The Irrawaddy/ Arakan Watch
May 17, 2017
 |
| The extremist Buddhist Monk Wirathu in the cover page of Time Magazines in 2013 |
A campaign for
collecting signatures across Rangoon Division has started for making a petition
against false teachings of Buddhist doctrines by ultranationalist monk throughout
the country.
A group naming as
Anti-False Buddhist Doctrine Committee has launched month long campaign to
collect signatures protesting against the monk’s inflammatory racial and religious
rhetoric and will send this petition to the State Sangha Maha Nayaka Committee,
Ma Ha Na in its Burmese acronym.
The petition will be
produced beginning from May 21 to ask
the Ma Ha Na if the misdeeds and hate speeches of extremist monk Wirathu
are of morale or not. Ko Myat Kyaw, a committee organizer said to the
reporters, “We’ll try to put the petition directly in the hands of the Ma Ha Na
senior monks and the religious affairs minister.” Expecting more response he
said, “We’ll take a step forward and demand more signatures,”
 |
| Buddhist extremist Monk Wirathu and his gang -File Photo |
Wirathu, a hardline
Buddhist monk and leader of Association to Protect Race and Religion bitterly
known as Ma Ba Tha by its Burmese acronym has been banned because of his
religious hate speech by Ma Ha Na from delivering sermons across the country
for one year starting from March 10, this year.
The petitioner group
was formed in March as an outlet for netizens delivered another petition of
more than 500 signatures from Rangoon’s Dagon (South) Township on April 11 and
submitted to Ma Ha Na for taking necessary action against preaching religious
hate speech.
This time, the group
is collecting signatures across the whole Rangoon division and called upon all
Buddhist believing on real Buddhism to sign the petition in favour of Peace and
Honesty as guided by Buddha.
 |
| Rakhine Extremists in an attempt to create unrest in Burma-File photo |
The extremist
Buddhist monk and his gang have been accused of spreading religious hate speech
through sermons against Muslims in Burma with especial attention towards
Rohingya Muslims in Arakan state and encouraging Buddhist ultra-nationalist to
revoke attacks on them.
Ma Ba Tha monks
organized Dhamma (Buddha’s teachings) classes (last year) for young students,
which also drew wide criticism from netizens for its anti-Muslim lessons
thought there-in.
The communal attack
on Rohingya Muslims in Sittwe was also believed to be masterminded by the
ultra-nationalist Buddhist monk Wirathu backed by military regime in 2012,
killing hundreds of innocent Rohingya Muslim, displacing 140,000 others into
IDP camps in Sittwe. He was labeled as ‘Face of Buddhist Terror” at the cover
page of the popular magazine The Times in 2013 for his heoroic action played in
2012 Muslim killings.
RFA Burmese: https://youtu.be/QBgsV-G6Mh0
News related: Ma Ha Na Asked to
Judge on Wirathu Sermons: https://mirsdq.blogspot.com/2017/05/ma-ha-na-asked-to-judge-on-wirathu.html