Posted by Jamie Pinnock on Monday, 1st July, 2013

Compassion, humility, and tranquillity: these are the images that we have typically come to associate with Buddhism in the West. It is a religion that preaches non-violence, and many in the Europe and America have adopted its philosophies as a result.

It may then come as a surprise that militant Buddhist groups in Burma (Myanmar) are actively persecuting the minority Muslim population. In stark contrast to the Saffron Revolution of 2007 when Buddhist monks marched peaceably with their alms bowls, Buddhist mobs, led by the radical monk Ashin Wirathu, have so far killed more than 200 Muslims and forced more than 150,000 from their homes. But many are asking how the 45-year old monk, dubbed the “Buddhist Bin Laden”, has been able to galvanise such high levels of religious intolerance from the Buddhist community?

Sitting cross-legged in his orange robes, with a shaved head as is required when part of the Buddhist monastic community, Wirathu’s appearance in no way suggests that this man could be the leader of the nationalist Buddhist movement known as the 969, who are responsible for what is happening in Burma at this time. The image is one of serenity and calm. He speaks in a slow and intent manner, picking his words carefully and meticulously in explaining his unique breed of Buddhist radicalism.

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RANGOON — Government security forces have stabilized the situation in Thandwe after an outbreak of anti-Muslim violence destroyed four homes in the town in southern Arakan State on Sunday, a local official said. He added that one Muslim man was arrested for an alleged rape case that sparked the unrest.

Zaw Moe Aung, an official at Thandwe Township’s department for information and public relations, said three Muslim-owned homes were torched and another destroyed on Sunday night, while several cars were damaged.

“The situation is more stable now, and all shops and schools are open as usual. Security forces have been deployed in the town,” he said on Monday afternoon, adding that a curfew had been imposed.

Zaw Moe Aung said that authorities were investigating the violence but had yet to make any arrests.

He said reports of the alleged rape of a Buddhist woman named Su Su Mon, 18, by a Muslim man named Min Naing, 29, had caused the unrest on Sunday night. “We have detained one person who allegedly raped the woman. He was a motorbike taxi driver and he is Kaman, a Muslim man,” the official said.

NAYPYIDAW, Myanmar — There was an elegant determination to her walk as Aung San Suu Kyi led an entourage of advisers and loyal followers of her National League for Democracy into a hotel ballroom on a steamy, rain-swept hillside overlooking this newly built capital.

Coming straight from the opening of a fateful parliamentary session where constitutional reform and press freedom laws topped the agenda, the pro-democracy leader and Nobel laureate spoke Thursday to a group of 20 top, young journalists brought together by GlobalPost in partnership with the Open Hands Initiative, a non-profit organization dedicated to public diplomacy.

“The Lady,” as she is commonly referred to here, viewed some of the work of the 20 journalists — eleven from Myanmar and nine from the United States — who have set out together as one team on a reporting journey through a changing Myanmar. She spoke on the importance of press freedom, and the need for the young reporters to recognize the opportunity — and the responsibility — they have covering a country trying to find its way along a path toward democracy.

“Greater freedom means greater responsibility, greater challenges and so we need greater wisdom to deal with the new opportunities that are open to us,” Aung San Suu Kyi told the group, citing “integrity, accuracy, independence and powerful storytelling” as four pillars that support great journalism.

Peter Popham on why Aun San Suu Kyi is silent on the murder of Muslims

There is no concealing the disappointment felt by many of Aung San Suu Kyi’s supporters around the world in the face of her failure to denounce the attacks on Burmese Muslims by members of her own community, the Buddhists who constitute more than 90 per cent of the population.

Perhaps she couldn’t stop it, people say, but at least she could have taken a stand. She is seen as the teacher, the mother of her nation; moral rebirth has been at the centre of her mission ever since she signed up with the democracy movement; her most influential essay was titled A Revolution of the Spirit. How can she possibly stay silent as Muslims are slaughtered?

The first attacks came in June 2012, just as she was embarking on her first trip abroad in 24 years. A young Buddhist woman in Arakan state, which borders the overwhelmingly Muslim nation of Bangladesh in the west, was raped and murdered by two Muslim men. In retaliation, a group of non-Muslim men stopped a bus and killed the Muslims on board, and the spiral of murder quickly got out of control. There were many victims on both sides but the Muslims were in the majority. Many thousand lost their homes and were resettled in squalid temporary camps.