Some of the people destroying peace in Bangladesh
Issues of religious discrimination have been going on for hundreds of years, it must stop now. This discrimination has brought nothing but pain and sorrow and so each person should be given religious freedom to adopt whichever religion they wish to. Some people in Bangladesh do not understand that violence is not the way to go and destruction does not bring them to a better space.
We are all practicing our own respective religions, no one is disturbing anyone. We should never solve any issues with violence. Spirituality is never about violence and hurting others. Spirituality is about love, tolerance and acceptance and this should stop.
I hope more awareness will be created towards this issue. May we have the freedom to propitiate our respective beliefs. I hope peace and reconciliation will happen soon in Bangladesh. May Bangladesh and it’s citizens have peace, love, tolerance and hope soon. I wish them all very well and prayers.
Admin
25,000 Muslim rioters torch Buddhist temples, homes in Bangladesh
A 25,000-strong mob set fire to at least five temples and dozens of homes throughout the town and surrounding villages after seeing the picture, which they claimed was posted by Uttam Barua, a local Buddhist man, AFP reported.
The group chanted “God is Great” while setting fire to the centuries-old temples.
“I have seen 11 wooden temples, two of them 300 years old, torched by the mob. They looted precious items and Buddha statues from the temples. Shops owned by Buddhists were also looted,” local journalist Sunil Barua said.
Security forces were deployed to contain the uprising: “At least 100 houses were damaged. We called in army and border guards to quell the violence,” district administrator Joinul Bari said.
No casualties were reported, and authorities did not confirm whether police arrested any of the rioters.
Buddhist monks protested against the attacks on Sunday, forming a human chain in the country’s capital of Dhaka.
Bangladeshi Home Minister Mohiuddin Khan Alamgir said the attacks were preplanned, and vowed to bring the perpetrators to justice.
“The attack was conducted in a coordinated manner. Temples and houses were set on fire using patrol and gun powder. It would have been impossible if the attacks were not planned,” he told Bangladesh’s Bdnews24.
The government will provide financial assistance for reconstruction of the damaged houses and temple, Alamgir said.
Before launching their attacks, Muslims publicly rallied against the picture and called for Barua’s arrest. However, several Facebook users said that Barua did not post the photo, and that he was linked to the photo after group called ‘Insult Allah’ tagged his name on the image.
Religious tensions on the rise
Buddhists make up less than one percent of Bangladesh’s population, and sectarian clashes between them and the country’s Muslim majority are rare. Tensions between the communities have risen since June, when deadly clashes erupted between Buddhists and Muslim Rohingya in nearby Myanmar.
Thousands of Muslims also took to the streets across Bangladesh over the past few weeks in protest against a US-made video and French cartoons that mock the Prophet Muhammad.
On Saturday, tens of thousands of activists from the Islamist group Jamiyat-e-Hizbullah protested the video and cartoons near the national mosque in Dhaka.
Source: https://www.rt.com/news/buddhist-temples-torched-bangladesh-342/
For more interesting information:
- Buddhism, the Second Largest Religion in the World?
- Bangladeshi Buddhist monks feed hundreds of poor Muslims during Ramadan
- Markham makes it illegal to ban Dorje Shugden
- This is so needed
- Buddhist Mecca attacked
Please support us so that we can continue to bring you more Dharma:
If you are in the United States, please note that your offerings and contributions are tax deductible. ~ the tsemrinpoche.com blog team
It awe what kind of spiritual practice that create disharmony among communities and country. I just don’t understand people, who are doing such action will never bring peaceful to themselves as well to others. It will only bring criticism and humiliation of their belief.
The teaching of religion is to bring peace into our lives, eliminate our deluded mind, self-indulgent, self centred behaviour and transform to be better person. It just sad to see the creation of humans ignorant that causes so much harm and pain to other humans. I just can’t imagine how heavy karma these people had done. 😰
Thank you Rinpoche for sharing this article. It is everyone’s rights to practice any religion that they choose. No one should condemn other people’s belief. It is also bad karma to burn down temples and also houses of the people. I wonder if the rioters ever give it a thought that whatever they do to people will come back to them. Other people might one day come and burn down their mosque. I am sure they will be very angry too. If we don’t like or don’t prefer other people’s religion, we just keep it to ourselves and don’t need to use violence.
With folded palms,
Vivian
For peace to prevail, it has to be dialogue and not action first. Peace cannot be maintained if people shoot first, then only talk about it later.
I think, GOD is peace and compassion, so to break the peace in the name of GOD, does not make sense to me, almost an oxymoron if you ask me.
Thank you admin for this article. Well, I guess everyone have their own rights to practice whatever religion they want and no one have the rights to interfere. What I am surprise here that the group of Muslims did not check the post properly and hurriedly jump into conclusions and start to attack the Buddhists in Bangladesh. They should check the root source of post. Why can’t they bring this issue to discuss instead of using violence.
With folded palms,
Vivian
A 25,000-strong mob set fire to at least five temples and dozens of homes throughout the town and surrounding villages after seeing the picture, which they claimed was posted by Uttam Barua . This is not the first of such attacks of another religious group. According to the Home Minister, this was coordinated and pre -planned . It is dangerous to incite such a large mob to violence whether it is against another religion or race. Much damage of sacred holy temples and statues and homes has resulted. More damage has been done to the minds of people involved in this religious conflict.
Another valuable lesson has been taught here about respecting other faiths and not indulging in criticism of other faiths in whatever form or shape. We should be ever mindful of not hurting others by any action of body or speech. Harmony and peace have to be worked at. We cannot disregard the sensitivities of others, just as we do not wish others to hurt our sensitivities.
We should always tread the common ground. Much needs to be done about educating people to respect the freedom and rights of others to pursue the religion of their choice. Spirituality is about peace, love, tolerance and acceptance never about bigotry, intolerance, hate and conflict.
It is really sad to hear that people are destroying places in the name of god.. What will people think if they heard you say god is great while you destroyed other places of worship? Would your god praise you for destroying other peoples place? The answer is no. Your religion will not become great by wiping out other religions. Like the saying goes, your candle won’t burn brighter if you blow out every other candle.
I really hope that people will stop doing all these kind of crimes and make peace with everyone.
It’s sad to see violence in this world. This violence is so uncalled for. If the villagers had known to check the authenticity of the facebook postings, then this may have been averted.
So, knowledge, respect and understanding coupled with mindfulness is sorely needed in this world so that all can live in harmony and peace. There already is so much suffering in this world without it being elevated by unnecessary violence. I believe all the religions of the world teach peace and love. So, the religious elders must educate the believers of the faith the right tenets.
Thank you for bringing this awareness to us.
It is just so sad to see how people these days will cause harm and trouble in the name of religion. It is in no way that the actions of destruction is what any religion teach us. Love, peace and tolerance is something that is taught across all religions.
By the end of the day, we are all the same. With that, why should we put down one group of people and say that they are wrong? No matter what is our religion, our ultimate goal is to reach that inner peace and go to a better place when we pass away. So what is so different when we choose to do one religion over another, there is no different.
It is just so sad to see such old places of worshipped being destroyed. Just imagine the kind of negative karma that is accumulated from the act of destroying these holy places.
Thank you Rinpoche for sharing this news. Is very sad when as Buddhist to see a temple being destroy imagine how beneficial is the religion suppose to be but because of this group of people who use religion as an excuse to create such a destruction to a holy temple, this is really a human ignorance that cause all this disharmony.
It is indeed sad that religious tolerance is believed to be at its lowest level worldwide. A small incidence can spark violence and sometimes resulting in death. I find it very hard to understand why some religious denomination uses emotive actions rather than an analytical approach in solving matters. This has been their ways all along perhaps it is time their religious leaders relook in their approach to have a more open frame of mind when their religion is being attack and not resorting in unnecessary violence.
Perhaps somewhere along the teachings by their leaders who could have been instigated by the fanatical fundamentalist inculcated different ideology into them believing that by going to war, destroying places of worship would earn them high reward in the afterlife?
I pray and hope that their higher religious authorities would seriously take an in-depth look on the pain they have inflicted on innocent people, destroying of historical sites, temples as these acts would only breed hatred and bring disdain among their people.
“Spirituality is never about violence and hurting others. Spirituality is about love, tolerance and acceptance and this should stop.”
There is always so much violence and wars arising from the name of religion. It’s illogical why people use religion to inflict more sufferings on to others. It is the spiritual leaders’ responsibility that their followers destroy properties of other religions. Such lack of acceptance and violence can only be incited and encouraged by the leaders.
I can’t imagine the amount of negative karma they have created for themselves. It’s sad because their religious leaders bring them faster to the 3 lower realms than they realize.
If the result of one’s “religious practice” is hate, intolerance, extremism and bigotry leading to harm towards others, I seriously question the particular religion or the practitioner. I lean towards the conclusion that it is the practitioner rather than the religion that is questionable.
Why? Simple. One person of a particular religion turns out to be kind and compassionate and another practicing the same religion kills and maims in the name of the religion. So is the religion teaching that both opposites are correct and not contradictory? That doesn’t quite gel. So the variable must be the person not the religion.
It is very worrying that religious radicalism is fast spreading like an ugly disease this day and age. In Buddhism, there is a term for it, wrong view, which does have serious karmic consequences. It’s not only holding the wrong view that is the non-virtue. The wrong view leads one to many harmful actions that become bigger and more serious as it gets increasingly entrenched in one’s twisted mind. That is why it is so dangerous as it is not just in the mind. The mind tells one what to do. One non-virtue leads to so many multiples of negative karmic consequences, and they think they are doing something good.
Dear Rinpoche,
It is very sad to see 300 year old of ancient buddhist temples are being destroyed due to selfishness and anger. The whole thing of war between religions is nonsense. Religion do not preach hatred and revenge. True religion preach love, kindness and peace. It is those deluded and selfish humans who twisted the whole idea and start to attack each other.
If they had known about karma, their actions will be different. The law of karma is so important that it should be taught to everyone. When we know that our actions will eventually come back to us, we will be more careful and not do reckless things like destroying a buddhist temple.
Humbly,
Chris
Nothing is more destructive than human’s anger, and nothing is more lethal than human’s afflictive emotions. The saddest part of this episode is not merely the combustion of temples and Buddhist holy houses BUT the wild display of human insanity in the name of religion. The unnerved mob is pitifully because violence is the only method they know to deal with the narrowness of their own mind that cannot even tolerate the faith of another.
I hope the Bangladesh government, while attending to resettlement of the damaged, can investigate the source of extremism societal behavior to prevent more incidents of unrest in the future. Thank you Rinpoche for this sharing, it reminds us that acceptance is the way for peace and unity, and we must always have an open mind towards differences.
Sad to know that wooden temples of 300 years old been destroyed by angry mob in Bangladesh.Not only that many houses as well been destroyed , precious items and Buddha statues been looted from the temples too.
Sad ,sad… just because of some issues the Buddhist in Bangladesh suffered …..pain and sorrow in away.Issues of religious discrimination have been going on for years Religious freedom and social harmony between the religions plays an important part. Do hope more awareness be created towards religious discrimination as so to have a peaceful country.Be kind and compassionate to everyone regardless of religion and race as to live happily.
Thank you Admin team for sharing this article .
This is sad!
Religious practice should be about peace, love and compassion for everyone regardless if one and others have the same religion. All great religions of the world today teaches these values; but all problems that arise in the world today in the name of religion is actually the faults of the perpetrators. It is perhaps their wrong understanding of their religion i.e. the selfish minds that propagated violence and hatred in the name of religion.
I apologise if I offended anyone!
At the heart of all religions are the practice of peace, love, acceptance and compassion. To read something like this really doesn’t make any sense. It is sad to read about how violence is being committed in the name of religion. Violence is never the answer to anything. More so in spirituality. A better way to resolve issues is to have civilised dialogues.
I pray that one day soon, there will be no more violence committed in the name of religion. May there be peace on earth!
It is very sad to see peace is being destroyed in the name of religion. I seriously do not believe that a good religion will require you to hurt others. All these tensions are all made by human for selfish reasons, and religions (unfortunately) is a easy tool to use. This kind of tension is not just between religions, they happen between different races, ethnic groups, too.
We are in need of people who spread the teaching of love and compassion, instead of hatred and anger, especially people who are leading others. May all of us have the heart of compassion, and to end the sufferings of many.