most in eliminating Buddhism from many parts of the world. What is alarming is that this persecution continues to happen relentlessly in countries in which whether Muslims happen to be a majority or a minority.

The total extinction of Buddhism in countries such as Pakistan, Afghanistan, Indonesia and the Maldives confining only to some scatted ruins of which too is subjected to daily vandalism is soon going to be the fate in Bangladesh too. These remnants of Buddhist heritage in those countries, once flourishing with icons from Bamiyan Budhdha to the Taxila University, now only has economic values to attract foreign tourists to support the respective countries' economies. Burning down of scores of Buddhist temples in Bangladesh recently is a simple indication of what is in store for Buddhism in Bangladesh. The followers of Buddhism in the country are constantly being subjected to the intimidation and persecution. Forceful conversion of Buddhists to Islam has been a daily occurrence in the country. The persecution carried out in India against the Buddhism by Muslim invaders and the rulers are second to none. What remains in Malaysia as Buddhism is due to the Chinese community who are Buddhists.

So no entity, a fellow religion or a non-Muslim state, has ever in its history been so destructive against Buddhists than Muslims. Why have Muslims become the biggest persecutors of Buddhism in its entire history? The ever compassionate teachings of Buddha have made the Buddhists to be less resistant and to be tolerant towards the persecutors irrespective of how grave the damage caused to their religion and the followers.   This is a perfect opportunity for the religious zealots like Muslims who are hell bent to vanquish even a sign of another belief other than Islam who they consider as infidels.                

 Situation in Sri Lanka

Will Buddhism and Buddhist heritage in Sri Lanka too face similar fate?  Judging the extent of persecution subjected to the Buddhist heritage in particular and the Buddhists in general in Sri Lanka by Muslim population explosion and the fundamentalism, my doomsday prophesy looks like real.  Muslims have got a bizarre desire to build Mosques by demolishing Buddhist temples or grabbing lands belonging to Buddhist temple premises. If they are unable to do either of them, a Mosque is built right in front or next to the temple or within a land belonging to the Temple which is followed by the whole area being populated by Muslims resulting in the temple being abandoned with no followers living in the vicinity. In order to achieve their targets, Muslims resort to employ any dirty work from bribing the politicians to grabbing the lands by illegal means. The latest addition to this array of mischievous methods has been in claiming a fabricated history of Muslims extending some "thousand years" in the country. If it happens to be an ancient Buddhist temple or temple complexes which were demolished to build a Mosque on it, a fabricated history of Muslims in the country is quoted while claiming a Mullah happened to have buried in the site a "thousand years" back. The latest and the prominent examples of them being what happened to Kuragala and King Dutugamunu's tomb. So Muslim's population explosion and the fundamentalism unleashed to turn our blessed land too to be mono-religious, mono-ethnic Islamic state are well on course with future obstructions to its path being met with bloody jihads as has constantly been vowed by the Muslim fundamentalists here including Muslim politicians.     

1 comment:

reflective pen said...

I'm a Malaysian Buddhist.There is no evidence of forced conversion among the ancient Hindu-Buddhist Malay communities in Malaysia over 500 years ago. Their adherence to the syncretic faith is all due to their alliance to the King and the belief in His Divinity.It is therefore natural,when the King converted to Islam,the whole population converted enmass,albeit in stages. There were no pure Buddhists at that time,the closest to Buddhism being Tantric Buddhism.Hence,you can expect a community with no real Saddha,theirs is merely a faith that is wholely based on cultural ties.The immigration of Buddhist faithfuls to Malaysia over 400 years ago brought back the faith,though in a much different form & variety.There are now Theravada, Mahayana & Vajrayana communities in Malaysia. most born Buddhists are descendents of the Chinese, Sinhalese, Thai & Burmese early settlers.