Time gets it wrong about Buddhism

However, to mention Buddhism in the deep South of Thailand in an article with this heading suggests the existence of this problem in Thailand too. This is strengthened by the article’s use – after the sentence “monks have helped orchestrate the destruction of Muslim and Christian property” – of the connective “and”, followed by “in Thailand’s deep South, where a Muslim insurgency has claimed 5,000 lives since 2004, the Thai Army trains civilian militias and often accompanies Buddhist monks to collect alms”.

Further on: “By inviting soldiers into the wat, the state is wedding religion to the military.” This wording gives the impression that a militant link exists between the military/state and Buddhism, as happened in Sri Lanka. But the only link is protection of the monks by the soldiers, since they could be killed if this protection was withdrawn. To publish a picture of a grieving Thai Muslim mourning her insurgent son could, for the superficial reader, evoke a Buddhist terror responsible, while in fact the son invited his own death by attacking a marine camp with the goal of killing soldiers.

To write that the staunchly Buddhist kingdom annexed the South implies a violent Buddhism, while the annexation had nothing to do with the Kingdom being Buddhist, but geo-political reasons.

Indeed, there is terror in the South, but the only source of it is the Muslim insurgents, and to mention Thai Buddhism in this article is unjustified.

Egon Wout

Bangkok