2013-05-10 17:21:41

Dalai Lama lashes out at Myanmar, Lanka Buddhist violence


10 May, 2013 - The Dalai Lama has implored Buddhist monks in Myanmar and Sri Lanka to put an end to a series of recent attacks on Muslims in their countries. The Tibetan Buddhist spiritual leader spoke Tuesday night about religious violence when asked questions following a speech he delivered to 15,000 people at the University of Maryland in the United States. Myanmar, formerly Burma, has been wracked by sectarian violence that has killed hundreds and displaced more than 135,000 over the past year, while Sri Lankan Buddhist groups have recently attacked Muslim businesses. ``Killing people in the name of religion is really very sad, unthinkable, very sad,'' the 1989 Nobel Peace laureate said. He expressed deep sadness that nowadays even Buddhist monks destroy Muslim mosques or Muslim families.
The Dalai Lama is the head of the Tibetan school of Buddhism, while Buddhism in Myanmar and Sri Lanka is dominated by the separate Theravada branch, which does not answer to his authority. The sectarian violence in Myanmar first flared in western Rakhine state nearly a year ago, when mobs of Buddhists armed with machetes razed thousands of Muslim homes, leaving hundreds dead and forcing 125,000 people to flee, mostly Muslims. That violence has since spread into a campaign against the country's Muslim community in other regions. (Source: AP)








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