CLASSIFIED | POLITICS | TERRORISM | OPINION | VIEWS

"A Buddhist Threat to Religious Freedom-Doug Bandow" (FrontPage Mag)-Response

By Darmitha-Kotte

FrontPageMagazine.com of September 10th, 2007 carried an article by Doug Bandow with the captioned title which is very interesting indeed. It is interesting, because it gives the opinion of a person who is obviously standing on "the other side of the fence" and attempting to justify the actions of those who are the perpetrators. Mr.Bandow himself, is "Vice President of Policy for Citizen Outreach" which no doubt, is a Charismatic Evangelical Church group "hurt" by the Buddhists attempting to safeguard their heritage. To these people, those who want to protect their birthright, becomes "a threat."

Mr.Bandow begins his article by stating certain insignificant facts about Thailand and the recent development of Buddhists protesting against an aggressive Muslim agenda in that country and to prevent a future onslaught by them, demanded that Buddhism must be declared as the State Religion when drafting the Constitution of Thailand from the recently appointed Head of State. The demand by the Buddhists is quite justifiable in the fact, that Thailand has always been a Buddhist country-never a Muslim State. Further on, Mr.Bandow expresses his critical views on Sri Lanka and the role of Buddhist Monk in Sri Lanka.

If Western countries feel justified to state in their Constitutions that the Head of State must be Christian, if such countries call themselves Christian by faith and that education and cultural practices must be in line with the Christian faith- then we may ask, "why is it a threat only when a Buddhist country wants to make Buddhism the State Religion?" Isn't the State Religion of United Kingdom -Anglican Protestant under the Church of England? Isn't the State Religion of Norway-Lutheran Christian? Isn't the State Religion of The Vatican-Catholic? Isn't the State Religion of the USA- Protestant Christian? So are the State Religions of many western European countries, Nordic countries, Latin American countries which ofcourse, are predominantly Catholic by faith. If we take the Middle-Eastern countries-don't they all declare themselves Islamic countries because the majority of their citizens have embraced Islam? The same applies to Malaysia, Indonesia, as well as The Maldives. Do the minority Christians living in these countries try to dictate terms to them-NO! Why?

In the not so distant recent past, we read of two instances one in France and one in UK where Muslims were told, that the Hijab(worn by Muslim women to cover their faces), cannot be tolerated within the British and French societies which was contrary to the cultures of those countries because of their Christian faith and western life styles? The same can be said of Middle-Eastern countries which are predominantly Islamic by faith- hard liquor, pork, opening offices during the Friday Prayer times or women wearing Miniskirts/garments that expose their body too much are not permitted? Don't western Christians living in those countries abide by the law of those countries?

Is it not the case then, that only if and when, a so called "Third World Country" or developing country where the majority of the citizens are either Hindus or Buddhists of non-Christian/non-Islamic faith wishes to safeguard its own cultural and religious heritage, that such attempts to safeguard cultural/religious practices of those countries are labeled " extremist" or " nationalist?"

References to Thailand:

According to Mr. Bandow's article, he states at the beginning "Thailand is a warm, welcoming society. A majority Buddhist nation, Thailand leaves religious minorities alone. Yet Bangkok's policy of religious tolerance is coming under pressure. The forces of Buddhist nationalism were active in the campaign over the new constitution. The junta's nationalistic impulse eventually could turn against minority religious faiths. Thailand's dominant religion is Buddhism, but the state always has been secular. The last constitution, suspended by the military, required the government to "patronize and protect Buddhism and other religions" "

It is no secret, that just as much as Christian Evangelists and Catholics are attempting to convert all non-Christians the world over to embrace their faith, the Muslims also have an agenda of their own, to convert the balance Asian developing countries to embrace Islam, just like they succeeded in The Maldives and Indonesia! Therefore, the fears of the Thai Buddhists about the Muslim extremists being a threat to Buddhism in Thailand is rightfully and justifiably a worthy reason for their agitation. It is no secret that the powers in Thailand are now in the hands of Muslims and not Buddhists and this is all the more reason for Thai Buddhists to be apprehensive about the religious motives of Muslims and Christians who are covertly organizing their sabotage activities to undermine Buddhists in Thailand. There is ofcourse no reason whatsoever, as Mr. Bandow states in his article "Even though un-successful, the Buddhist campaign itself made Muslims and Christians nervous." If both Christians and Muslims learn to respect the status of Buddhism in Thailand and learn to live within the accepted norms of a Buddhist country (just like Christians do in Middle-East), then the true hospitality of the Thai people can be enjoyed without fears-mutual respect, is and has been practiced by Thais for as long as we know.

Further down in his article Mr. Bandow makes some extremely frivolous remarks comparing the situation in Thailand and that of Sri Lanka. This is nothing new to Buddhists in Sri Lanka who are quite conversant with the "tinges" of fears and sarcasm that are thrown in by pro-Christian activists like Mr. Bandow, who fear that their covert operations of unethical conversions in Sri Lanka will be detected, and that they might just have to pack up and go! In his article he states thus: "Some monks have warned their nation against following Sri Lanka, where Buddhist nationalists are politically influential. Former Thai senator Kraisak Choonhavan makes a similar point "They succeeded in Sri Lanka in making Buddhism the national religion and look at where Sri Lanka is-it's a total civil war." Is it really and truly because Buddhism was made the national religion of Sri Lanka that we are now in the throes of a terrorist war- funny? The motives of Mr. Bandow, for taking up the issue of Sri Lanka in this same article is understandable because, he is obviously expected, in the name of God, "to kill two birds with one stone."

References to Sri Lanka:

Mr. Bandow begins his references to the Sri Lankan context thus: "After decolonization in 1948, the Buddhist Sinhalese majority enhanced its position at the expense of the largely Hindu Tamil minority. The Sri Lankan constitution provides Buddhism with the "foremost place" in Sri Lankan society." There was no case of "the Buddhist Sinhalese majority enhanced its position…" as the writer makes it out. It was open knowledge that the Sinhalese Buddhists are the majority of Sri Lanka and it is also known by those who wish to know, that Hindu Tamils and Sinhala Buddhists did not have any disputes or animosity towards one another! The foremost place being given to Buddhism in Sri Lanka had nothing whatsoever, to do with the Tamil Tiger Terrorist movement and should never be distorted as Mr. Bandow makes it out to seem, in his article. The Tamil Tiger Terrorist movement(LTTE) is a Christian Church backed movement, making every attempt to undermine Sinhala Buddhists and it needs to be stressed here, that the support for the LTTE agenda does not have the support of the majority Tamil Hindu community which is the major segment of the Tamil community in Sri Lanka.

Mr. Bandow goes into great lengths to explain the role of the Jathika Hela Urumaya(JHU) or the "Monk's Party" as some tend to call it. He states thus, in his article: "Moreover, religious liberty remains tenuous even in areas away from military conflict. Buddhist mobs, sometimes led by monks, have attacked Christian churches, ministers and believers." Mr. Bandow could not have been further from the truth than this statement of his! It is quite well known, that most attacks on Evangelical churches/ Catholic churches which were intruding in 100% Buddhist villages, were orchestrated by the Christians themselves who paid workers to do the dirty work and blame "extremist Buddhists" as the culprits. This fact was endorsed by none other than the then Minister of Christian Affairs under the Ranil Wickramasinghe UNP regime in 2001-2004 when he made a statement in The Island newspaper of 17th January 2004 thus:

(quote):
Fundamentalists behind attacks - John
Religious extremists, who have been planning to cause religious dis-harmony, are behind the attack on the Catholic Church in Homagama, Christian Affairs Minister John Amaratunga said. He said religious fundamentalists, who were a menace to not only the Catholics, but also to the Buddhists and Hindus, were planning more attacks on Catholic churches.

The police have launched search operations to track down the culprits. minister Amaratunga said. (NP)
Courtesy The Island (17th January 2004) www.island.lk (end quote)

What more evidence do we need to convince Mr. Bandow that it was not Buddhists who were behind these attacks?

Another statement that Mr. Bandow makes in reference to the JHU " Some Buddhist nationalists want more. The Jathika Hela Urumaya(JHU) party spearheaded a campaign to turn Buddhism into the official religion and advocated discrimination against minority faiths. JHU is a fusion of two Buddhist nationalist groups that had previously pushed for banning missionaries and punishing "unethical" conversions (of Buddhists, naturally)" He states further down in the same section of his article thus: "The JHU continues to advocate a constitutional amendment to institutionalize Buddhism. The party also is pressing legislation that would ban "unethical" religious conversions. A similar bill has been approved by the Sri Lankan cabinet and was referred to a special parliamentary committee last year."

Quite a few distortions in the above statements of Mr. Bandow which needs mention in order to clarify the actual situation. At no time did the JHU advocate discrimination against minority faiths- this is purely with a vicious intention of making out the JHU to be some kind of morbid religious fanatic group. At all times, the JHU has advocated that unscrupulous pro-Christian groups( which includes INGOs and NGOs)must not be permitted to use" unethical methods of allurements" to convert Buddhists to Christianity. It is the bill that JHU introduced in parliament and which passed 2 readings which went before the Special Parliamentary Select Committee before the 3rd reading- it was not a new bill. For the information of those readers who wish to think that Buddhists are unreasonable, it needs to be mentioned here, that lawyers from the Buddhist and Christian sides agreed to make slight amendments to allay the fears of Christians. In all good faith, the Buddhist lawyers have completed their work and handed over the documents to the Christian counterparts who have been sitting on it for the last 12 months (the sittings were in May-June 2006) without handing it over to the Chairman of the Select Committee- where is the good faith that Christian brethren are talking about?

There are a lot of facts which Mr. Bandow does not know about the insensitive and crude methods that Evangelists/Catholics and Christian INGOs/NGOs have been using to hurt the sentiments of both Buddhists and Hindus in Sri Lanka which will be stated below for readers to understand the levels to which "these fanatics" go to convert non-Christians. After reading, it could just be(may be) that there are atleast a few decent and educated Christians who will understand why the JHU and other Buddhists became agitated in Sri Lanka and demanded that a bill be introduced in parliament, to ban "unethical conversions."

Without an exception, all Buddhist countries in the Asian region, are extremely hospitable, humble and accommodating even in the poorest of poor Buddhist countries. Their unsuspecting humble hospitality has been destroyed by insensitive and unscrupulous over-zealous Charismatic Evangelists and Catholics who have deemed it "their arrogant right" to interfere in the socio-religious fabric of non-Christian countries. These countries have enjoyed quiet, harmonious lives until foreign intruders have entered and destroyed the unity and harmony within local villages. Those vocational Evangelists best know, how and what they do to hurt the sentiments of citizens of countries into which they enter for their "professional unethical conversion activities.!"

Please see below, the manner in which those groups work and whether such attitudes can be considered decent and acceptable? Under the circumstances, if legislature is not introduced in these Buddhist/Hindu countries, before long the aggressive Christian onslaught, would have destroyed all deep rooted cultures in the region.

Methods Used By Evangelists/Missionaries/NGOs for Unethical Conversions:

Adults/parents are advised to watch out for the following phenomena surfacing in their own villagers and to be cautious about the activities of organizations that enter their villages:

" Entering 100% Buddhist villages and acquainting themselves with Chief Monk of the village Temple and offering help to repair Temple;

" Getting an introduction through the Temple Monk, to the villagers before they begin their strategies;

" Offering to conduct nurseries and pre-schools with a promise to give a good education to the children. They also promise to enter these children to Grade 1 in schools when the age is correct for children to gain primary school education. Once children enter these schools, children are taught to insult the Lord Buddha at times, even to smash Buddha Statues on the floor!

(their agenda is " to catch the calf and the cow will follow"( get the children first and the mothers will follow) );

" In very poor areas, they provide free meals, milk and cakes to pre-school children as an added incentive to lure them. Tiny children are taught songs and poems to frighten them against going to the Temple.An Example: "Mal pipila, mal pipila para depathe, weradilawath yanne epa pansala patte" (meaning is "flowers have blossomed, flowers have blossomed on both sides of the road, do not go into the Temple even by accident")

" They teach little children in these schools that Lord Buddha was "a bad father" because Prince Siddhartha left his son of 1 day old and his wife and left the royal palace and renounced the worldly pleasures to seek "Enlightenment";

" They also teach these unsuspecting children, never to pluck flowers and offer it at the Temple because without flowers, the birds and bees will have no food to eat and will die! These unscrupulous anti-Buddhist forces do not know, that flowers are offered at the Temples while the Buddhists contemplate on the withering away of flowers and the impermanence of life!

" Organising trips out of the village without parents accompanying them, so that they could take children to visit Churches and introduce Christianity as a first step;

" Introducing village children to their "foster parents" who supposedly are funding their education and getting the foreign pen-pals to send letters with small messages of God together with Greeting Cards, booklets etc. In turn local children are encouraged to draw Christmas Cards and send to their sponsors- to do this, they have to refer Christian books provided by the Evangelists;

" Constructing "Community Centres" in villages for cultural activities for children and youth. Through these activities young children are encouraged to "throw away" moral disciplines and inhibitions. Through these activities, they organize trips out of the village on days coinciding with Sinhala New Year/ Wesak/Poson to wean them away from our local cultural events and religious observances; (parents are advised never to send the children without them being present)

" Organizing so called "Leadership Programmes" for youth in villages and taking them out of the village for training. At these training sessions, boys and girls are thrown together for so called "games" through which inhibitions regarding the sexes are thrown away and these youth are encouraged to misbehave publicly so that they lose the fears for such behaviour in society. Through such liberalism, youth are weaned away from the Buddhist moral values which encourages them to move towards the Church rather than the Temple disciplines or that of their parents;(parents are advised never to send their children on these trips)

" Christian NGOs and INGOs like World Vision offer to spend on medical expenses if youth are sick and ailing but while offering it, question the families whether or not the families will embrace Christianity- if the answer is "NO"- medical expenses are stopped;

" Infiltrate into the Education System of Sri Lanka and in the Grade 9 English Text Books, they have included a section on "Child Rights" and in the "exercises" children are asked to write 5 ways in which parents abuse their children? Through this method, children are also encouraged to rebel against their parents and parental guidance;

" Employing "paid" youth/ disabled OR deformed men and donning the Saffron Robe on them and training them to act like Buddhist Monks after which, they are instructed to misbehave in society by purchasing liquor at local Bars, purchasing fish/meats at Super Markets, partaking of midday meals after 12.00 noon(after which time Buddhist Monks do not partake of solid meals until the following morning), to be seen in public places consuming liquor, getting such persons to travel in public transport while reading obscene printed material etc- ALL THIS IS DONE BY ANTI-BUDDHIST FORCES, to create a disillusionment in the minds of the ordinary Buddhist adherent and wean them away from Buddhist Temples in disgust against Buddhist Monks. In our society, genuine Buddhist Monks do not resort to these practices;

" These anti-Buddhist forces involved in "unethical conversions" keep on instilling the idea in the minds of Buddhists that The Buddhist Temple and Monks do not do anything for society except asking for help from the villagers for the Temple! Non-Buddhists cannot understand or do not want to understand, that a Buddhist Temple and Temple Monks are serving the community around them every day-theirs is a life of total service (without expecting non-Buddhists to convert to Buddhism) even to non-Buddhists. Every aspect of the life of a Buddhist in this country, involves the guidance of Buddhist Temples and Buddhist Monks who help villagers from pregnant mothers, feeding solids to babies for the first time & teaching them "the first letters" at the correct age, visiting the sick and chanting Pirith, conducting special ceremonies as appropriate on the requests of villagers to help overcome family disputes, personal problems etc., offering last rights to the dead and dear departed family members etc- the list of the services done by Buddhist Monks is long and dedicated.

" Offering a small segment of villagers(thereby creating a rift among the villagers) material benefits like roofing sheets, dry rations, clothing and materials, books for children, self-employment programmes like providing 3 Wheelers to male youth and exchanging these for conversion into Christianity;

" In order to convince villagers that they must join the Christian activities being conducted, these organizations arrange for people from outside villages to come into villages where they operate and conduct loud prayer sessions of hypnotizing and gory " driving the devil away" sessions, to draw the attention of the village around. (parents/adults must know that it is against the law of this country, to rent a house in a residential area and conduct public prayer sessions inside- the building can be used only for living purposes )

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