Anti-Muslim Buddhist Nationalism in Burma and Sri Lanka: Religious Violence and Globalized Imaginaries of Endangered Identities
In Burma, monks are promoting a new marriage law restricting interfaith marriages. They have used hateful anti-Muslim rhetoric and claimed that Buddhism, language, culture and the national identity is endangered. Since 2012, Burma has seen widespread anti-Muslim riots resulting in burned mosques and...
| Published in: | Contemporary buddhism |
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| Main Author: | |
| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Routledge
[2015]
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| In: |
Contemporary buddhism
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| Online Access: |
Volltext (Verlag) |
| Summary: | In Burma, monks are promoting a new marriage law restricting interfaith marriages. They have used hateful anti-Muslim rhetoric and claimed that Buddhism, language, culture and the national identity is endangered. Since 2012, Burma has seen widespread anti-Muslim riots resulting in burned mosques and casualties instigated by the 969 movement. Burmese monks study in Sri Lanka where the Buda Bala Sena, ("Buddhist Power Force") movement runs a fierce anti-Muslim and anti-Christian campaign. There is a clear connection between the monks in these former British colonies where Buddhism was part of the nationalist anti-colonial struggle. Buddhism is still part of ongoing identity politics.Today's xenophobic Buddhist nationalism seems to contain a combination of the traditional Buddhist cosmological imaginary of a decline in the doctrine - a dark age of moral chaos, and a modern globalized imaginary of other religions - Islam and Christianity in particular - attempting to wipe out Buddhism.The article discusses how these religious imaginaries and monks are engaged in nationalist politics and absorb globally transmitted ideas of danger to religion and identity; and how these imaginaries are translated and localized to a modern context. This seems to be part of a globalized "ontological scare" in Burma and Sri Lanka. The movements are generating xenophobic and fundamentalist views and using religion as a medium of violence. |
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| ISSN: | 1476-7953 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Contemporary buddhism
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1080/14639947.2015.1008090 |