A Year Later, Three Men Are Still in a Myanmar Jail for Posting a Picture of Buddha on Facebook

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyatheist/2016/03/17/a-year-later-three-men-are-still-in-a-myanmar-jail-for-posting-a-picture-of-buddha-on-facebook/

Best read at above link.


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This is of course very shameful.
But i would not blame buddhism as a religion for this, because this is a group of individuals which has used Buddhism as an excuse for political oppression, just as saudi arabia.

They have ignored the meaning and main message of the religion and turned it into politics, while they would consider themselves as Buddhist they are breaking the 'rules', if you would say it like that, of Buddhism. As they have killed, tortured and oppressed people, and that goes against the Buddhist message of Love and non-voilence, and if i remember correctly monks has also armed themselves with weapons in this country and also attacked people, which is an act of violence.

And even if i would, there's always some bad people within religions.

I'm not blaming Buddhism for this. It's an interesting article for several reasons. In The US we never hear about (people who claim to be) Christian terrorists. We hear about them but they're never called that. And we constantly hear all Muslims want to kill us.

This is nothing for Buddhism, which is no different from other religions in this respect. People forget that the reason why the current Dalai Lama is not the ruthless theocratic leader his predecessors were, is that a revolutionary chinese takeover prevented him from doing so...

ren wrote: This is nothing for Buddhism, which is no different from other religions in this respect. People forget that the reason why the current Dalai Lama is not the ruthless theocratic leader his predecessors were, is that a revolutionary chinese takeover prevented him from doing so...

You can't possibly know that he would have acted the same as his predecessors.

because these hard-line Buddhists are just like extremist Muslims in the sense that they can’t handle anyone else not taking their holy figure seriously.

This is a fantastic point though. It's my right as a free human being to take your beliefs as casually as I want to, and it's your right to be offended, but definitely not your right to take up arms because I don't respect your religious icons in the way you'd prefer. It's nonsense in Islam, it's nonsense in Christianity, and it's nonsense in Buddhism - wherever you look and find that sort of attitude you're looking at something that needs to drastically change.

Edan wrote:

ren wrote: This is nothing for Buddhism, which is no different from other religions in this respect. People forget that the reason why the current Dalai Lama is not the ruthless theocratic leader his predecessors were, is that a revolutionary chinese takeover prevented him from doing so...

You can't possibly know that he would have acted the same as his predecessors.

I can't know what ifs, but I can tell the odds for the 14th dalai lama to be just like his predecessors would be 13 to 1 had the situation not changed. As the Chinese took over those odds dropped to near zero.

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ren wrote: I can't know what ifs, but I can tell the odds for the 14th dalai lama to be just like his predecessors would be 13 to 1 had the situation not changed. As the Chinese took over those odds dropped to near zero.

Compared to the Communist revolution which saw millions of Chinese tortured and killed for not joining the communist party!? If you compare Tibet to China you'll find China to be much more "ruthless" to use your wod.... or are you just trolling ren?

Tibet was quite isolated from the rest of the world so yea in some respects it was very old fashioned... especially compared to the West but to make your statistical assumption ignores that the same technology which allowed China to invade, overthrow and occupy Tibet would have also reduced if not removed those same factors which made it isolated and backwards to begin with!!

The advent of industrialization and mechanization which enabled its military to invade, was the same mechanism which for the first time would have seen consistant and reliable contact between outside Tibet and inside Tibet, and for the first time allowed it to catch up with the rest of the world. To say it was backwards without accepting it was due to its isolation is not a fair representation of why it was backwards to begin with, and so using that to describe characteristics of individuals appears disingenuous - unless you have som evidence of those individuals exhibiting that behaviour?

The 14th Dalai Lama was quite forward about moving into the future, and was happy to try and work with the Chinese for a partnership - but the Communist China did not want a partnership, they wanted to take it, and make it part of China.. like how they wanted the Korean Peninsula, like how they want Taiwan, like how they wanted to push into South East Asia etc etc., and like how now they are making islands out of atoll's so they can lay claim to large sections of the South China Sea. Anyway, this thread is about Burma politics and law, not your dislike of the Dalai Lama.

extremists like Wirathu have incited violence in the name of Buddhism

I can't even... what?

Adder wrote:

ren wrote: I can't know what ifs, but I can tell the odds for the 14th dalai lama to be just like his predecessors would be 13 to 1 had the situation not changed. As the Chinese took over those odds dropped to near zero.

Compared to the Communist revolution which saw millions of Chinese tortured and killed for not joining the communist party!? If you compare Tibet to China you'll find China to be much more "ruthless" to use your wod.... or are you just trolling ren?

Tibet was quite isolated from the rest of the world so yea in some respects it was very old fashioned... especially compared to the West but to make your statistical assumption ignores that the same technology which allowed China to invade, overthrow and occupy Tibet would have also reduced if not removed those same factors which made it isolated and backwards to begin with!!

The advent of industrialization and mechanization which enabled its military to invade, was the same mechanism which for the first time would have seen consistant and reliable contact between outside Tibet and inside Tibet, and for the first time allowed it to catch up with the rest of the world. To say it was backwards without accepting it was due to its isolation is not a fair representation of why it was backwards to begin with, and so using that to describe characteristics of individuals appears disingenuous - unless you have som evidence of those individuals exhibiting that behaviour?

The 14th Dalai Lama was quite forward about moving into the future, and was happy to try and work with the Chinese for a partnership - but the Communist China did not want a partnership, they wanted to take it, and make it part of China.. like how they wanted the Korean Peninsula, like how they want Taiwan, like how they wanted to push into South East Asia etc etc., and like how now they are making islands out of atoll's so they can lay claim to large sections of the South China Sea. Anyway, this thread is about Burma politics and law, not your dislike of the Dalai Lama.

I didn't compare, didn't claim revolutions don't get people killed, or that invasions are something exclusive to tibet or its rulling elite.
I also never made the claim tibet was backwards, you did.

China (which included tibet)underwent a revolution in 1912, ousting the qing dinasty and establishing the republic of china (which still exists today as "taiwan"). Dalai lama didn't agree with democracy and took control of Tibet during the revolution. Tibet tried to take control of parts of china in the 50s, lost the battle, got invaded back by the new "people's republic of china" (communist china). They were given the "17 point agreement" (read it, it's really not bad, certainly a lot better than any deals your people gave to the aborigines, especially back in '52), and the 14th dalai lama repudiated it on the grounds it was signed under duress (tibet had just lost a war it started).

Never have I seen such a pathetic display of butt-hurtedness and bigotry over history. With totjo reaching ever lower depths, maybe it should be reclassified as a submarine. There's nothing like watching a carbon copy of the CIA's "what to believe" handbook pretend to be a Jedi knight, so thanks for the entertainment.

But you are correct about one thing. This thread is about Burma... A country which, just like the one I live in as well as far too many others, can send someone to prison for being offensive on facebook. If anything Burma should be applauded for not having yet another massacre, it certainly is a huge improvement for them.