Free Republic

(AFP) — At the Maldives’ National Museum, smashed Buddhist statues are testament to the rise of Islamic extremism and Taliban-style intolerance in a country famous as a laid-back holiday destination. On Tuesday, as protesters backed by mutinous police toppled president Mohamed Nasheed, a handful of men stormed the Chinese-built museum and destroyed its display of priceless artifacts from the nation’s pre-Islamic era. “They have effectively erased all evidence of our Buddhist past,” a senior museum official told AFP at the now shuttered building in the capital Male, asking not to be named out of fear for his own safety. “We...

Recently, there has been an uprising of protests by Tibetan monks over China’s occupation of Tibet and the exile of the Dalai Lama. The protests are not done with signs and chanting but with self-immolation or the act of burning oneself alive. Richard Gere has praised the actions of the Buddhists monks calling them “a pure act.” Gere, a long-time Buddhist, says, “It all really comes down to motivation. I mean none of these self-immolators have harmed anybody else. It is totally a self-sacrifice for their people, for others. So on that level it’s a pure act. But I think...

A group of Buddhist monks in Sri Lanka led a crowd that demolished a Muslim shrine last week. This incident took place on Saturday in Anuradhapura, an ancient Buddhist city and Unesco world heritage site.

A schoolboy was killed and two bystanders were injured when an unknown gunman shot the student before opening fire at people shopping at a market in Pattani yesterday morning. ... an attack by southern insurgents on a Buddhist religious day as the motive. Pattani Governor Nipon Narapitakkul said that he believed the attack was a result of the region's unrest, where insurgents harm Thai Buddhists to incite disunity and distrust between Thai Buddhists and Muslims in Panare district, which is made up of 60 per cent Buddhists and 40 per cent Muslims. More than 4,500 people have been killed and...

Thailand's army says suspected Islamic insurgents set off a roadside bomb in the country's restive south, killing two Buddhist monks. ... More than 4,200 people have been killed in predominantly Buddhist Thailand's three Muslim-dominated southern provinces since an Islamist insurgency erupted here in 2004.

A PERTH man who mercilessly bashed a Buddhist monk to death in a suburban park could be out of jail in under four years. Ian Samuel James McConkey, 38, of Coolbellup, was sentenced in the WA Supreme Court today to five and a half years in jail for the manslaughter of Buu "Paul'' Lieu , 48, on January 10 this year. McConkey, who could not explain why he attacked the defenseless monk, will be eligible for parole after three years and four months. Mr Lieu died in hospital two weeks after being bashed early in the morning at Bibra Lake...

Suspected Muslim separatists shot dead a Buddhist family of four in Thailand's deep south, police said on Tuesday, the latest attack in an escalation of violence in the region. The killings followed a bloody raid on an army camp and a big roadside bombing in the past 12 days that were believed to have been carried out by ethnic Malay Muslim rebels seeking autonomy from predominantly Buddhist Thailand. The bodies of the Buddhist couple, their daughter, 15, and 7-year-old son were found in a forest in Yala, one of three Muslim-dominated provinces bordering Malaysia where more than 4,300 people have...

Picture this: millions of followers gathering around a central shrine that looks like a giant UFO in elaborately choreographed Nuremberg-style rallies; missionary outposts in 31 countries from Germany to the Democratic Republic of the Congo; an evangelist vision that seeks to promote a "world morality restoration project"; and a V-Star program that encourages hundreds of thousands of children to improve "positive moral behavior." Although the Bangkok-based Dhammakaya movement dons saffron robes, not brown shirts, its flamboyant ceremonies have become increasingly bold displays of power for this cult-like Buddhist group that was founded in the 1970s, ironically, as a reform...

In F.B.I., Innocent Detainee Found Unlikely Ally By NINA BERNSTEIN t took no more than a week for James P. Wynne, a veteran F.B.I. investigator, to confirm the harmless truth that only now, more than two years later, he is ready to talk about. The small foreign man he helped arrest for videotaping outside an office building in Queens on Oct. 25, 2001, was no terrorist. He was a Buddhist from Nepal planning to return there after five years of odd jobs at places like a Queens pizzeria and a Manhattan flower shop. He was taping New York street scenes...

A few months ago, I gave a talk in Sacrament meeting in which I discussed how studying other religious faiths and their scriptures had enriched my life. When the meeting was over, a couple approached me and said they wanted a copy of the talk to give their daughter because she described herself as a “Buddhist Mormon.” The couple said their daughter couldn’t decide whether to be a Buddhist or a Mormon, so she was trying to be both.I responded that in a certain sense I considered myself a “Buddhist Mormon” as well, and that the beauty of true Mormonism...

SNIPPET: "His movies have grossed more than $2 billion worldwide. He is an expert martial artist with a 7th-degree black belt in Aikido. He's considered to be in the same class of action hero as Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger. However, Steven Seagal isn't just an action hero in the movies. For almost 20 years, Seagal has been working as a fully commissioned deputy with the Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office in Louisiana. In addition to going out on patrol, Seagal is an expert marksman who has worked with their SWAT team and has instructed Jefferson Parish officers in firearms and...

A 38 year-old Perth man will spend at least three years and four months behind bars for what has been described as the unprovoked and savage bashing of a Buddhist monk. Ian Samuel James McConkey pleaded guilty to unlawfully killing 48 year-old Buu Lieu who died in hospital two weeks after he was bashed in a car park in Bibra Lake in January. The Supreme Court was told McConkey could not provide an explanation for what he had done other than he was under the influence of alcohol and amphetamines which put him into a rage. McConkey was sentenced to...

The Dalai Lama has sent a message of support for Armed Forces Day, which is next Saturday. In it, he writes of his admiration for the military. That is perhaps not so surprising. As he explains, there are many parallels between being a monk and being a soldier – the need for discipline, companionship, and inner strength. But his support will take some of his western admirers by surprise, not least when it comes to his thoughts on non-violence. Attitudes towards violence in Buddhism are enormously complex. There are some traditions that argue aggression, and killing in particular, is always...

Rarely are currency exchange rates as good for the American dollar as that of Asian countries. In Asia, the American dollar carries a lot of clout and with the recent devaluation of the USD; it is a good thing that these countries offer an excellent trip for so little cost to Americans.

Bild.de]Russia refuses the Dalai Lama entry. The buddhist Community reported that the foreign minister in Moscow refused the visa with consideration of China's objections.

Three Naropa University employees -- two of them top administrators -- have been fired after an investigation into embezzlement at the Buddhist-inspired school... An internal investigation after an FBI tip found that a finance department employee had embezzled roughly $450,000 from the Boulder liberal arts school over a two-year period. President Stuart Lord said agents from the FBI approached university officials about two weeks ago to tell them the agency had received a report of embezzlement and to ask Naropa to conduct an internal investigation.

SNIPPET: "NARATHIWAT, Thailand (Reuters) - Suspected Islamic insurgents shot dead six Buddhist villagers in Thailand's restive south Thursday, police said, the latest attack in the troubled region bordering Malaysia. The villagers in Narathiwat province were believed to have been ambushed, said police Colonel Sanit Suwanno... Ten policemen and soldiers were also wounded when a roadside bomb exploded as they were traveling to the scene of the shootings, police said."

More than 1,000 Buddhist extremists armed with clubs, swords and stones ferociously attacked a Catholic church in the town of Crooswatta, Sri Lanka on December 6, destroying the altar, statues and pews. L’Osservatore Romano reported that Father Jude Denzil Lakshman, pastor of Our Lady of the Mystical Rose, said “I still can hear their shouts in my ears, ‘Cut him to pieces, kill him’.” The attack took place after the 7 p.m., Sunday Mass, leaving several parishioners wounded. “It is obvious that the attack was well-planned and that the mob waited for us to come out after Mass,” Father Lakshman...

SNIPPET: "SUSPECTED Islamic insurgents shot and killed two people and wounded three others in a bomb blast in Thailand's troubled Muslim-majority south, police said. Gunmen broke into a house in Yala province and shot dead a 16-year-old Buddhist girl, also wounding her 29-year-old husband, they said.... More than 3900 people have died in shootings, bomb blasts, beheadings and crucifixions since a separatist insurgency erupted in Thailand's southern provinces bordering Malaysia in January 2004."

All Army chaplains wear the same uniform, and...answer to the same calling: to provide comfort and to relieve the suffering of American soldiers. But one chaplain stands out from the crowd. Thomas Dyer is the first and only Buddhist chaplain in the history of the U.S. Army. Dyer will be deployed to the Middle East in December along with the 278th Armored Calvary Regiment. Although his faith is grounded in pacifism, the 43-year-old Dyer says war has become a necessary part of peace. "My teacher has concluded that without the military, without civil protection, the world would enter into a...

(RNS) The election of an Episcopal bishop in Michigan who has practiced Buddhist meditation and changed traditional church prayers appears headed for defeat, according to an unofficial tally kept by a newspaper reporter. The Rev. Kevin Thew Forrester was elected bishop of the sparsely populated Diocese of Northern Michigan in February. Under Episcopal Church rules, a majority of bishops and 111 regional standing committees must vote to ratify his election before it is valid. On Friday (June 5), the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, which has kept an unofficial running tally of the voting, reported that 56 standing committees—a majority—have voted to withhold...

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka, April 16 (Compass Direct News) – Buddhist mobs attacked several churches in Sri Lanka last week, threatening to kill a pastor in the southern province of Hambanthota and ransacking a 150-year-old Methodist church building in the capital. On April 8, four Buddhist extremists approached the home of pastor Pradeep Kumara in Weeraketiya, Hambanthota district, calling for him to come out and threatening to kill him. The pastor said his wife, at home alone with their two children, phoned him immediately but by the time he returned, the men had left. Half an hour later, Kumar said, the...

For centuries, the Swat River valley was a Buddhist haven. According to tradition, Buddha himself journeyed to Swat during his last reincarnation, and preached to the local villagers. And by the 6th-century A.D, Buddhist pilgrims from as far away as China flocked to the Swat valley, a beautiful lush land of orchards and rushing mountain streams. One early Chinese account describes as many as 1400 Buddhist monasteries perched along the valley walls in the 7th century. Devout Buddhist artists left an incredibly rich legacy in Swat. Since the valley lay along a major route of the Silk Road -- which...

Chinese archaeologists on Wednesday opened a 1,000-year-old steel case that was believed to contain Buddhist relics. A pagoda top wrapped in silk emerged after archaeologists removed two steel panels of the cube-shaped case, which is 0.5 meter long, 0.5 meter wide and 1.34 meters high. Hua Guorong, vice curator of the Nanjing City Museum where the case was opened, said an initial analysis showed the object was a pagoda about 1 meter high. He said Buddhist relics, which were formed from the ashes of cremated Buddhist masters and were an important aspect of the religion, were likely to be under...

Madison, WI - Seated cross-legged onstage in a large upholstered chair, one of the world's best-known religious leaders delivered his trademark messages of compassion, peace and unity with typical humor, verve and humility Saturday afternoon. In response to a written question from the audience about Tibetan culture being strong enough to still mount widespread demonstrations against Chinese rule this year, he also ventured into the political arena. “I want to make clear. We always respect the Chinese people, not the Chinese government,” he said, to loud applause, adding that the uprisings were pro-freedom, not anti-Chinese. For the more than 7,000...

One of the largest markets in the Tibetan capital, Lhasa, is in flames and at least one police car has been burnt as angry monks and Tibetans clash with police today. The surge of violence follows almost a week of demonstrations by lamas from monasteries around the Tibetan capital, who have been demanding greater freedom of religion before the Olympic Games as well as independence for the deeply Buddhist Himalayan region.

...One estimate puts the average age of Buddhist converts (about a third of the American Buddhist population) at upwards of 50. This means that the religion is almost certain to see its numbers reduced over the next generation as boomer Buddhists begin to die off without having passed their faith along to their children. And Jewish and Christian models offer the most logical solution for reversing that decline. The basic problem is that non-Asian converts tend not to regard what they practice as a religion. From the beginning, Buddhism has been seen in its American incarnation not as an alternative...

Burma's ruling generals have rejected a UN plan for three-way talks involving detained pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, according to state media. Minister Kyaw Hsan told UN envoy Ibrahim Gambari that Burma would not accept interference in its sovereignty. Mr Gambari arrived in Burma on Saturday for his second visit since protests in September were brutally suppressed. BBC UN correspondent Laura Trevelyan says diplomats privately admit omens for Mr Gambari's mission are not good. Publicly, UN officials are saying they cannot confirm the junta's decision to reject the talks proposal, according to our correspondent. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon...

More than 100 monks have marched in central Burma, the first time they have returned to the streets since last month's bloody crackdown on protests. The monks chanted and prayed as they marched through Pakokku, the site of an incident last month that triggered pro-democracy protests nationwide. The government said 10 people died during the crackdown, but diplomats believe the toll was much higher. Thousands more - many of them monks - were thought to have been detained. Separately, the Human Rights Watch organisation has accused the Burmese army of forcibly recruiting children to cover gaps left by a lack...

The country's top brass seem to have learned nothing from the contempt they drew from the international community for their conduct 19 years ago when Burmese generals put down the popular uprising in 1988. Then Gen Chavalit Yongchaiyudh, as the country's army commander-in-chief, blithely headed a high-ranking delegation to Rangoon shortly after the junta's resort to violence left some 3,000 people dead, and sent hundreds of thousands seeking refuge in Thailand. The visit was tantamount to condoning a military dictatorship elsewhere decried for the excesses against demonstrators. The trade-off? Some kind of arrangement involving Burmese timber and fishery. Not long...

The US has banned dozens of members of Burma's military government from obtaining US travel visas because of ongoing violence against protesters. A state department spokesman said more officials would be added to the list if they were judged responsible for human rights abuses. Reports from Burma say military may have succeeded in limiting the scale of the protests in the main city, Rangoon.

President George W Bush has led international condemnation of Burma after more people were killed in its crackdown on popular protests. The US imposed sanctions targeting Burma's military leaders and called on China, one of Burma's closest partners, to put more pressure on the country. Beijing appealed for calm, and Burma's neighbours, in unusually harsh criticism, expressed "revulsion". Nine people were killed on Thursday, official media reported. They included eight protesters and a Japanese video journalist.

Truckloads of soldiers and riot police have surrounded a number of monasteries in Burma's largest city, Rangoon, to try to prevent a ninth day of protests. But groups of people are massing on the streets, apparently to prepare for more demonstrations - despite a ban on gatherings of more than five people. In another sign of increased tensions, two key dissidents have been arrested. Analysts fear a repeat of the violence in 1988, when troops opened fire on unarmed protestors, killing thousands

Thousands of monks and civilians are marching through Burma's former capital in what appears to be the biggest anti-government protest so far. Eyewitnesses said the number of people demonstrating on Monday was as high as 30,000. It follows Sunday's march in Rangoon by 20,000 monks and nuns, in what was the largest protest for almost 20 years. Events are now moving unpredictably, analysts say. So far the ruling generals are showing unusual restraint. Monks are revered in Burma and any action against them by the military government would spark an outcry. But there are fears of a repeat of 1988,...

Burma's opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi has greeted Buddhist monks protesting against the military junta. Apparently unable to hold her tears, Aung San Suu Kyi came out of the house she has been detained in since 2003 as the monks were let through a roadblock. At least 2,000 monks are staging a sixth day of protests through the streets of the main city of Rangoon. Up to 10,000 marched through Mandalay with protests also taking place in five townships across Burma. (snip) The area around University Avenue where Ms Suu Kyi's house is located has been closed to traffic...

Leaders of protests by Buddhist monks in Burma say they intend to continue their peaceful demonstrations until the military government collapses. The statement by the Alliance of All Burmese Buddhist Monks came as 1,500 monks took to the streets of Rangoon in their biggest protest yet. This is the fifth straight day of marches by monks in protest at recent government attempts to silence critics. Diplomats at the United Nations have expressed concern at the crisis. In a strongly-worded statement, seen by the BBC, the Alliance of All Burmese Buddhist Monks described the military government as "the enemy of the...

Hundreds of Buddhist monks have marched around Burma's most revered temple, in a third consecutive day of protests against the military government. The monks were allowed into the Shwedagon Pagoda in Rangoon for the first time since their protests began. They walked through the city surrounded by a human chain of civilians holding hands to protect them. They want a government apology for the violent break-up of a recent rally, triggered by protests over price rises.

Thousands of Buddhist monks have protested in several Burmese cities in escalating protests against the military government. In the western port city of Sittwe, nearly 2,000 monks demanded the release of four monks arrested on Tuesday. About 1,000 monks marched through Mandalay, and several hundred more in Rangoon, the former capital.

Military officials in Burma have used tear gas to disperse hundreds of monks holding a rally in the north-west city of Sittwe, reports from the area say. Some of them were beaten and several were arrested, eyewitnesses say. Large numbers of monks have also held protests in at least five other towns and cities across the country, including the former capital Rangoon.

Many people in Burma have been surprised by the sheer persistence of the protests in recent weeks. In a country where the authorities show zero tolerance of even the slightest criticism, such public displays of defiance have not been seen for almost 20 years. These protests stem from a decision by the military government to suddenly raise the price of fuel by up to five times on 15 August. Transport fares rose and that triggered a sharp rise in the price of consumer goods, hitting poor people particularly hard. The generals must have hoped that the momentum of the demonstrations...

Snapped Shot has an update on the situation at George Mason University, where the Muslim Student Association has basically taken over a “shared meditation room” and is intimidating Christian students who try to use it:

Irony is the ultimate entertainment, and today the Chinese government has outdone even itself. In effect the Godless Communists have proclaimed themselves God. In an effort to culturally castrate Tibet, Chinese Communist Party Hacks (forgive the quadruple redundancy) have laid their heavy police state hands on Tibetan social systems, transportation, immigration, and even religious practices. Not content to control Tibetan temporal transactions, China’s chief thugs are now targeting the afterlife. Buddhists — Tibetan and otherwise — believe in reincarnation, that they will be born again into this world, which stands as the most complete form of auto-masochism ever conceived. They...

Claims galore as Buddhist history claims new territory Parul Sharma “High time Orissa got its due as a prominent centre” Making a point: Professor James Freeman in New Delhi. Photo: V.V. Krishnan NEW DELHI: Even as there are claims and counter-claims about Lord Buddha being born in Kapileswar village near Bhubaneswar and not Lumbini in present-day Nepal as believed all along so far, an American anthropologist says it is time Orissa got its due as one of the most prominent centres of Buddhism in the world. “The numerous Buddhist sites in Orissa, the antiquities and sculptures found there reflect many...

Major Buddhist site comes to light Tuesday July 10 2007 14:16 IST VIJAYAWADA: A chance digging by mulberry farmers in agricultural lands have uncovered major Buddhist architectural finds in Kanthamanenivarigudem of West Godavari district. Two ancient sites are not only seen as prototypes of the present-day temples, but they have also provided the first-ever proof of the existence of another major Buddhist sect apart from the hitherto known Mahayana, Hinayana and Vajrayana sects. Interestingly, the new finds are just 2 km away from the famous Second Century rock-cut Buddhist caves of Guntupalli or Jilakarragudem in West Godavari, known as the...

The term "bleeding-heart liberal" has been bandied about for years, in an effort to illustrate the faux or at least hyperbolic sense of compassion attributed to those on the left.  The lefties in America and Europe would like to be known as those who care, unless you happen to be a Bible-following Christian, a conservative or a fetus. The information age has facilitated the dissemination of all things cultural, spiritual and intellectual.  One of the most important developments in the West has been the study and practice of Eastern religions and "ways."  Zen Buddhism, for instance, is thought of by...

Suspected Islamic rebels shot dead two Buddhist women in Thailand's restive Muslim-majority south as the country's army-installed premier began a one-day visit to the region Friday. The victims, aged 17 and 20, were gunned down late Thursday in a drive-by shooting while riding a motorcycle in Narathiwat, one of three violence-torn southern provinces bordering Malaysia, police said. Also in Narathiwat, militants set ablaze an elementary school early Friday, destroying a wooden building, while three Army rangers were hurt when a roadside bomb exploded late Thursday in nearby Yala province.

NARATHIWAT - An elderly Buddhist man was shot dead and his body set on fire Sunday in Thailand's restive south, police said, days after a similar incident provoked angry protests. The 70-year-old man was attacked by suspected Islamic militants as he drove his motorbike home from a market in Narathiwat, one of three Muslim-majority southern provinces beset by a separatist insurgency. The attackers shot the man three times in the head and torso, before setting his body on fire. Passers-by were able to rescue the corpse before it was badly burned, a local police officer said. A 26-year-old Buddhist woman...

Another bomb at bus terminal, four others defused; communal emotions run high A bomb exploded in a busy market yesterday, wounding 11 people as hundreds of angry Buddhists gathered in the town centre to call for tougher security measures. The bomb, packed with shrapnel, was placed next to a pork stall inside a water pipe left behind by construction workers. Police believe the explosion was set off by mobile phone. Two soldiers and a police officer were among the injured. A second bomb went off in the bathroom of Yala's main bus terminal, but there were no injuries. Reports of...

If you're a Tibetan Buddhist or you're leaning that way, you may not know it, but you need Jesus. That's the thinking behind a series of Christian evangelical workshops -- including one later this month in Wheaton -- that will coincide with the Dalai Lama's trip to Chicago and other American cities this spring. Interserve USA is putting on the workshops to teach Christians how to talk to Buddhists and, perhaps, to win converts. "We welcome the Dalai Lama here, but we also want to have a chance to reach Tibetan Buddhists with the gospel," said Doug Van Bronkhorst, executive...

Buddhist monk arrested over child prostitution, A 25-year-old Buddhist monk from the Shogetsuin Temple in Ube, Yamaguchi Prefecture, was arrested Friday for engaging in child prostitution with a 15-year-old girl who he met through a cell phone dating website. According to police, Nobuhiro Suetsugu had sex with the girl at a hotel in Toshima ...