Exiled Tibetan spiritual leader Dalai Lama said today that China should learn religious harmony and non-violence from India. Describing himself “as the Son of India,” Dalai Lama, who was in Amritsar for a night halt on his way to Dharmshala, said that India was known all over the world for religious harmony.
Take it away Secular News Daily:
What on earth is he talking about?
Is he talking about the Gujarat riots of 2002, where Hindus enraged over what turned out to be an accidental train fire killed an estimated 2,000 Muslims and drove another 100,000+ from their homes, with the connivance of the local government? Only 11 people have been punished for this so far – they must have been awfully industrious. That’s fewer than the 14 people handed life sentences for the slaughter of another thousand Muslims at Bhagalpur in 1989, but that process took 17 years to complete.
Is he talking about the mass violence directed against Christians in Orissa at Christmas in 2007? The burning alive of a nun inside a Catholic orphanage the following year? The burning to death of an Adventist pastor and his mother inside his home, during a spree that saw 17 Orissa churches and over 500 other homes destroyed?
By religious harmony, does he mean the laws popping up in Indian states banning conversion from one religion to another, specifically targeted at Christian efforts to proselytize among Hindus? In Orissa, it now requires a permit from the police to convert from one religion to another.
Read the whole thing.
I’m betting Mr. Lama doesn’t spend a lot of time watching the news, what with embracing the eternal woo-woo and all that. Takes a lot of time and effort.
“what turned out to be an accidental train fire” and you still want me to take you seriously mr. Andrew Stuttaford.
The Dalai Lama is right, though some may make the argument that he’s an anachronism in this modern age. His comments hold sway over millions of people. However, in some ways I don’t think China has done anything wrong, they’ve ruled with the same colonial power as America, though there’s no call to free America back to the Indians. Some things just follow a certain form, like court: http://lawblog.legalmatch.com/2010/08/24/legal-fashion-police-what-not-to-wear-in-court/
Ah, our secular saints. Everywhere their names are invoked with awe (though thankfully not here!). The Dalai Lama has always struck me as a deeply stupid individual. I put him in the same category as Bishop Desmond Tutu and Nelson Mandella: secular saints who constantly amuse, but who can always be counted on to get the likes of Katie Couric hot and bothered.
Did I forget Rowan Williams, the A of C? My bad.
BingoNameO: take your meds!!!