The Buddhist View on Gay Marriage

An intellectual conversation between Khenpo Sodargye and Professor Eyal Aviv.

Burmese Government Accused of Failing to Stop Anti-Muslim Violence
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: The Burmese government has been accused of failing to protect its religious minorities after human rights campaigners claimed that entire districts of a Muslim-inhabited coastal town were destroyed in communal violence.

The New York-based Human Rights Watch released satellite images which it said showed that more than 800 buildings and houseboats had been razed in the town of Kyaukpyu, in western Burma's Rakhine state.

It said the victims of the violence were mainly Rohingya Muslims, thousands of whom have fled the area since tensions with Burma's majority Buddhist population flared anew. Officials say that at least 67 people have been killed and 95 wounded in the past week.

Long-running tensions between the two groups first flared back in June, when accusations that a group of Muslim men were responsible for the rape and murder of a Buddhist woman led to 80 deaths and 75,000 people fleeing their homes.

While the Rakhine Buddhists claim to have been the victim of pogroms themselves, the Rohingya Muslims claim to have borne the brunt of the violence. » | Colin Freeman | Saturday, October 27, 2012

Muslim Protesters Torch Buddhist Temples, Homes in Bangladesh
REUTERS.COM: COX'S BAZAR, Bangladesh - Hundreds of Muslims in Bangladesh burned at least four Buddhist temples and 15 homes of Buddhists on Sunday after complaining that a Buddhist man had insulted Islam, police and residents said.

Members of the Buddhist minority in the Cox's Bazar area in the southeast of the country said unidentified people were bent on upsetting peaceful relations between Muslims and Buddhists.

Muslims took to the streets in the area late on Saturday to protest against what they said was a photograph posted on Facebook that insulted Islam.

The protesters said the picture had been posted by a Buddhist and they marched to Buddhist villages and set fire to temples and houses.

Police said they had deployed extra security forces and banned gatherings in Buddhist-dominated areas. » | Reporting by Nurul Islam; Writing by Anis Ahmed; Editing by Robert Birsel | Reuters | Sunday, September 30, 2012

State of Emergency in Myanmar Following Riots
Curfew imposed in Rakhine following clashes between Buddhists and Muslims that left seven dead and many houses razed.

Buddhist Monks Caught Playing Poker, Drinking, Smoking in South Korea
It's the oldest and most respected major religion in South Korea. And now it's been spectacularly brought into ill-repute after senior monks from the largest Buddhist order in the country were caught red-handed setting a bad example by indulging in a cheeky little poker game.

Gambling in the country is illegal everywhere except for inside just one casino that's in the north east of the country. So it doesn't take a rocket scientist to work out that these monks - who are from the Jogye Order - seen here smoking, drinking and flipping playing cards on the floor of a luxury hotel room are flouting the law.

As soon as the footage was aired on national TV yesterday, 6 of the 8 monks in the room offered to resign. Leader Master Jinjea, a high-ranker from the order -- who wasn't even there at the time - said on local TV 'Those monks committed a foolish act and I confess my sin for their wrongdoings'

It was a fellow monk who secretly shot the footage and then tipped off the police and the media. Do you reckon he's taken himself off for a long holiday right now?

I'm Marverine Cole. That's all from me for now but for more news check out our website: ibtimes.co.uk

Author Sarah Malini Perera Held ‘For Offending Buddhists’ In Sri Lanka
THE TELEGRAPH: An expatriate Sri Lankan woman who wrote two books about her conversion from Buddhism to Islam has been arrested while on holiday in Sri Lanka, apparently for causing offence to Buddhists.

Sarah Malini Perera, who was born in Sri Lanka but has lived in Bahrain since 1985 and converted to Islam in 1999, was arrested last week under the country’s strict emergency laws, according to the police.

They declined to give precise details of the 38-year-old writer’s offence, but suggested that her books were deemed to have caused offence to ethnic Sinhalese Buddhists, who account for about 70 per cent of Sri Lanka’s 20 million people.

News of her arrest came just a few days after protests by Buddhist nationalists prompted the Sri Lankan Government to refuse a visa to Akon, the Senegalese-American singer who had been due to perform in Colombo next month.

Buddhist activists stormed the concert’s media partner last Monday to protest over the video for Akon’s song Sexy Bitch, which showed bikini-clad women dancing by a pool in Ibiza with a Buddha statue in the background.

The two incidents have raised concerns about the growing influence of hardline Buddhist nationalists on Sri Lanka’s ruling coalition, which is widely expected to win parliamentary elections on April 8.

Sri Lanka’s constitution guarantees freedom of religion, but also says that the state “shall give Buddhism the foremost place and accordingly it shall be the duty of the state to protect and foster” the religion. >>> Jeremy Page, South Asia Correspondent | Monday, March 29, 2010

Religion: Evangelische Kirche will Deutschland missionieren
WELT ONLINE: Die Evangelische Kirche hat ein Netzwerk von Missionszentren an den Standorten Dortmund, Greifswald und Stuttgart gegründet. Damit dürfte sie für interreligiöse Spannungen sorgen. Missionsleiter Hans-Hermann Pompe erklärt WELT ONLINE, warum sich Atheisten, Moslems und Buddhisten für Jesus öffnen sollten. >>> Von Till-Reimer Stoldt | Mittwoch, 23. September 2009

Malaysian Court Accepts Woman's Decision to Convert from Islam
AUSTRALIAN BROADCASTING CORPORATION (ABC): On the Malaysian island state of Penang, an Islamic court has upheld a controversial decision - allowing a woman to revert from Islam to Buddhism. 



It's one of the rare ocassions a Syariah court has allowed someone to leave Islam - a practice usually viewed very seriously under Malaysian law. The court said the woman had a unique case because her conversion to Islam had not been valid, but the case has touched on a sensitive issue that has long divided the Malaysian public. >>> | Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Listen to ABC audio: here

The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Paperback – Australia) >>>
The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Hardback – Australia) >>>

Malaysia's Islamic Court Makes Landmark Ruling to Let Muslim Convert Return to Buddhism
INTERNATIONAL HERALD TRIBUNE: KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia: A Malaysian Islamic court allowed a Muslim convert Thursday to return to her original faith of Buddhism, setting a precedent that could ease religious minorities' worries about their legal rights.

Lawyers said the Shariah High Court's verdict in the northern state of Penang was the first time in recent memory that a convert has been permitted to legally renounce Islam in this Muslim-majority nation.

A rising number of disputes about religious conversions has sparked anxiety among minorities — predominantly Buddhist, Christian and Hindu — because in the past, courts virtually always ruled against people seeking to leave Islam.

Penang's Shariah court, however, granted Siti Fatimah Tan Abdullah's request to be declared a non-Muslim. She embraced Islam in 1998 because she wanted to marry an Iranian, but claimed she never truly practiced the religion.

"I am very happy," Siti, a 39-year-old ethnic Chinese cake seller, told The Associated Press by telephone. "I want to go to the temple to pray and give thanks."

The Shariah court, which governs Muslims' personal conduct and religious lives, ruled that Siti's husband and Islamic authorities failed to give her proper religious advice.

"So you can't blame her for her ignorance of the teachings and wanting to convert out," said Ahmad Munawir Abdul Aziz, a lawyer for the Islamic Affairs Council in Penang.

Minority leaders hailed the verdict as a step to protect religious rights. Malaysia's Islamic Court Makes Landmark Ruling to Let Muslim Convert Return to Buddhism >>> Associated Press | May 8, 2008

The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Paperback – USA)
The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Hardcover – USA)