{"id":32253,"date":"2014-07-22T20:49:58","date_gmt":"2014-07-23T00:49:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=32253"},"modified":"2014-07-22T20:53:31","modified_gmt":"2014-07-23T00:53:31","slug":"bodu-bala-senas-gnanasara-thero-rejects-dalai-lama-as-world-buddhist-leader-because-tibetan-spiritual-leader-is-avictim-of-islamic-extremist-propaganda","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=32253","title":{"rendered":"Bodu Bala Sena’s Gnanasara Thero Rejects Dalai Lama as World Buddhist Leader Because Tibetan Spiritual Leader is a “Victim of Islamic Extremist Propaganda”"},"content":{"rendered":"

COLOMBO, July 22<\/strong> \u2014 A firebrand Sri Lankan monk today criticised the Dalai Lama for urging the island\u2019s Buddhists to halt violence against minority Muslims and rejected him as a global spiritual leader.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>

The Dalai Lama spoke to a crowd of about 15,000 students, faculty, and guests as part of the Anwar Sadat Lecture for Peace on May 7th, 2013 \u2013 pic by James Levin courtesy: Diamondback-University of Maryland<\/p><\/div>\n

Buddhist monk Galagodaatte Gnanasara said the Dalai Lama was ignorant of the \u201ctrue situation in Sri Lanka\u201d and accused the Nobel Peace Prize winner of being a victim of \u201cIslamic extremist propoganda\u201d.<\/p>\n

The exiled Tibetan spiritual leader earlier this month asked Buddhists in Myanmar and Sri Lanka \u201cto imagine an image of Buddha\u201d before committing any crimes against Muslims, in a plea to halt the violence.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t accept the Dalai Lama as a world leader of Buddhists,\u201d Gnanasara told reporters.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cHe is a creation of the West. For them, he is to Buddhists what the Pope is to Catholics, but not for us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hardline Buddhists in Sri Lanka have attacked dozens of shops, homes and mosques in violence against minority Muslims, whom they accuse of trying to divide the Buddhist-majority country.<\/p>\n

The religious violence, the worst in decades, has left four people dead. It has been blamed on Gnanasara and his hardline group of monks called the Bodu Bala Sena (BBS) or Buddhist Force.<\/p>\n

Rights groups have compared Sri Lanka\u2019s Gnanasara to Myanmar\u2019s hardline monk Wirathu, who has been accused of fanning religious tensions in that country.<\/p>\n

Some 250 people have died in Myanmar since fighting broke out in the state of Rakhine in 2012.<\/p>\n

Gnanasara said he had met Wirathu and described both of them as \u201cpeaceful monks with no blood on our hands\u201d.<\/p>\n

He said his BBS had initially wanted to visit the Dalai Lama at his headquarters in northern India to encourage him to correct his perception of Sri Lanka\u2019s Buddhists, but later changed their mind.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe felt there was no point,\u201d Gnanasara said. \u201cWe feel that he is already a victim of Islamic extremism.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sri Lanka\u2019s mostly moderate Buddhists hold the Dalai Lama in high esteem. But successive Colombo governments have denied him a visa to visit pilgrimage sites in the island, apparently due to Chinese pressure.<\/p>\n

The Dalai Lama, who fled Tibet for India in 1959 after a failed uprising against Chinese rule, has long led a global movement for autonomy in Tibet.<\/p>\n

China accuses him of covertly campaigning for Tibet\u2019s independence and calls him a \u201csplittist\u201d.<\/p>\n

Sri Lankan Justice Minister Rauf Hakeem warned last week that his government\u2019s failure to restrain militant Buddhist monks would foment Islamic extremism and threaten national security.<\/p>\n


\nCourtesy: themalaymailonline.com<\/em><\/p>\n

Tweet<\/a><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

COLOMBO, July 22 \u2014 A firebrand Sri Lankan monk today criticised the Dalai Lama for urging the island\u2019s Buddhists to halt violence against minority Muslims and rejected him as a global spiritual leader. Buddhist monk Galagodaatte Gnanasara said the Dalai Lama was ignorant of the \u201ctrue situation in Sri Lanka\u201d and accused the Nobel Peace …<\/p>\n

Continue reading ‘Bodu Bala Sena’s Gnanasara Thero Rejects Dalai Lama as World Buddhist Leader Because Tibetan Spiritual Leader is a “Victim of Islamic Extremist Propaganda”’ »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[12],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32253"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=32253"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32253\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32264,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32253\/revisions\/32264"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=32253"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=32253"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=32253"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}