OPPRESSION OF BUDDHISTS IN BANGLADESH!
Internationally known Buddhist Monk Gnyan Gyoti Mahasthabir was hacked to death at a Buddhist monastery-orphanage in Hingala, under the Raozan Police Station in the District of Chittagong, Bangladesh, on April 21, 2002 in the village. According to media reports, he was brutally murdered by Islamic extremists associated with Member of Parliament Mr. Salah Uddin Kader Choudhury, who is an adviser to the Prime Minister, Begum Khaldeda Zia, the leader of the ruling Islamic Hardliners. AN APPEAL On behalf of the Bangladeshi Buddhists based in America, we are writing in great desperation to seek the assistance of your office to stop the on-going violent persecution of the Buddhist communities as well as other religious and ethnic minority groups of Bangladesh. The armed cadres of the ruling “Islamic hardliners” (The Guardian, Oct 2, ‘01) i.e. the coalition of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), the openly pro-Taliban Jamat-E-Islam and Islamic Oikya Jote “Islamic Unity Council” led by Prime Minister Begum Khaleda, have conducted a nation-wide campaign for cleansing Bangladesh of its Buddhists as well as other ethno-religious minority groups. The worrisome rise of Islamic extremism and the concomitant persecution of the Buddhist and other ethno-religious minorities have been reported by Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, The Guardian, New York Times (Nov. 2, ‘01), Far Eastern Economic Review (April 4, ‘02), The Wall Street Journal (April 2, ‘02), Boston Globe, Daily News, India Abroad, News India Times, Hindustan Times, US Department of State on International Religious Freedom, BBC News, CNN News, etc. On April 21, 2002, according to media reports, Muslim fundamentalists directly harboured by Member of Parliament and Advisor to the Prime Minster Begum Khaleda Zia, Mr. Salah Uddin Kader Chowdhury (SAKA) brutally murdered the internationally famous Buddhist Monk Gnyanjoyti Mahasthabir (52), who had developed a Buddhist temple and orphanage in Hingala under Rauzan, Chittagong. This is just an example of what is going on in Bangladesh and should serve as a warning about what will happen in the future unless the Bangladesh Government is made to stop backing the Islamic extremists who are terrorising the Buddhist sand other religious minorities. The Buddhist Council of New York has written a letter to the Bangladeshi Prime Minister Khaleda Zia protesting these atrocities. The Interfaith Centre of New York and a number of US Congressmen have also lodged their protests with the Prime Minister.
WHAT YOU CAN DO: Using the following letter as a model, please write to the following persons and organizations about the ongoing campaign of ethnic cleansing against Buddhists and other ethno-religious minority communities in
Bangladesh:
Begum Kaleda Zia, Prime Minister People’s Republic of Bangladesh Gana Bhavan Dhaka, Bangladesh Fax: 880-2-811-1015 880-2-811-3243 E-mail pm@pmobd.org
You can also write to the PM of Bangladesh by following the link given below: http://www.bangladeshgov.org/pmo/index.htm
The Ambassador The Embassy of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh 3510 International Dr. NW Washington, DC 20008 Bangladesh High Commission Ottawa, Canada 275 Bank Street, suite 302 Ottawa, Ontario K2P 2L6 Canada Tel: (613) 236-0138/9 Fax: (613) 567-3213 The Permanent Mission of Bangladesh to the United Nations 821 United Nations Plaza, 8th Floor, New York, NY 10017 Tel: 212- 867-3434 Fax: 212- 972-4038
E-Mail: bangladesh@un.int UNITED NATIONS His Excellency, Mr. Kofi Annan The Secretary General United Nations New York, NY 10017 Tel: 1-212-963-1234 Fax: 1-212-963-4879 E-mail: ecu@un.org
AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL E-Mail: amnestyis@amnesty.org
BANGLADESH 100 Kalabagan (1st Floor) 2nd Lane, Dhaka –1205, Bangladesh Tel: +880 2 818 938, +880 2 868 002 Fax: +880 2 818 938, +880 2 866 977 E-mail: admin-bd@ai-bd.mhs.compuserve.com
UK 99-119 Rosebery Ave London EC1R 4RE, UK Tel: +44 171 814 6200 Fax: +44 171 833 1510 E-mail: info@amnesty.org.uk
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA admin-us@aiusa.org Amnesty International USA Section, 322 8th Avenue, New York, NY 10001, Tel: +1 212 807 8400 Fax: +1 212 463 9193, +1 212 627 1451
HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH
350 Fifth Avenue, 34th Floor New York, NY 10118-3299 USA Tel: 1-(212) 290-4700 Fax: 1-(212) 736-1300 E-mail: hrwnyc@hrw.org
33 Islington High Street, N1 9LH London, UK Tel: (171) 713-1995 Fax: (171) 713-1800 E-mail: hrwatchuk@gn.apc.org
Rue Van Campenhout, 1000 Brussels, Belgium Tel: 32 (2) 732-2009 Fax: 32 (2) 732-0471 E-mail: hrwatcheu@gn.apc.org
Centre for Religious Freedom 1319 18th Street NW Washington, DC 20036 Tel: (202) 296-5101 Fax: (202) 296-5078 E-mail: Religion@freedomhouse.org

- - - - - - - - - - MODEL LETTER
-
- The Buddhism Council of New York
- c/o New York Buddhist Church
- 331-332 Riverside Drive,
- New York, NY 100025
- Tel (212) 6780305 Fax (212) 662-4502
- 10th May 2002
- Prime Minister Begum Khaleda Zia
- c/o The Embassy of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh
- 3510 International Dr.
- NW Washington, DC 20008
-
- Dear Madame Prime Minister
-
- We, the members of the Buddhism Council of New York, deeply deplore the brutal slaying by Bangladesh militants of Buddhist monk Gyana Jyoti Mahathero, of Hingala in Raujan Chittagong at approximately midnight, April 21, 2002. The internet reverberates with instances of hundreds of Bengali settlers set upon by paramilitary forces and executed for nothing other than their beliefs. There are reports of your troops committing rape, torture, and summary execution of innocents for several years. We express our grave concern for the safety and security of the Buddhism and other ethnic religious minority communities in the region and all over the Bangladesh. Why are Hindu, Christian and Buddhist minorities under constant threat in your country? And why are there so many refugees fleeing to India? Is there really anything to fear from religious minorities? We would like to request that you consider an impartial and open investigation into these reports and punish those responsible. We would appreciate an answer from you.
- Sincerely, Reverend T. Kenjitsu Nakagaki,
- President Buddhist Council of New York
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
-
- For more information, please contact:
- Ratan Kumar Barua,
- human rights activist and former Secretary General of Bangladesh Bouddha Kristi Prachar Sangha a regional centre of the World Fellowship of Buddhist Youth in Bangladesh,
- 177 Church Street, New York,
- NY 10007. E-mail
- Also visit and
- Please visit our newly established websites!
- Buddhist Relief Mission
- Burmese Relief Centre--USA
- Relief Notes 2002

RELIGION AND CULTURE
- J Vijayatunga

All culture is founded on Religion. The first artistic expression of Man was probably the Dance, but if he danced it was not at first from a lyric impulse, but from a vague emotion aroused by the spectacle of the heavens. All culture, therefore, was at first priest-dominated.

The calligraphy, and the architecture of the Mohammedan nations owed their flowering to religion. Without the word of the Koran there would have been no St. Sophia, nor Kutub Minar. Similarly with European architecture, sculpture and painting – they were all religious impulses. The earlier civilisations of Egypt and Sumeria owed their culture likewise to the gods they worshipped.

So just as Indian culture is really Hindu culture with a veneer of the Moghul influence, so Singhala culture is Buddhist. I should perhaps say was. And if we are to see a cultural revival (a cultural revival presupposes a national revival) it must be a religious revival.

By a religious revival I do not mean a Jehad (a Holy War) or going after scalps or proselytising. But I do mean that the national religion of this country must be so vital and satisfying that those who are Buddhist will remain Buddhist and become better Buddhists. Given these conditions I make bold to say that we shall see in Ceylon some at least of the glory that was Ceylon’s when Gemunu reigned and Maha Parakrama built. Our inspiration for such a revival cannot come from the West for the simple reason that the West is in the process of breaking up, of disintegration though its window display and dissimulation and the false heartiness it wears on its face might give some of our less sophisticated Easterners the impression that the West is pulling itself out of the slough. Nothing of the sort. It is getting deeper and deeper into it and in their heart of hearts they are a very frightened people, frightened of the shape of things that they have conjured up. So the good and contemplative and altruistic and religious among them, despairing of their own, are seeking to establish their spiritual hierarchies and institutions in Asia knowing that Asia has always had a weakness for Religion. Good luck to them if their objective is making people less materialistic! From all the evidence I see of their efforts in Asia they seem to be able to take care of themselves; and so my own feelings and efforts, such as they are, must be along lines that are congenial to my inheritance and tradition. That is why I plead for a religious revival in Ceylon and mean by it a Buddhist revival.

Such a revival can spring only by its association with our Sacred Cities of Anuradhapura and Polonnaruwa. I do not regard Kandy as a Sacred City. A sacred city it never was, and the sooner it gives up its pretence to being one, the better. In fact I believe that during the week that the Sacred Tooth Relic was exposed recently the slaughter-houses in Kandy were working overtime and the eating houses run by Muslims and Singhalese Buddhists did a thriving trade. The Sacred Relic, if it is still there – for it is a common belief that a Buddha relic has the power of flying through space betaking itself from a polluted place to a clean place -–must be restored to Anuradhapura, once the restoration of this city is begun and its boundaries defined…

- excerpted from ‘What I Think’, Colombo, Gunasena & Co, 1948.

J Vijayatunga was the celebrated author of 'Grass for my feet', about his childhood in his home village of Urala, near Galle. Much of his writings, published over half-a century ago, as a critic and essaayist, retain their currency today. The above excerpt from his essay 'Religion And Culture' was written before Anuradhapura and Polonnaruwa were made Sacred Cities, indeed before the revival of Buddhism in the post-1956 period. Whether he would agree with much of what is called 'Buddhism' today must remain moot.