Posted on 06/04/2012 2:06:59 AM PDT by Olog-hai
Buddhist vigilantes in western Myanmar attacked a passenger bus and killed nine Muslims, police said on Monday, the deadliest communal violence in the tense region since a reformist government took power a year ago.
The bus was besieged near Taunggoke town in the western state of Rakhine on Sunday evening by a group who blamed some of its passengers for the murder of a Buddhist woman a week ago, said local residents and politicians. One of those killed was travelling in a separate car.
Rakhine is home to Myanmar's largest concentration of Muslims, but their presence is often resented by the Buddhist majority. The resentment is particularly sharp for Rohingya Muslims, whose roots date back to the 1820s when they were brought to the country as laborers by colonial power Britain.
Ko Kyaw Lay, a local Muslim and a human rights activist who belongs to an opposition party, said none of those killed were Rohingyas.
Police could not immediately confirm all of the details.
In a separate incident on Sunday in Sittwe, the Rakhine capital, 10 people were shot and wounded when riot police tried to break up a protest, witnesses said. They said the rally by some 200 people was unrelated to the attack on the bus.
Protesters threw rocks at police, who responded by firing into the air and a 13-year-old novice monk was among those wounded, the witnesses said.
Myanmar is one of Southeast Asia's most ethnically diverse countries, where sectarian and ethnic tensions still persist, despite a new political climate and broad reforms by a civilian-led government that says it has made peace and national unity a priority since it replaced a military junta 15 months ago.
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
Take the IED out of my hand, grasshopper.
Even the most peaceful people can get tired of abuse and strike back.
We must be clear, there are no Muslim vigilantes, they are all freedom fighters.
Yup, while this is not characteristic of Buddhists, even they must get fed up.
The Buddhists were heard shouting “Alluh Akbar” as they left. </s>
Kill or be killed.
Killed 9? Sounds like a good start. Shaolin monks tired of taking crap?
It would appear they achieved enlightenment. Good for them.
Where do I donate?
Yes indeed. I would loan them my barlow pig sticker!
Wow!!! I am SO rubbing their belly!
“Buddhist” vigilantes? Call me skeptical...
Guess these Buddhists decided that in a crisis, meditation alone just wasn’t cutting it. Good on them.
Gee, d’ya think the guyz in saffron robes might agree with my tagline?
;^)
So even the Buddhists are getting a little intolerant? Good.
It’s funny (as in ‘interesting’ funny). Wiccans, Buddhists, Rastafarians, Shinto, hell even adherents to Santa Muerte and Santaria can live in proximity without a holy war erupting. The only one that refuses to is Islam.
That’s fine. We have all the intelligence, none of the inbreeding and lots of firearms. They have rocks and explosives they blow more of themselves up with than us.
We ultimately win.
I don’t feel any joy over this story. The loss of innocent life in any religious dispute is deplorable. Doubtless there was Muslim terrorist provocations and loss of innocent Buddhist life leading to this reaction but Buddhists are pagans, Muslims are not. Our view of God and eternity is closer to Islam than it is to paganism. And “peaceful Buddhism” has also done its share of persecution of the believers of Christ in Myanmar.
So you think that worshiping evil is closer to Christianity than paganism? Islam is evil incarnate, I’ll take the Buddhists.
Well, that made my day. Keep up the good work, Buddhists!
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