By ZUE ZUE 9 May
2017
RANGOON — Members of
a committee to combat false Buddhist doctrine urged the State Buddhist
authority on Tuesday to judge if the actions and speeches of firebrand
nationalist monk U Wirathu are “moral” or not.
“We don’t want him
to be jailed or ruined, we just want to show that we Buddhists and people do
not accept his false doctrine, we want to mend them,” Ko Myat Kyaw, the
organizer of the committee, told reporters at a press conference at Tawwin
Hninzi Hall in Rangoon on Tuesday.
The committee was
formed in March this year by 12 people who sent a petition with over 500
signatures collected in Rangoon’s Dagon (South) Township to the State Sangha
Maha Nayaka Committee, better known by its Burmese acronym Ma Ha Na. It urged
Ma Ha Na to judge if U Wirathu’s words and actions were in line with Buddhist
teachings.
The committee’s
Facebook group currently has over 1,000 members.
Ko Myat Kyaw said
the committee would invite new members and continue its petition campaign in
Rangoon Division as Ma Ha Na had not replied.
Ma Ha Na has banned
U Wirathu, a prominent leader of the ultranationalist Buddhist monk association
known by its Burmese acronym Ma Ba Tha, from delivering sermons across the
country for one year starting from March 10, due to engaging in what was deemed
religious hate speech.
Though Ma Ha Na said
it would take legal action against the monk for any breach of the order, U
Wirathu has delivered several silent sermons in different locations, and has
not received any reprimand, said Ko Myat Kyaw.
“Our country will
become a religious extremist country very soon if we cannot not prevent and
take action against those who are immoral and racist and incite hatred,” he
said.
In the last week of
March, activists launched a petition on the San Francisco-based Change.org
website to take action against U Wirathu for delivering inflammatory sermons.
U Swe Win, chief
correspondent of Myanmar Now news agency, has also asked Ma Ha Na and the
Ministry of Religious Affairs and Culture to take action against U Wirathu for
his religious hate speech.
A Rangoon resident
also filed a complaint with Dawbon Township Court in April against U Wirathu
for saying Burmese women should marry dogs instead of Muslim men, but it was
dismissed.
U Wirathu and 10
other Buddhist monks were welcomed by ethnic Arakanese villagers in
conflict-torn Maungdaw Township, northern Arakan State, and last week.
Translated from
Burmese by Thet Ko Ko