How Myanmar forces burned, looted and killed in a remote village • Hacker News Board

Re: How Myanmar forces burned, looted and killed in a remote village

#31

Post by fny » Mon, Feb 12, 2018, 2:38 PM UTC

yorwba wrote: post #27

fny wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Buddhism has a fairly explicit prohibition against killing or even working for companies in the business (i.e. gunsmith.) This goes even as far as not executing serial killers. So this is unprecedented, which is part of why many are so shocked.

Almost all religions have prohibitions against killing; almost all adherents ignore religious rules whenever they would require acting against their immediate self-interest. Buddhists are no exception. Sad as it may be, such atrocities are not unprecedented and have accompanied Buddhism throughout its history; just as they have accompanied any other faith. If you are interested, the book "Buddhist Warfare" collects a…

Yes there are those who distort religion, but many religions have war ingrained in their identities, their foundations. Their gods, as described in the ancient texts, sanctioned and blessed war. The Abrahamic faiths are perfect examples of this.

Buddhism, from it's source, is different in that its first espouser categorically denounced violence against all living things, which makes any Buddhist warfare a shocking example of human ills. The Buddha even goes as far as to denounce just retribution.

Re: How Myanmar forces burned, looted and killed in a remote village

#32

Post by sytelus » Mon, Feb 12, 2018, 2:43 PM UTC

eimg wrote: post #6

I'm a Burmese Buddhist and strongly against both the arrest of reporters and killing unarmed people of any race/religion. But there is a hidden agenda behind such article. It used the word "Buddhist" many many times, such as Buddhist village, Buddhist neighbors, Buddhist community. The conflict is much more complicated than religious and those Buddhists mentioned are in fact local "Arakan" people. See following NY Ti…

Could you please highlight these complicatio? Media is overwhelmed with just killings but there is little information on what lead to this event. It was perhaps many years in making?

Re: How Myanmar forces burned, looted and killed in a remote village

#33

Post by smth2345 » Mon, Feb 12, 2018, 2:55 PM UTC

fny wrote: post #22

inglor wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Excuse my ignorance - but does Buddhism have a concept of "holy war" like in Christianity, Judaism and Islam? If so - are they using religious justification for the killings or is the killing purely ethnical? I don't want to spark arguments - so feel free to just post some reading material as a reply if you'd prefer to and I'll read it.

Buddhism has a fairly explicit prohibition against killing or even working for companies in the business (i.e. gunsmith.) This goes even as far as not executing serial killers. So this is unprecedented, which is part of why many are so shocked.

> Buddhism has a fairly explicit prohibition against killing

It is easily worked around by dehumanization of your opponents. In buddhism such people might be considered icchantika for example which is basically someone who can never reach Nirvana and thus killing these "non-people" is akin to exterminating pests.

Obviously, there are many ways to dehumanize someone and sadly this is happening in many societies around the world right now.

Re: How Myanmar forces burned, looted and killed in a remote village

#34

Post by pokemongoaway » Mon, Feb 12, 2018, 4:41 PM UTC

aptidude187 wrote: post #5

pokemongoaway wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's chiller than Islam!

This is not the kind of comment we need on Hacker News. Please take a look at the guidelines: https://news.ycombinator.com/newswelcome.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

So people can discuss politics here but my comment is totally off the wall. Got it.

Re: How Myanmar forces burned, looted and killed in a remote village

#35

Post by pokemongoaway » Mon, Feb 12, 2018, 4:43 PM UTC

eimg wrote: post #6

I'm a Burmese Buddhist and strongly against both the arrest of reporters and killing unarmed people of any race/religion. But there is a hidden agenda behind such article. It used the word "Buddhist" many many times, such as Buddhist village, Buddhist neighbors, Buddhist community. The conflict is much more complicated than religious and those Buddhists mentioned are in fact local "Arakan" people. See following NY Ti…

Roger that... and my post even using the word Islam got flagged and I'm told what I wrote is against the rules here at HN.

Re: How Myanmar forces burned, looted and killed in a remote village

#36

Post by ap3 » Mon, Feb 12, 2018, 5:14 PM UTC

eimg wrote: post #6

I'm a Burmese Buddhist and strongly against both the arrest of reporters and killing unarmed people of any race/religion. But there is a hidden agenda behind such article. It used the word "Buddhist" many many times, such as Buddhist village, Buddhist neighbors, Buddhist community. The conflict is much more complicated than religious and those Buddhists mentioned are in fact local "Arakan" people. See following NY Ti…

Nothing in that link talks about the “Arakan” people, it is about displaced Roghinya. The original article talked about a Rakhine(?) location.

Re: How Myanmar forces burned, looted and killed in a remote village

#37

Post by tasuki » Mon, Feb 12, 2018, 8:05 PM UTC

stevenh wrote: post #15

Related interview with a monk in Myanmar: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qvEBaAiy5b4&t=1m17s

According to Wikipedia, Ashin Wirathu is "the spiritual leader of the anti-Muslim movement in Burma".

Calling this "interview with a monk" is like calling an interview with Donald Trump "interview with a politician". Correct, but perhaps not very helpful.

Re: How Myanmar forces burned, looted and killed in a remote village

#38

Post by sctb » Mon, Feb 12, 2018, 8:58 PM UTC

pokemongoaway wrote: post #35

eimg wrote: post #6

I'm a Burmese Buddhist and strongly against both the arrest of reporters and killing unarmed people of any race/religion. But there is a hidden agenda behind such article. It used the word "Buddhist" many many times, such as Buddhist village, Buddhist neighbors, Buddhist community. The conflict is much more complicated than religious and those Buddhists mentioned are in fact local "Arakan" people. See following NY Ti…

Roger that... and my post even using the word Islam got flagged and I'm told what I wrote is against the rules here at HN.

Yes, what you wrote violates the guidelines, which ask us to post civilly and substantively. Information-free religious flamebait is pretty obviously not that and leads to accounts getting banned.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Re: How Myanmar forces burned, looted and killed in a remote village

#39

Post by sctb » Mon, Feb 12, 2018, 9:09 PM UTC

M_Bakhtiari wrote: post #3

Perhaps the US should send a few delegates from the bay area to explain to them that "dude, Buddhism is like, all about mellowing out and taking it chill, man!"

This is a seriously uncivil comment. Please don't post like this on Hacker News.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Re: How Myanmar forces burned, looted and killed in a remote village

#40

Post by pokemongoaway » Mon, Feb 12, 2018, 9:40 PM UTC

sctb wrote: post #38

pokemongoaway wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Roger that... and my post even using the word Islam got flagged and I'm told what I wrote is against the rules here at HN.

Yes, what you wrote violates the guidelines, which ask us to post civilly and substantively. Information-free religious flamebait is pretty obviously not that and leads to accounts getting banned. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Pretty sure that if I posted statistics outlining my so-called "flamebait," then I would be equally in trouble. This is an article outlining how violent buddhists are (yes it is framed that way) - and my comment was a reply to someone framing Americans as ignorant for not realizing this supposed truth about Buddhists!