Buddhist Nationalists on the Back Foot in Myanmar

A renowned Buddhist monk’s condemnation of fellow monk Ashin Wirathu, Myanmar’s most prominent hate-speech peddler, has given hope to activists trying to promote tolerance in a divided society and rescue Buddhism from hardline nationalists. Buddhist nationalism, which presents Muslims as an existential threat to Buddhist-majority Myanmar, has poisoned the country’s politics since reforms were launched in 2011. In recent months, influential monks and their lay acolytes have stoked public...

© La Voix de l'Amérique - mercredi 7 mars 2018