Bill Warner on AmericanThinker.com recently wrote about the dismal attitude of certain Buddhist leaders when Buddhists and their holy sites are attacked. He wrote, “Many Buddhists are absolute pacifists who hold to the “if you do good, good will come to you” school of politics. The problem is that such Buddhists usually cannot figure out why Muslims believe that being a Buddhist is evil. They may be ignorant of Islamic doctrine that says that the only good that can come out of a Buddhist is submission to Islam.”
Mr. Warner knows Islam. In Islamic law, only three religions (“the people of the book”) are afforded the sufferance of Islamic legal protection, Islam, Chistianity, and Judiasm. What this means in practice is that non-Muslim Christian and Jews are allowed to live unmolested as long as they pay a tax called a dhimmi to the Islamic authorities. The protections of paying the dhimmi tax is not afforded to religions said to be idol worshippers of which Buddhism is the most obvious in the present day (although Buddhists do not worship images of Buddha the point is moot in the legal proceedings to cut off a heretics head).
Bill continues that “Buddhist doctrine holds that we need both compassion and wisdom. But the wisdom aspect does not seem to be highlighted when the Dalai Lama says that the attacks are “very sad” while noting that it could be an act of a “few individuals” and “shouldn’t be considered something serious.”
Indeed, that would be like saying the attacks on Tibet by the People’s Army of China was an act of “a few battalions” and not “the Chinese government,” which would be a gross misunderstanding. Buddhists across the world must understand that their are people with the intention and the means to kill them simply because they are Buddhist. In countries like Myanmar, Tibet, India, and Sri Lanka this is already known. Less well known are the long list of countries litered with the corpses of Buddhists who’s compassion was without wisdom.
“If the Dalai Lama would pick up the clue phone, he would hear this: “Hello, the Buddhism that you practice, Vajrayana Buddhism, came from the Swat Valley in Afghanistan and where is Buddhism now? It has been annihilated from Afghanistan by jihadists. That same doctrine of jihad is annihilating Buddhists in Thailand today. Is that sad enough for you?” Jihad seeks to annihilate all religions in the territory that Muslims enter. And that should be considered as something serious.”
The same can also be said of Buddhists who have had to live through the terror of Communist movements in China, Vietnam, Cambodia, Mongolia, Myanmar, and India.
“But bombing Bodh Gaya has a down side for the jihadists. A few of the usual apologists may decide that if jihad means bombing Buddhists, then maybe, just maybe, there is something fundamentally wrong with Islam. Islam’s apologists have a lot more trouble in justifying the justice of jihad against Buddhists since the jihad is against their own political alliance. So bombing Buddhists may be a tactical victory, but it could a long-term strategic error but, only if the Buddhists and the apologists pay attention to murder of their own.”
There are Buddhists out there who refuse to be made victims by mad dogs and they are known by the number 969 for the nine qualities of the Buddha, the six traits of the Dhamma, and the nine precious jewels of the Sangha.
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